History of the Royal Navy - Wooden Walls (1600-1805)

with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 the Royal Navy established itself as a fleet with reach and strength an hour during the 17th and 18th centuries her shipbuilding expertise and revolutionary strategies would make her ships an impenetrable force on the oceans of the world known as wooden walls these formidable vessels had no equal in strategy and firepower and redefined the way battles were fought and won but the French our longtime adversary revealed weaknesses in her tactics that threatened to destroy Britain seemingly endless success as ruler of the Seas eventually it would take a one-armed commander and a revolutionary plan of attack to reinvigorate her wooden walls but the Royal Navy soon found that her fate as well as an entire nations might hinge on a single shot in October of 1805 Admiral Horatio Nelson leads his fleet aboard HMS Victory heading to sea and what will culminate in the most decisive encounter in the history of the Royal Navy the Battle of Trafalgar it would also signal the decisive change in the way the British fight at sea a change from a plan of attack that it helps shape the Royal Navy and one of the most renowned military forces in the world it was a tactical system that was conceived two centuries earlier at the beginning of the 17th century after the defeat of the Spanish Armada the new steward Kings initially took a little interest in their Navy led by 1640 Charles the first had sustained a massive expansion program on the revenues of a highly unpopular tax ironically as his battles with Parliament plunged England at the Civil War his Navy sided with Parliament and in 1649 Charles was executed for treason during the new commonwealth period under Oliver Cromwell England's need for renewed strength and security against Royalists as well as hostile neighbors led to an even more powerful fleet there's no doubt that as we enter the 17th century and we get towards the mid period of that towards what we call the Commonwealth period in the United Kingdom the possibilities of increased firepower and improved technology dawn on people and we start seeing the ability to concentrate firepower in line of battle tactics and it is typify by the sort of battles that we saw between the Dutch and the English between the 1650s and the 1660s during the early part of the 17th century the Dutch were a major commercial force along the coastal regions of England adept at shipbuilding the British saw them as a threat to their trade as well as their coastline and sought a way to reduce their presence in 1651 Hingham decreed that the Dutch should be limited in their access to English trade by a piece of legislation known as the navigation pact the object the navigation act is to increase the number of English seafarers so that the Navy will always have a good supply of sailors in time of war it's also a way of attacking the economic success of the Dutch Britain's main competitors at sea and before the navigation act the Dutch are carrying British goods from British ports to other British ports this act cuts them out says and can't do this we are going to carry our own Goods we're going to do it by law as a result there will be more English sailors and more English ships it's a critical attack on the economy of the Dutch Republic the Dutch didn't take the British declaration lightly in 1652 the British Navy became locked in battle and what would be the first of three conflicts against the Dutchman however the fighting that was to come would be vastly different from their previous clashes with the Spanish for one the British began to construct ships that were aimed at overpowering their enemy you start seeing the changes to build him much more heavily build ships during the Dutch Wars in the 17th century you needed to build these ships very heavily and it's primarily to do with our concept of how we operated our fleets if you look at this hull is three hundred thousand cubic feet of timber in its construction you need to have between you and the enemy a good barrier a war to defend yourself behind known as England's wooden walls these mighty ships were initially constructed in the dark yard of Chatham Chatham very exciting place it's the birthplace of many of the ships in the Royal Navy the unicorn and the victory for example are still in existence today some of the oldest ships afloat and they started their life in Chatham founded in 1567 Chatham would eventually become the largest er due to its location on the River Medway and its proximity to the Dutch it's dockyards it's Arsenal's its vast whittling stores was specifically designed to combat the threat from the Dutch and I think we can easily underestimate the threat from the Dutch in the 17th century they were the leading trading power in Europe and they look set to become dominant on the seas much to utter were Cromwell's credit he sought the help of experienced leaders such as generals of the sea Robert Blake and George monk Blake and monk brilliantly brought to fruition a new strategy that would change the way naval battles were to be fought for centuries to come their ideas were codified in 1653 in a manual entitled the fighting instructions simply put the fighting instructions directed that a fleet fight its engagements in a linear formation so the British ships would face their enemies broadside to broadside the fighting instructions are developed to provide ground rules as to how the fleet should