The Battle of Trafalgar - Admiral Horatio Nelson (Part 4)

[Music] [Music] so ladies and gentlemen here it is the Battle of Trafalga Nelson part 4 it's taken a while for us to get here but at last we are now before we start I do have a couple of big thank yous to mention and one of those goes to the National Historic docyard in Portsmouth because way back when I started planning this video they were kind enough to allow me on board hm a victory and what you can see here and what you'll see various shots of in various states of the battle throughout this video are the entire fleets from both sides in 1 to 1200 scale miniatures by warlord games painted and built and rigged by Yours Truly that took a while anyway they are all set up as per their movements at the Battle of trala as best can be determined because there are multiple track charts and map of the battle and they don't necessarily agree but this was my best estimate and this is taking place in the great cabin of HMS victory on the large table that you can see if you go through and tour it so there yes there is in fact a small hmas victory aboard hus Victory on the cabin of hus Victory reenacting hus victory's greatest moments so thank you so much to them for allowing me to do that and that will hopefully improve your understanding of what was going on in the battle and perhaps also illustrate the sheer confusion of the battle because there's not even gunm smoke in these pictures another huge shout out has to go to the artist Gordon frickers who very kindly not only has allowed me to use a number of his artworks in this video and again you'll see those coming up which I can then put alongside the much older public domain paintings but he was also kind enough to allow me to commission a brand new pain in of atmus Victory breaking the line based on extensive research on both of our parts to try and encapsulate the exact moment that that occurred in the most historically accurate way possible so you'll be seeing that later on in this video as well Links of course to Portsmouth historic dockyard Gordon freer's artist website and a number of videos and podcasts about the Battle of trala that be very useful I think for you all in the video description below but with all that said let's get on to the battle itself the Battle of Trafalga could technically have been argued to have started on October the 19th when the frigate hmus hoisted a signal that read to Urus enemy have their top sails hoisted and then in a manner not unlike the Armada Beacon several hundred years earlier or indeed perhaps in a fictional world the lighting of the beacons of Gondor the signal was read by Captain Blackwood aboard the or who then repeated the signal to HMS Phoebe who repeated the signal onwards to the 74 Gun Third Rate HMS Mars was 50 m distant from the original frigate Sirus and thus the message continued onto the bapon where Captain Cook who was about to be rode over to the victory for breakfast with Admiral Nelson was able to hand over the communication in person very soon more signal flags were flying from the masts of H Miss Victory General Chase Southeast in the relatively light breezes 27 ships of the line four frigs one Schooner and a cutter hoisted all possible sail and bore towards the enemy the captains officers and crew Nelson included wrote out final letters to loved ones just in case the speed of Advance was slow and it wouldn't actually be until the 21st that the two fleets forly caught sight of each other and when they did the British found that the Franco Spanish fleet was heading south not North on board the British ship Neptune midshipman William badcook recorded the scene that greeted them at first light it was my morning watch I was midshipman of The Forecastle and at the first dawn of day a forest of strange masts was seen to lewood I ran after and informed the officer of the watch the captain was on deck in a moment and a it was well light the signals were flying through the fleet to Bear up and formed the order of sailing in two columns the wind had moderated considerably in the night but still our Fleet which consisted of 27 sail of the line four frigs a schooner and cutter was much scattered all sail was set and the different ships tried to form the line in two divisions but the lightness of the wind and the distance of the stern most from the van prevented anything like speed in the maneuver in short the line never was properly formed for the Brave and Gallant Chiefs of each division were too e to get into battle to wait for this with the army of England occupied elsewhere Napoleon had ordered VV back into the Mediterranean to land troops and Supply his forces in an advance East to deal with the austrians and Russians a campaign that would eventually lead to the Battle of ellites additionally he dispatched a replacement Admiral V his honor stung had set sail before the new Admiral could actually arrive but when the three columns of the Franco Spanish Fleet saw the British coming out of the West on an intercept course they first formed a line and then as the fleet became clearer vve ordered his forces to come about 180° and head back to cardis this was a difficult enough maneuver if you wanted to keep formation at the best of times and with light winds and inexperienced Crews the Franco Spanish line became more of a loose cresant desperately trying to get back into formation by 1100 Nelson could get a full view of the enemy forces leading the line to Nelson's port side was the neptuno then skion inted formid mon Blanc du Tran REO San Francisco de assis San Augustine AOS the mighty Santisima Trinidad the world's only for Decker and the most heavily gun ship in any Fleet then the French