be conducted to ensure that every captain understands what his job is they're not the top end of the spectrum they're the bottom end that's the lowest level of competence you expect of your fleet the ability to form and maintain linear formation to engage the enemy with cannon from this point forward English ships meant to fight in a fleets main battle line with dug ships of the line fleets designed to fight entirely using cannon at linear battle fleet broadside to broadside and the more cannon you have the stronger your ship will be so the English invent first of all the gun armed ship of the line the first of those typically for them is called the sovereign of the seas to tell the rest of the world who's in charge designed by a brilliant English ship right named Phineas Pett the sovereign of the Seas was launched in 1637 well before linear tactics were codified in the fighting instructions but are immense size and striking power made her the prototype for ships of the line for over a hundred and fifty years she was 232 feet long and weighed over 1,500 tons making her by far the largest warship in the world but her most impressive feature was her armament 104 bronze cannon on three decks since ships of the line were not built to a standard set of specifications the vessels were categorized by size and number of cannon the largest ships of the line were termed first Raiders the typical first rate would take between three and five years to build they be built fairly slowly because they're intended to last for a long time so the very structure of the ship had to be built steadily and allowed to mature as it was being constructed and this wooden involved three or four thousand tons of prime timber and the work of probably a thousand men at various stages putting the thing together so it's an enormous undertaking the Royal Navy was fully prepared to put their ships of the line to the test in the first battle of the anglo-dutch wars between Blake and Dutch Admiral Martin Trump and in May of 1652 the British fleet sail to meet the Dutch ships head-on boys to hurl cannon fire at the enemy's hulls before the first blast from the first shot rang out Blake knew the outcome of the battle and the war would forever change the face of England's name surrounded by the sea with ongoing threats from the Dutch French and Spanish England found herself forever defending her coast but the primary region that needed to remain secure was along the English Channel if an enemy could control this crucial waterway its chances of winning any war with England were greatly increased there's no doubt that from the Roman Empire onwards the content of Europe was very much in the minds of the people who live certainly on the south and east coasts of Britain as it then was and they grew up this assumption that the channel between Britain and Europe was something that was British it's called today the English Channel and you've got an amazing sort of continuity right through from almost Norman times that any ship that goes through there goes through courtesy of the Brits the Dutch more than any other country were familiar with English Channel and with the importance of seizing its control but the English were equally experienced and in 1652 Admiral Robert Blake sailed into the channel to stop them his opponent was the equally adept Dutch Admiral Martin Trump plecos came to military service in the middle of his life after being a merchant an MP and after military service in the English Civil War he then becomes a general at sea and he takes to the sea his understanding of warfare and his understanding the use of artillery and he's the first modern Admiral the first animal to use the ship as a gunnery platform pure and simple and to build a tactical system around firepower his opponent in the first Dutch Wars Trump is an admiral of the old school of dynamic tactics of close action and boarding on May 19 1652 just off the White Cliffs of Dover Trump ordered his captains to refrain from lowering their flags and salute to a squadron of English ships as they were required to do under the navigation Act Blake fired a warning shot across Trump's bow Trump's returned fire ignited the first battle of the war and the initiation of the heavily armed wooden walls in battle Blake ships-of-the-line and new tactics took Trump completely by surprise as artillery ripped into the Dutch ships after losing two vessels sensing the balance of power favoured the British the Dutch were forced to withdraw afterwards trompin the Dutch Admiralty were forced to completely rethink their strategy the Dutch ships are still attempting all thinking in terms of fighting in a kind of disorganized melee and the Dutch Admirals go home and say to their leaders that we've got to adopt this formation fast we too have got to start building bigger more powerful ships heavy gun armament and we too have got to fight the line of battle otherwise we simply are going to be able to survive in November of that same year Trump led 80 ships into battle against Blake's 40 ships of the line off chomps fleet battered Blake's evening the score for the Dutch and more significantly placing the channel in Dutch hands however their victory would be short-lived no longer taking the Dutch navy for granted the English ships of the line redoubled their efforts not only to regain control of the chin but to institute a strangling naval blockade of the Dutch coastline Trump was unwilling to surrender believing he could still successfully engage the British in a Dutch style melee but on July 31st 1653 Trump's tactics and fate were decided the Battle of the Texel leading 100 ships in an attempt to break the British blockade Trump not only lost a decisive battle he was killed in the onslaught the Dutch fleet was shattered and their government was forced to sign the Treaty of Westminster in April of 1650 for the Dutch were required to repay the English for their losses and salute England's flag in British seize the first anglo-dutch war was over ultimately under Blake's overall leadership the ships of the line and the new tactics simply overwhelmed the Dutch Admiral Blake ended up being our most aggressive intuitive Admiral probably until the time of Nelson today he's probably slightly neglected but after Nelson probably our most famous and deservingly famous apple but the piece didn't last long in 1658 Oliver Cromwell died with no comparable leader to take his place the Commonwealth collapsed and the monarchy was reestablished in 1660 the period known as the restoration began with the reign of charles ii the dutch continue to challenge england supremacy in the trade lanes while england conducted raids on Dutch colonies in North America and Africa finally in March of 1665 a second war was officially declared this time however the Dutch were better prepared without the leadership of Martin Trump the Dutch Admiralty turned to Mikkel de Ruyter who was appointed commander-in-chief of the Dutch fleets in all three of the Dutch Wars the best Admiral was a Dutchman and all three of the wars the most dynamic tactical moves are made by the Dutch the English are relying on bigger and heavier ships with more powerful guns and those famous fighting instructions for a line of battle to beat off the aggressive Dutch and the most battles they manage this in some they do very well however de Ruyter proved to be too strong an adversary in the northern English Channel in June of 1666 in what would be known as the four days battle the writer led 85 ships alongside George Monck 60 in a classic line of battle the Dutch fleet was overpowering to Reuters triumph and this crucial contest gave the Dutch a momentum they would not soon relinquish the final devastating blow to the Royal Navy would come in June of 1667 with the English ships docked in Chatham for a much-needed refit the Admiralty felt the area was safe from attack however as the British were planning their next move de ruyter was already moving his ships up the River Medway to assault the unsuspecting British fleet and regained the advantage for his nations Navy at a singles the River Medway an anchorage in the Thames Estuary near Chatham seemed like a natural defence against invaders the British believe the narrow channels of the river were too dangerous for an enemy to navigate in a surprise attack in June of 1667 dutch admiral mikhail de ruyter was determined to prove them wrong with the help of a turncoat english pilot the writer led his forces up the River Medway in a desperate attempt to stop the Dutch assault the British sank several of their own ships to block the chant it was a futile effort the Dutch reached the undefended English ships and wreaked havoc among them it was one of England's darkest hours and one of the brightest for the Reuter the Reuter of course is the Dutchman every Englishman loves to hate because of his exploits in the Midway during charles the second's reign another man committed to the fight on behalf of his country the writers fleet had captured or destroyed eight British vessels including the pride of their fleet the massive Royal Charles badly beaten it was England's turn to sue for peace signing the Treaty of Breda in July of 1667 it was an inauspicious beginning for charles the second's monarchy and a stain on the reputation of the royal navy it also made clearing Lee apparent but the Navy was badly in need of reform oddly enough the man responsible for this endeavor would be a landlubber a famous diarist samuel peeps he was passionately interested in the Royal Navy and a time of decline in under investment peeps sustained the idea of a navy organized on modern lines and it is that spark to change things at that time being then developed into the restoration peered under king charles ii and the expansion of the navy we have such people like peeps behind it who spent a lot of time reorganizing and laid down basically the pattern of the Navy we have today samuel peeps was born on February 23rd 16:33 in London to parents who were simple country folk with no distinct lineage but by 1660 with hard work and the help of a rich and well-connected relative he'd secured a position on the Navy board under charles ii in that same year peeps began to write an extensive diary it was a diary he would secretly keep for ten years and it would become the most thorough record of the era with little knowledge of the sea and ships peeps determination and inquisitive mind brought him to the realization that the system by which the Navy was run was completely corrupt he discovered thievery and deceit in the logbooks and among shipbuilders he began his quest for turning the Royal Navy into a professional organisation by setting a standard for purchasing and dispersing food he lays down basic accountancy rules for the purses of ships he tries to stop fraudulent behavior by contractors he establishes the sort of rations that sailors should have he realized very early the importance that sailors attached to their diet peeps