Flagship buenta followed by rutab San Gusto Neptune San Leonardo indomptable Santa Anna bjo monara pluton aljas Bahama AGA swifta formerly British Montanez agon agon San elonso Akil and the Spanish Flagship Principe de aorus the baric another formerly British ship and finally San Juan de nepo mono whose Captain cosm chakura had a front row seat to the chaos and announced to anyone who would listen the fleet is doomed the French Admiral does not know his business although outnumbered and somewhat outgunned in terms of both Total ships and Cannon Nelson possessed one more trump card Beyond his crew's ability to more rapidly fire their guns the Franco Spanish Fleet possessed four first rates all Spanish Theo Santa Ana Principe the atorus and of course nestra Sora de la Santisima Trinidad scattered through the fleet the rest of the ships were third rates of either 74 or 80 guns Nelson meanwhile had three first rates but also four second rates these were three deck 98 gunships of the line that were only a little less powerful than the first rates by this stage in the war apart from a few less Cannon the only other main difference between a first rate and a second rate Firepower wise was that the middle gun deck of the first rates typically carried 24 pound a cannon whereas the second rates carried 18 Pounders although they usually also had these weapons on the upper deck whereas some first rates were carrying 12 Pounders on their upper gun decks both Tor rare a second rate and victory for example were carrying 32 Pounders on their lower gun decks Nelson's Fleet had divided into his two planned columns to the South Admiral Collingwood LED aboard the Royal Sovereign followed by bile Mars tonor bapon Colossus ail Revenge polyphemus swifta which was the replacement for the swifta that was currently in the Franco Spanish Fleet Dreadnaught Defiance thunderer defense and Prince further north Nelson LED his column forming a massive battering force with his first three ships the 104 gun First Rate HMS Victory followed by the 98 gun second rates tamare and Neptune all being the big three Deckers then Leviathan conqueror Britannia Agamemnon Ajax Orion minor and spartiate missing was the 64 gun HMS Africa which had become separated during the pursuit but was striving to catch up from the north some officers tried to persuade Nelson to let one of the other Big Ships Take the Lead the sight of a trio of three Deckers massing together would be fearsome enough no matter who was actually on point but after some consideration Nelson rejected the plan and the fleet moved in the light airs causing the ships to progress at some speed akin to a brisk walk or a light jog drums and bugal rang across both fleets as All Ships cleared for Action Gun decks and cabins were cleared of anything that might be a splinter Hazard sand was deployed on the decks Nets were deployed to catch debris Marines took to crows nests that became fighting tops and the orop deck prepared to receive casualties men made their peace with their maker in his final diary entry Nelson imitated this writing at daylight saw the enemy's combined Fleet from east to east Southeast bore away made the signal for order of sailing and to prepare for battle the enemy with their heads to the Southward at seven the enemy wearing in succession may the great God whom I worship Grant to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general a great and glorious Victory and may no misconduct in anyone tarnish it and may Humanity after Victory be the predominant feature in the British Fleet for myself individually I commit my life to him who made me and may his Blessing light upon my Endeavors for serving my country Faithfully to him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend amen amen amen for those of you who were being observant yes there were two ships named Akil and two named swifta both having an opposite number on the opposite side and there were no less than three ships one from each nation that were named for the Roman god of the sea Neptune a number of British ships Tamar bile tonor and ail bore names that either showed them to be former French ships or the descendants of such captures over on the Spanish side one sailor aboard Santisima Trinidad would later recall the final preparations for Action early the in the morning the G the decks were cleared for action and when all was ready for serving the guns and working the ship I heard someone say the sand bring the sand a number of sailors were post Ed in the um on the ladders from the from the hatchway to the hold and and between decks and in this way were hauling up sacks of sand um each man handed one toh to the man next to him and so it was passed on without much labor a great quantity of sacks were thus brought up from hand to hand and to my great astonishment they were emptied out on on the upper deck the poop and the for Castle the sand being spread about so as to cover all the planking and the same thing was done between decks my uh curiosity prompted me to ask the boy who stood next to me what this was for uh for the blood he said very cooly for the blood I exclaimed unable to repress a shudder by 11:30 the two sides were barely 3 miles apart the British heading as if to split the Fran an O Spanish line in the middle with Collingwood ships whilst Nelsons would attack the van the tension built as guns would double or even treble loaded for close action shortly thereafter Nelson declared that he would amuse the fleet with a signal accounts vary as to whether this originally was supposed to be Nelson or England confides that every man will do his duty either way leftenant Pasco his signals officer along with another officer suggested