reforms came at a crucial time in England's history in a late 1660s the Dutch became the leading economic country in Europe and were worried about other nations challenging their position and no one was more anxious for war against the Dutch than king louis xiv of france who had now built his kingdom into a formidable power the power that everybody is frightened of everybody admires nobody can possibly ignore and Luther fourteenth's France builds from scratch the biggest Navy in the world from almost nothing in just over 20 years they built the biggest Navy in the world although the British had previously signed an alliance with the Dutch in 1670 the French King was able to secretly convince the second to join forces in an anti addition it was a decision that proved to be a serious mistake in 1672 England France declared war on the Dutch the Royal Navy would go to battle yet again in a third anglo-dutch war however the British found themselves pawns in a deadly deceit by the French as 65 British ships and 36 French ships were anchored off Seoul Bay the Royal Navy's old enemy Mikhail de Ruyter sailed quickly into the perimeter and took the Allies by surprise battle raged for 14 hours both sides suffered heavy losses but the results were inconclusive most importantly in the Battle of Sol Bay and the two engagements that followed wellmaybe failed to receive adequate support from the French both parties have reason to be extremely alarmed at what the French are doing the Dutch because France was blue the 14th was a declared enemy of theirs and in fact tried to invade and conquer them the English because through the 14th is well an ally in fact but also a rather obvious rifle it was becoming clear that king louis xiv had maneuvered the two strongest navies into fighting each other however his hopes of reducing their forces to clear the waters for the French ended when the British and the Dutch reached a peaceful agreement in 1674 though the Dutch continued their fight with the French the British were fortunate to bow out but not before their fleets were once again depleted the three anglo-dutch Wars of the 17th century demonstrated that England is capable of raising and deploying the most powerful battle fleet in Europe they also demonstrate that turning the 2nd and 3rd Wars it can't afford to do this for more than two years at a time and the English are bankrupt at the end of both the second and the third anglo-dutch Wars and their ability to fight at sea is seriously degraded by this meanwhile samuel peeps continued pursuing his goal of unifying the Navy into a disciplined fighting force one significant change was terminating the practice of buying positions in the Navy officers were now required to earn their ranks further in 1677 peeps established examinations for lieutenants especially in their knowledge of mathematics and navigation and this is the first time that Wellborn officers as well as those who have been brought up in the sea tradition have been tested as equals and it sets a minimum standard which make sure that people at sea as officers are professionals before they move up the promotion ladder peach reforms had begun to take hold and for the first time the Royal Navy became a thoroughly professional organization peeps is the first recognized civil servant of the modern style he checks up in detail on the officers appointed to supervise the fleet and its supply train he organized his ships to go out and little the warships at scenes the first time this is done on a systematic scale and he lays down the rules and regulations for Professional Conduct at sea peeps has one of those critical background roles he doesn't win any battles but he puts the equipment in place and the programs underway to build that fleet that wins the battles peeps is the administrative powerhouse of the Stuart Navy he's the man that makes everything happen peeps reforms laid the foundation for a tradition of naval excellence that still exists to this day his brilliant mind and the historical period he chronicled are preserved as national treasures in the samuel peeps library at model and college cambridge home to his celebrated diary and volumes of books dedicated to the time when both a nation and its Navy underwent radical reform maybe the major oddity of the library consists of the Diaries they are the one set of personal documents they were carefully preserved in the library moment when he began to establish it for the next 150 years peeps reforms and the wooden walls were repeatedly put to the test most notably against their constant adversary the French as the British continued adhering to the fighting instructions the French were carefully planning the means to break through england's wooden walls in 1781 his blood from the American Revolutionary War continued to spill English Rear Admiral Thomas graves met french admiral francois de Grasse off the coast of Virginia graves signaled his ships to fall into a line of battle what happened next forced the Royal Navy to rethink their entire strategy of engagement in the late 17th century as the French built up their fleet with the express purpose of out matching England the Royal Navy was taking its own steps to exploit every edge in battle one way was by educating the Navy in the science of navigation it was a program that began with charles ii and samuel peeps from the time that shells ii establishes their own observatory the critical role is navigation at sea for the Navy and for the other great arm of British strength the Merchant Marine the ability to trade with the rest of the world overseas commanded by the Royal Navy is critical but you can't use those seas as a highway until you can navigate them safely and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the steady development of navigational science in Britain is all about the practical exploitation of the sea and peeps himself was important here because he was the first person to insist on examinations for the Navy and those examinations were all to do with navigation the difficulty was longitude it was determined that by utilizing a clock on board ship calibrated to the known time at the longitude in England and with regular observations of the Sun sailors could pinpoint their longitude anywhere in the world there was only one problem the pendulum clocks of the day were not reliable enough to keep accurate time through the variable conditions at sea a self-taught clock maker with a genius for mechanical devices decided to solve the problem his name was John Harrison well Harrison opposed spent 26 years of his life pursuing this question of a stable time reference because he'd recognized that it was the key to the understanding of longitude Harrison painstakingly designed and constructed three innovative timepieces h1 h2 and h3 each had problems however not the least of which were their relatively large size and extreme complexity then in 1759 he built a revolutionary timepiece called the H 4 it could be held in the palm of the hand yet was accurate to within two and a half seconds per month these four clocks which were successively smaller more easy to transport at each very sophisticated in its own way and sunny to look at each produced with virtually no equipment or tools that we recognize today for precision work of that nature and they are a marvel Harrison's invention later dubbed a chronometer gave the Royal Navy a tremendous edge against the French it was an edge that was needed time and time again as the British found themselves fighting their old enemies for the better part of a century in a battle that would prove the weaknesses in the fighting instructions the French led by admiral francois de Grasse deployed ships to aid the Americans in the Revolutionary War these vessels were the culmination of French Secretary of State John Baptist Colbert's naval reforms to build faster and more maneuverable vessels in the British in August of 1781 de Grasse was met by English Rear Admiral Thomas Graves off Chesapeake Bay near Yorktown Virginia for General George Washington and America's French allies under general Rochambeau were besieging a British Army under Lord Cornwallis as graves spent valuable time forming the line is set forth by the finding instructions De Grasse attacked firing high to disable the English ship sails and weakened with wooden warships the greatest danger on board the ship is that the enemy's shot punches through the hull of the ship and drives huge oak splinters across the gun deck and these will cut down the gun crew and do tremendous damage the French system was generally to fire up into the rigging to try and disable the enemy so they could escape and carry out their mission the British system was to fire into the enemy's hull and to kill the enemy's crews of the ship would be taken de Grasse then used the superior speed of his ships to lead graves on a six-day hit-and-run chase in the Atlantic the only one English ship of the line was sunk during the engagement the British fleet was drawn away from Yorktown with no naval support Cornwallis was overwhelmed by the French and American armies de grassi's strategy had allowed General Washington to win the decisive battle of the Revolutionary War the linear tactics that had served the Royal Navy so well since the anglo-dutch Wars were demonstrating the limitations then in 1782 a Scottish landlubber named John Clarke penned an essay on naval tactics in it he examined the weaknesses of linear tactics and proposed new radical methods of attacking the enemy at sea rather than simply lining up in the traditional fashion the ships would maneuver to charge the enemy at its weakest point in many ways the work of Clarke of Elden provides a reflection on the tactical system from the side it's not a naval officer saying we can do better than this it's an Edinburgh man sitting on the shore thinking I'm sure they can do better than this and here's some ideas it's a work that inspires thought one British Admiral inspired by Clarke was George bridges Rodney in April of 1782 Rodney's fleet of 35 happened upon french admiral francois de Grasse as 33 ships escorting a convoy in the West Indies once again de Grasse led the British on a chase however after four days rodney cornered de Grasse against a group of islets called the saints pressing the french admiral into battle rodney wasted no time implementing Clark's theories he captured five ships a stunning accomplishment for the time admiral de Grasse became his prisoner as well the navy's problems in the Revolutionary War stem essentially from faulty strategy instead of taking control of European waters and pinning the French down they pursued the French around the world they pursued various strategic options and it was only really in 1782 when they achieved a superior concentration of force at a decisive point in the West Indies they finally brought the French to battle and defeated them yet despite its victory at the saint's they were still problems in the