depending again on the accounts switching Nelson for England if that had originally been Nelson's intention and definitely suggested switching confides for expects as the replacement word or words had standard three flag equivalents in the signals book whereas the original proposed word or words plus Duty would need to be spelled out letter by letter and even the reduced version would require 12 sets of flags n replied that will do Pasco make it directly and so one of the most well-known Naval signals of all time began its Journey up victory's masts oddly enough perhaps due to the content and perhaps due to the sheer number of flags the signal had mixed results in the fleet some did indeed find it quite amusing others found it somewhat perplexing as of course they were going to do their Duty Collingwood just wish Nelson would stop sending so many signals there was some concern still about Nelson taking the lead back aboard Neptune midshipman badcook noted the old Neptune which was never a good sailor took it into her head to sail better that morning than I ever remember to have seen her do before about 10:00 we got close to the Victory and Captain fantle had intended to pass her and break the enemy line but poor Lord Nelson himself hailed us from the stern walk of the Victory and said tune take in your studing sails and drop a Stern I shall break the line myself a signal was then made for the temer to take her station between us and the Victory which consequently made us the third ship in the van of his lordship's column at this period the enemy were forming their double line in the shape of a crescent it was a beautiful sight when their line was completed their broadsides turned towards us showing their iron teeth at 11:45 just as the last of Nelson signal was being hauled down the Franco Spanish line hoisted their colors and one by one the ships in range began to open fire starting with fuo which started with a few ranging shots on the racing Royal Sovereign before discharging the rest of her guns in a single broadside soon indomptable San Gusto San Leonardo and Santa Anna joined in putting Collingwood ship at the heart of a storm of iron that was raking her from bow to stern the situation that most captains gave their utmost to avoid in a one-on-one duel but which Nelson's planning was subjecting Royal Sovereign to five times and more over victory was scarcely any less engaged OS buenta reduta Neptune and Santisima Trinidad herself amongst others were sending grape and ball shots screaming through the ship's Hull and rigging ships with a wider angle of fire began to Pepper the following British ships but for something between 3/4 of an hour to an hour the British vessels had no choice but to Wade through the fire and take the punishment Nelson had calculated the inaccurate and slower Gunners of the Franco Spanish Fleet combined with the fact that their holes were far more perpendicular than parallel to the wind which along with the chop of the Seas was making them roll quite significantly would make the otherwise suicidal approach possible by throwing off the accuracy of most of the Spanish French fire and so far he seemed to be correct at 11:50 he gave the order for one last signal before sending the signal books below Engage The Enemy more closely was duly hoisted and it would remain at victory's Mast until it along with the upper portion of the M itself was shot away in the midst of the action to come over in the Franco Spanish line rubla was riding the stern of buenta like a particularly aggressive Conger dancer vve ordered reduta to back off a bit which he did slowly as none of the Franco Spanish line was moving especially fast at this point aboard Royal Sovereign Collingwood ordered everyone to lie down to minimize their profile except of course for himself a handful of the other officers who paced the decks like there weren't several tons of hot metal passing over under and around them at regular intervals one shot blew through the rigging of a studing sail and the canvas fluttered down to the deck Collingwood and his first leftenant calmly gathered it up folded it and had it sent below for future use as the level of fire increased Collingwood glanced around and said with a smile Ram what would Nelson give to be here Captain Ram was wearing a particularly large cocked hat and was told by concerned crewman that it might make him a tempting Target for snipers he replied let me alone I've always fought in a cocked hat and I always will one ship to the AR aboard the belile one leftenant was unnerved enough by the sleting hail of grapeshot to ask if they should heave to and present broadside at least that would allow them to get some retaliation in but Captain hargood was Swift with his response no we are ordered to go through the line and go through she shall by God the British columns had shifted they were now heading for their true points of attack aiming to cut the enemy into three isolating the leading enemy ships and forcing them effectively out of the battle until they could turn about and rejoin the action Nelson pointed to the Royal Sovereign which was almost upon its foes and exclaimed see how that Noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into action meanwhile shot poured into the victory the four topmast yardarm and mizen topmast all Came Crashing Down the launches were smashed to Pieces the wheel was blown to fragments and went cartwheeling off to one side and within moments Nelson's secretary was cut in half by Cannonball a splinter took out the Buckle of Captain Hardy's shoe and a slew of grape shot turned a dozen Marines into various grades of casualty this is too warm work Hardy to last for long said