Royal Navy in 1797 the British were fending off French fleets in the shadow of the French Revolution but furious because their pay had been raised in over a century and now stood at less than half that of merchant seamen British sailors and the ships anchored at both Portsmouth and the East Coast defied orders and their captains and refused to set sail to face the French fleet the fleet would have gone to see if the French had come out but the men in the fleet knew very well of the French not only weren't coming but couldn't the French fleet at that moment was unmanned and not prepared for sea so they knew they had a window of opportunity to conduct what was a straightforward economic trade dispute after over a month of tense negotiations the British government granted its seamen at 23 percent pay increase and a royal pardon for their actions but despite the problems the Royal Navy encountered it was during this era of almost constant battle engagements that a foundation of experience was laid that would prepare it for one of the greatest periods in its history it's the teething ground which prepare the Navy for the final battles for French Revolution in the periodic Wars and this is how we became to have this professional group that was able to withstand anything that was thrown at it during the period 1793 to 1850 it was also a period in which England was in desperate need of commanders who could lead the Royal Navy to victors that would once and for all and any thought of going up against her wooden walls as Napoleon Bonaparte sought European domination the daring young British Admiral would challenge his Navy's traditional battle plans and in so doing fight its greatest battle and become his nation's greatest hero on May 7th 1765 a magnificent new ship of the line was launched at the Chatham Dockyard her name was HMS Victory it was a name that would prove to be prophetic not just for battle but for an entire nation the victory is an example of the mid to late 18th century first class fighting ship the first-rate three decked line of battleship the victory tells you that the Royal Navy is a battle fleet not a fleet designed for other kinds of warfare it's designed to fight full-scale battles against the best the enemy can offer the victory both by a name and by a design is the flagship of a great fleet to fight the enemy to secure command of the sea but a ship's true strength could only be realized by its commander and crew fortunately for the victory and for King George the third during almost crucial times Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson was in command born in 1758 Nelson began his naval career at the age of 12 as an apprentice remarkably before the age of 21 he was given command of a frigate but Nelson's life at sea was not always smooth in 1794 during the siege of Calvi he was wounded and lost sight in his right eye in 1797 in an attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife he lost his right arm when it was shattered by a musket the Nelsons bravery and aspirations never wavered and he quickly rose to the rank of vice-admiral a respected commander Nelson had the good fortune of serving in the Royal Navy following a century of reform a lot of development have been going on a lot of people have been trying out new ideas Nelson was the heir of generations of intelligent Admirals who had attacked some of the tactical problems of handling ships of the line and had developed various solutions the striking thing about him is that he was strikingly flexible and eclectic and he took further than any British Admiral had done before him a style of command which involved delegation and trusting his subordinates a lot of Admirals found it very difficult to delegate some indeed found it psychologically quite impossible he's probably the most situationally aware Admiral that we have had in our history he was a great reader of scenes and then how to exploit those to his advantage he then let loose basically what was a Navy that knew what it was doing in detail Nelson's intelligence bravery and leadership served him extraordinarily well throughout his career and never was this more apparent than during the Napoleonic war at the Battle of Trafalgar at the time Napoleon Bonaparte was leading France and their allies Spain in a war against England if the franco-spanish fleet could defeat the Royal Navy it would clear the way for Napoleon to unleash an invasion of Britain on the morning of October 21st 1805 off the Cape of Trafalgar on the Spanish coast the importance of the moment was very much on Admiral Nelson's mind as he prepared his fleet of 27 ships of the line to attack the franco-spanish fleet of 33 Nelson ordered signal flags raised that redly England expects that every man will do his duty when it went to the top of the masts his same in command Catholic Collingwood said why is Nelson sending us this signal we know our duty but Collinwood understood when all the fleeced out of the chair that Nelson had tapped into that great vein of emotion which cooler men like Collingwood never could reach Nelson's battle plan was simple yet brilliant drawing on the ideas of John Clarke and the experiences of Admiral Rodney he would split his fleet into two columns he would then order them to steer head-on into the French and Spanish line cutting the enemy into three segments due to the direction of the wind the first segment would only be able to continue north essentially leaving the battle to be fought by the