Nelson As Time wore on it was only at this stage believe it or not that the ship's bands which along the two columns had vary been playing a God Save the King and Rule Britannia finally put away their instruments and took up their arms although in the case of any bag Pipers aboard the switch in lethality was a little bit questionable the action to the South was now fully joined Royal Sovereign cut a stern of Santa Anna and a head of fujo Cutting Loose with double shotted broadsides from both its port and starboard batteries the French ship was forced to bear away under the weight of fire while Santa Anna seemed to stagger as Royal Sovereign healed into a sharp Port turn and came up alongside her blasting away as the Gunners reloaded however it seemed that the action was actually quickly turning against the British the two following ships bile and Mars were rapidly dismasted and left kining out of control with Fallen sails obscuring much of the main gun batteries Mars's Captain was killed and in the meantime Royal Sovereign and Santa Anna were locked in a pounding duel to the death Ms falling left right and Center like Twigs in a storm Collingwood interrupted his consumption of an apple to ask the captain of the Marines to remove his men from Royal sovereign's fighting tops before they were hurled down to the deck along with the rest of the masts one of the men aboard belile recalled the scene the shot began to pass over us and gave us intimation of what we should in a few minutes undergo an awful silence prevailed in the ship only interrupted by the commanding voice of Captain hargood steady starboard a little steady so echoed by the master directing the Quartermasters at the wheel a shriek soon followed a cry of Agony was produced by the next shot and the loss of the head of a poor recruit was the effect of the succeeding and as we Advanced destruction rapidly increased a severe contusion in the breast now prostrated our captain but he soon resumed his station those only who have been in a similar situation to the one I'm attempting to describe can have a correct idea of such a scene my eyes were horror struck at the remains of the men around me and my ears rang with the streaks of the wounded and the moans of the dying at this moment seeing that almost everyone was lying down I was half disposed to follow the example and several times stooped for the purpose but and I remember the impression well a certain monitor seemed to whisper stand up and do not shrink from your duty turning round my much esteemed and Gallant senior leftenant fixed my attention the serenity of his countenance and the composure with which he paced the deck drove more than half my Terrors away and joining him I became somewhat infused with his Spirit which cheered me on to act the part it became me my experience is an instance of how much depends on the example of those in command when exposed to the fire of the enemy more particularly in the trying situation in which we were placed for nearly 30 minutes from not having the power to retaliate meanwhile victory was bearing down on the buenta given the choice of passing the ships bow or Stern and Nelson told Hardy take your choice and so vict steered for the French Flagship Stern immediately to starboard a victory the 4 10in Captain Luca of reduta saw what was about to happen and tried to Surge back ahead to block the gap between the ships as he had been doing before for exactly this reason but in the light ears rubla was just too slow on the uptake and Victor's Portside guns began to pass the stern of buenta at the bow an enterprising Royal Marine found a small keg of 500 musket balls and stuffed it down the barrel of the already loaded Portside 64 pounder carade thus inventing the world's largest shotgun at Hardy's command this gun followed by over 50 others began pouring double shotted broadside into the unprotected stern of buenta instantly converting the French flagships gun decks into killing galleries of flying iron shot splintered wood and other bits of the ship itself a hole large enough to drive a four horse carriage through was blown in the stern and of a crew of almost 900 almost 200 were killed immediately with another 80 to 90 badly wounded with a third of her crew instantly out of action and a number of guns dismounted V's Flagship had been instantly turned from a powerful 80 gun ship of the line into a floating charnell house with a much reduced ability to reply to any further attack but moments before the same could happen to rubla Captain Lucas's last minute gamble paid off his ship's bow rammed into Victory starboard side or more properly its bow sprit became caught up in victory's rigging either way the smaller and slower moving rubler suddenly found itself physically hauled out of line and spun almost 90° by the momentum of the massive British First Rate the two ships coasting past the stricken French Flagship locked together and within moments as victory's guns gutted the rubler her crew began to muster on Deck to attempt a boarding action which was the only thing lucar had been able to train his crew in during the long staying Port the two ships drifted away locked in their deadly Embrace as Captain Luca himself would later write ever since the reduta was fitted out nothing on board had been left to chance in instructing the crew in all kinds of exercise my ideas were always turned towards Fighting by boarding enemy ships I was counting so much on its success that everything had been set up to undertake it with Advantage all the captains of the guns I had canvas pouches made that could hold two grenades the cross belts of these pouches carried a tin tube containing a small match in all our exercises