rest of the line which would now be badly outnumbered by the British as the British column slowly moved toward the franco-spanish line at a speed of barely 3 nights each commander had time to ponder his role in the upcoming battle the Battle of Trafalgar a very interesting instant occurs as the British fleet is approaching the French and Spanish fleet the captain of the French ready table can see which his opposite number is going to be you can see it's going to be the victory and he sees that victory vastly outguns him so being a man of initiative he thinks well how best can I avoid that opening cannonade so he takes a lot of his sailors out of the hull away from the guns puts him in the rigging and forms them up as boarding parties on his upper deck once the battle is joined the redoubtable is raped by devastating cannon fire from the victory the French boarding parties are unable to assault Nelsen ship but in the rigging the French sharpshooters are able to sweep victories decks as he stands in full view and commands the battle one of their musket ball strikes Nelson the British ships of the line fired broadside after broadside pounding away at the remaining ships that Nelson had so brilliantly cut away from the rest of their fleet in the end 19 of the enemy's 33 ships of the line were either destroyed or captured Trafalgar is a spectacular devastating melee Trafalgar is the last major sea battle of the Napoleonic Wars it's the last time the French dare to send a full-size fleet out to sea it's the last time they have the ambition to try and change the balance of power at sea and the fact that that flee is annihilated by the British means that their chances of winning the war against Britain through invasion have finally come to an end sadly Trafalgar was not without tragedy for the English Nelson died a few hours after being told of his smashing triumph as word of his death spread through the fleet shock and sorrow were overwhelming Nelson's body was carried home on his battered ship victory for a state funeral the likes of which England had never seen before or since huge numbers of people weeping in the streets for somebody they never met it's an extraordinary phenomenon it would be extraordinary even today when we have mass means of communication which give us the illusion of knowing people who we have never met personally but none of those existed in the 18th century and yet the magnetism of Nelson's personality reached out and touched people of all classes in an extraordinary way the Battle of Trafalgar made Horatio Nelson the most celebrated Admiral in the long history of the Royal Navy his genius as a leader transcends time to reach deep into the hearts of naval officers I think being a modern naval off so you bear a terrific burden you have all these famous people looking over your shoulder making sure you're doing the right thing and certainly the modern naval officer still has the spirit of Nelson in his mind the spirit of aggression the spirit of getting at the enemy Nelson is two things Nelson is the greatest naval leader of all and his tactics at Trafalgar mended all his other battles show up an elegant simplicity and a command of the full range of naval warfare which no other command I think in history has ever matched but also he's the first and quite the most spectacular national hero he is the man that holds the country together in its darkest hour when invasion is threatened when the enemy seemed to be winning all the other battles everywhere else Nelson is the talisman of victory so even after he's dead he has to be brought back and put into the national pantheon and he remained as a god-like figure of the next century to justify Britain's view of itself in the world the spirit of Nelson isn't all that survives from this great period in naval history today HMS victory is carefully preserved and maintained in Portsmouth England rich in history and breathtaking in stature she is a monument to a pivotal era for the Royal Navy like the many officers and ships that came before them Nelson and victory do not merely represent revered memories of Glory's past they continue to live and breathe as national treasures in the story traditions that created the legends of the Royal Navy's great wooden walls Blake's cunning skill against the Dutch and Nelson's victory at Trafalgar prove that it's not only large ships and numbers and size of weapons that win battles but the strategy and courage behind them the tragedy of Trafalgar was the death of Nelson himself this is where he was standing and this is the musket ball that killed him as shipbuilders began to look to new materials and new technology the glorious days of the wooden walls would soon fade over the horizon and the awesome resilient ships of Steel steam and unimaginable firepower would forever change the course of the Royal Navy and war at sea you

Channel: Ryan Doyle

Views: 490,672

Rating: 4.7287354 out of 5

Keywords: Royal Navy, England, British, Documentary, History, United Kingdom (Country), London, Ocean, Boat, 17th century, Samuel Pepy, admiralty, Admiral, Robert Blake, George Monck, Dutch, Maarten Tromp, France, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, American, Cilvil war, Francois de Grasse, Pierre Suffren, Scottish, John Clerk, Horatio Nelson, HMS Victory, Battle of Trafalgar, United States (Country), Scotland (Country), Culture, Sailing, Civil

Id: Ze8Y1gokHyA

Length: 43min 37sec (2617 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2013