I made them throw a large quantity of pasteboard grenades and I often led the grenadiers ashore in order to explode iron grenades in front of them they were so used to throwing them that on the day of the battle our topmen were hurling two at a time I had on board 100 carbines fitted with long bayonets the men for whom they were intended had been so well trained in using them that they climbed right up into the middle of the shrouds in order to open fire all the men carrying cutlasses were instructed in Sword practice every day and the pistol had become a familiar weapon for them the boarding grapel were thrown on board with such skill that they succeeded in Catching hold of a vessel that might not even have been actually touching Us in the preparations for Action each person went to his post completely armed and with his weapons loaded he placed them near his gun in nettings nailed between each beam finally the crew themselves had such confidence in this method of fighting that they often urged me to board the first ship which we came up against the rubler began firing with a shot from the lower battery which carried away the four top of the victory which was still steering towards the forast of the rubler then shouts of Joy were repeated from every deck our firing was well sustained and in less than 10 minutes this same vessel had lost its bizon Mast its four top Mast and its main G top Gallant Mast I still pursued The Bu centar so closely that they hailed me several times from the stern gallery that I was about to collide with them actually the bowsprit of ruer did graze the stern but I assured them that there was nothing to fear the dam damage to the victory did not in alter in any way the audacious maneuvers of Admiral Nelson he still persisted in wanting to cut in the line in front of the rubla and was threatening to collide with us if we dared to try and stop him The Nearness of this three DEA followed closely by the tarare of the same size far from intimidating our fearless crew on the contrary only made their courage grow Captain Luca as you might tell had quite a high estimation of his crew and his own capabilities for all the drama going on aboard victory in Royal Sovereign with both British flagships stalled in single ship actions and the ships immediately following Collingwood rapidly becoming disabled it seemed for a moment that the entire British attack had stalled out and might even be repelled but Nelson's own gamble now came home although the leading ships in the two columns had taken a fearful pounding in so doing they' shielded the rest of the fleet from suffering such punishment and these vessels were now almost on top of the Franco Spanish line and mostly intact in Collingwood Squadron Captain Tyler led the tonor between bile and Mars to fall upon Admiral magon alesas the Furious Frenchman gave as good as he got and the two ships were exchanging broadside so closely that the muzzle blasts of the two ships were repeatedly setting their opponents on fire with both Crews frantically trying to put out the fires on the other ship even as they tried to kill the other crew since doing anything else would invite the Flames to spread to their own ship some of the crews were Veterans of the battle of the Nile and they knew exactly what that could mean an hour of frenzied combat would ensue before magon called for a boarding party the French crew rallied Drew weapons and charged unfortunately straight into the path of tonan carad which cut down the entire group bar one man in a single devastating volume of grapes shot the sole survivor to his credit barreled onto the British ship where he was promptly captured by a British officer magon himself was directing his crew out in the open and had been hit by a musket ball in the arm and a splinter in the thigh but he refused to go below and insisted on keeping on fighting then a third shot hit him in the Torso and the Valiant officer was dead before he hit the deck Napoleon himself would later remark with money and Timber I will have other ships but the loss of rear Admiral magon is irretrievable tonor kept up the fire into the rapidly depleting crew of the Alerus whilst the port side guns kept up an attack on the nearby pluton and the bow Chasers started taking chunks out of the San Juan nepo muso alger's survivors would finally surrender about 2 hours after its main engagements began with colors being struck at 1430 The Battered bile blind and crippled was still under Fire but grimly kept up a return with whichever guns could see a Target until other British ships came up and the fight moved on Mars managed to jury rig a sail or two and with this absurdly small amount of canvas junly resumed sailing onwards into the action shooting at anything that was too slow to get away bile likewise managed to start making some Headway and would start engaging enemy ships in Earnest as as soon as she could Royal Sovereign traded blows with Santa Anna until 1420 when the Spanish ship struck her colors with the ship largely unable to turn since most of its own masts were gone Collingwood instead ordered the frigate uus to tow the ship into a position where he could then fire on other targets with his Portside battery even as he did so though news reached the ship that Nelson had been wounded over in Nelson's column things were also starting to look up for the British even as men fell left and right on victory's Upper Deck The gunm Smoke surrounding her and rubler parted briefly to admit Captain Harvey's torare which cruised in on the other side of the French Third Rate and Unleashed a devastating volley that tore down two of the French ship's three masts and wiped out a good number of men who were assembling to try and Bard the victory Captain Luca was badly wounded but he still refused to surrender aboard Victory it was noted the starboard guns of the middle and lower decks were depressed and fired with a diminished charge of powder and three shot each into the redoutable this mode of firing was adopted by left tenants Williams King Ule and brown to obviate the danger of the torer suffering from the victory shot passing through the redoutable which must have been the case if the usual quantity of powder and the common elevation had been given to the guns a circumstance occurred in this situation which showed in a most striking manner the cool intrepidity of the officers and Men stationed on the lower deck of the victory when the guns on this deck were run out their muzzles came into contact with the redoutable side and consequently at every discharge there was reason to fear that the enemy would take fire and both the Victory and the torare be involved in the Flames here then was seen the astonishing spectacle of the firemen of each gun standing ready with a bucket full of water which as soon as his gun was discharged he dashed into the enemy through the holes made in her side by the shot Tamar's own top MKS came down with the force of the collision with reduta and the three ship tangle drifted down onto fuo now there were four ships of the line in alternating Allegiance locked together ripping each other to shreds even as Victor's exposed Portside guns continued to Pummel The Bu centar whenever they could get a bearing following tarare came another three Decker Neptune and following it the third rates Leviathan and conqueror all three ships avoided immediate collision and bore down on their own chosen targets back in collingwood's column the next ship in line was bapon a ship that had already served under Nelson at the Nile and seen action in a number of other important engagements as well her Captain John Cook much like Captain Duff of the Mars was killed early on by the combined of the enemy ships but under the command of her first leftenant she surged on nonetheless firing on two Spanish ships in passing before hauling up alongside the agler her first leftenant described the opening stages of this action at half 12 we were engaged on both sides passing through their line close under the stern of a Spanish 74 the Bahama into whom from the lightness of the wind being still farther lulled by the effect of the cannon fire we fired our carad three times and every long gun on the lard side at least twice luckily for us by this operation she had her hanging magazine blown up and was completely beaten for in hauling up to settle her business to lewood we saw over the smoke the top Gallant sails of another ship close under our starboard bull which proved to be the French 74 agle as the name on her Stern showed us and although we hve all a back to avoid it we could not sufficiently check our ship's way to prevent our running her on board with our starboard bow on her lored quarter our four yard locking with her main yard by the captain's directions I went down to explain to the officers on the Main and lower decks the situation of the ship with respect to this new opponent and to order them to direct their principal efforts against her having so done as I was returning along the main deck I met my poor messmate Overton the master carried by two men with his leg dreadfully shattered and before I reached the quarter deck ladder having stopped to give some directions by the way I was met by a quartermaster who came to inform me that the captain was very badly wounded and as he believed dead I went immediately on the quarter deck and assumed the command of the ship this would be about a quarter past 1:00 we were still entangled with agel on whom we kept up a Brisk fire and also on the monara who by this time was nearly silenced though her colors were still flying like Lucas's reduta and magon alesas Captain Pierre poang gur had spent his time drilling his men in melee combat and now a somewhat bizarre fight developed as muskets Pikes and cutlasses exchanged fire and blows through the gunports in between discharges of cannon fire as the two ship sides ground together the French started throwing hand grenades whilst the British Gunners were quicker to switch to anti-personnel shot one grenade however bounced down into the British ship's hold and detonated dangerously close to the magazines one of the crew observed one of these grenades had been thrown in at a lower deck port and in its explosion had blown off the Scuttle of the Gunner's store room setting fire to the store room and forcing open the door into the gunpowder magazine passage most providentially this door was so placed with respect to that opening from the passage into the magazine that the same blast which blew open the stor room door shut to the door of the magazine otherwise we must all in both ships inevitably have been blown up together the Gunner who was in the sto room at the time went quietly up to leftenant Saunders on the lower deck and acquainting him the store room was on fire requested a few hands with water to extinguish it these being instantly granted he returned with them and put the fire out without its having been known to any person on board except to those employed in its Extinction even as these fires were put out the fire above them the gunfire that is began to slacken the British Gunner's rapid change in ammunition had silenced most of aga's gunners at the cost of more than 20% of the Valiant French crew being reduced to casualties as the southern British column War more North and closed in on the tail end of the enemy Fleet dreadnut engaged sanan neeno Commodore shiruka having already pronounced that the fleet was doomed he'd also written earlier to friends ashore that if they heard his ship had been captured then he was dead this prediction was also unfortunately accurate as dreadnut sent volley after volley into the Spanish two Decker killing the Commodore along with more than a 100 others and badly wounding another 150 or so of the crew over in Nelson's sector of the battle the crippling of buenta and the removal of rubla and fuo from the line had left a wide Gap through which the rest of the British Northern column was now pouring the three- deck First Rate Britannia must have inspired thoughts of oh no not again amongst the Franco Spanish Sailors as she led the last five of the column into action the poor old Santisima Trinidad lay dead in the water her MKS gone her sheer size making her a target for almost every passing British ship a number of third rates came up emptied a few broadsides into her and then either spotting better prey or not liking the sheer number of guns the Spanish First Rate was occasionally firing back at them left off in order for another fresher ship to take their place now the three Decker Neptune had apparently decided to pick on something its own size after having Savaged The Bu andar some more for good measure on her way past the Neptune and the santiso Trinidad would now commence a vicious canonade that would last the better part of an hour the buenta was now out of the fight completely as her Captain would later recall our rigging completely dismantled having lost all the men on the upper decks the 24 pound of battery entirely out of commission and abandoned through having so many dead and wounded men the starboard side fouled by the masts incapable of Defending ourselves with nearly 450 men killed or wounded out of a crew of around 800 not having been helped by any other vessel everyone appearing engaged and there being none Within Reach nor any frigate to which the Admiral could move his flag not even having a small boat in which he could Embark as all of them had been crippled as well as the one we'd kept in the sea since before the battle we were isolated in the middle of five enemy vessels that were fir ing very vigorously at us at that moment I went back on the deck because Admiral V had been forced to order our ship to surrender so as to avoid more brave men being killed who were unable to fight back which was done after just over an hour of the most furious fighting almost always within pistol range the remains of the eagle that's the Imperial standard were thrown into the sea as well as all the signals nearby the victory was battered but just over an hour and a half after she'd broken the line she hauled away from the tangle of shipping she'd been involved with Captain Luca with half his crew dead and two-thirds of those left wounded had finally struck his colors Victory moved North as the enemy Vanguard was finally beginning to haul around and return to the fight the same could not be said for Royal Sovereign she'd finally brought Santa Anna to heal after 2 hours but with only a forast left standing she could only take random shots at ships that passed nearby until the frig that Collingwood had requested arrived the rest of his column was now in action 11 ships against 14 Captain morome was in charge of HMS revenge and seemed to be temporarily possessed by the spirit of his distant predecessor Grenville aboard another Revenge centuries before as the 74 Gun two Decker threw itself into a four-way gunfight with three enemy ships shooting off akil's mizen Mast Seaman Robins described his ship's entry into the battle thus it fell to our lot to cut off the five Stern most ships and while we were running down to them of course we were favored with several shots and some of our men were wounded upon being thus pressed many of our men thought it hard that the firing should be all on one side and became impatient to return the compliment but our captain had given orders not to fire until we got close in with them so that all our shots might tell indeed these were his words we shall want all our shot when we get close in never mind their firing when I fire a carade from the quarter deck that will be a signal for you to begin and I know you will do your duty as Englishman in a few minutes the gun was fired and our ship bore in and broke the line but we paid dear for our temerity as those ships we had thrown into disorder turned round and made an attempt to board a Spanish thre Decker the prane de asuras ran her bow sprit over our poop with a number of her crew on it and in her for rigging two or 300 men were ready to follow but their design was discovered and our Marines with their small arms and the carad on the poop loaded with canister shot swept them off so fast some into the water and some on the Decks that they were glad to Shear off while this was going on after we were engaged with a French two- deck ship on our starboard side and on our lored back another so that many of their shots must have struck their own ships and done severe execution Defiance and polyphemus arrived on hand to provide some support and the slightly out of control Akil drifted between Defiance and Dreadnaught where she was mercilessly pummeled and sat on fire the rest of her masks falling one by one as she put up a stout defense but then the slow sailing three Decker HMS Prince joined in one Salvo Set Fire to the remains of one one of ail's masts the next brought the burning Mast down onto the ship Prince realized the situation and ceased fire putting boats out into the water to try and save as many of the French crew as possible as they threw themselves into the water to escape the rapidly growing Inferno Akil would suffer the second highest casualties of any ship in the battle as the fires rapidly spread and reached her magazines the ship's eventual detonation as a result would Mark the formal end of the battle but but that was still some time ahead in the future way to the north the comparatively tiny 64 Gunner HMS Africa under Captain Digby had sailed towards the sound of the guns and come into view of the leading Franco Spanish ships at about the same time as he saww Nelson's column entering action Nelson had sent orders to Signal Africa to make all possible sale as she was about to pass quite close to the Spanish 80 Gunner neptuno which was leading the enemy line and which outgun the Africa quite substantially however Digby took this frig relayed signal which was supposed to get him to break away from the Franco Spanish line as an exhortation to close into action more quickly and so hoisting every sail possible Africa sailed down the length of the enemy column exchanging broadsides with anything that came in range until she came upon the main tangle of fighting where Nelson's column had piled in seeing Santisima Trinidad dead in the water with Leviathan and conqueror bearing away and not spotting Neptune on the Spanish ship's other side Digby concluded that the Spanish for Decker had surrendered he therefore dispatched his first leftenant John Smith to take possession of the ship Smith boarded the ship and managed to reach the quarter deck only to find Admiral baltazar Hidalgo de senos still locked in combat with the AFF forementioned Neptune having established his credentials and apologized for the confusion leftenant Smith was then allowed to lead his boarding party back to their boat and head back to his ship such was the code of conduct of the day shortly there after the Franco Spanish Vanguard under Admiral dumanoir which had spent the first stages of the battle just sailing onwards leaving their comrades behind finally dying to show up led by the intreped under Captain infer Africa along with the Orion took on the intreped and gradually other British ships abandoned various prizes to assist as the rest of the Vanguard began to arrive much like Mago Shuka Luca and a number of others Captain infan did not lack for courage as time went on intreped was being fired upon by no less than seven ships including Victory infan denied a close action allowing him to board stro the rapidly eroding Deck with his sword threatening anyone who might think of surrender with summary execution when the head of his Marines lost his nerve after most of his men were cut down around him by a hail of fire and then tried to hide behind the captain infan laughed which in English translates to colel do you think I'm made of metal however half an hour later with a third of his crew out of action the wheel tiller and all the M shot away and most of his Portside battery silenced infan could see there was literally nothing outside of harsh language left in his Arsenal and so at 1735 he decided to save the rest of his crew and reluctantly ordered the colors Struck it was moments later that at the other end of the combat Akil detonated a few scattered shots for the next 20 minutes were thrown at the other ships of the Vanguard most of whom recognized a lost cause when they saw it and were making off the majority of the British ships rigging and sails were too badly damaged to allow a Pursuit unfortunately one sour note colored this last episode as the Vanguard bore away dumanoir opened an indiscriminate fire upon various ships as he left including those from his own side as was recorded by men aboard both Victory and Royal Sovereign after this the ships of the enemy's van led by dumanoir that had shown a disposition to attack the victory passed to Windwood and fired their broadsides not only into her and the tamire but also into the French and Spanish captured ships indiscriminately and they were seen to back or shiver their topsil for the purpose of doing this with more Precision the two midshipman of the victory had just boarded the redoutable and got their men out of the boat when a shot from the enemy's van ships that were making off cut the boat a drift about 10 minutes after taking possession of her a midshipman came to her from the torare and had hardly ascended the poop when a shot from one of those ships took off his leg the French officers seeing the firing continu Ed on the prize by their own countrymen intreated the English midshipmen to quit the deck and accompany them below the unfortunate midshipman of the torare was carried to the French surgeon who was ordered to give his immediate attendance to him in preference to his own wounded his leg was amputated but he died the same night it was an extraordinary and almost incredible fact that three French ships under a rear Admiral who had no share in the action did in their flight fire for some time upon the Santisima Trinidad and others of the Spanish prizes after they had struck their colors to the English and it is now found from the concurring testimony of several Spanish officers of rank that rear Admiral dumanoir was the person who led his division to the perpetration of this bloody deed so worthy of the days of Robespierre by which several hundred of the Spaniards were killed or wounded so angered were all who observed this that the crew of the surrendered Spanish ship Aron offered to remand their guns and return fire on the French ships in question the English officers had taken control of the ship returned the swords of the Spanish officers which were given up when they surrendered and the Spanish crew stood by their guns albeit by the time that they had readied them dumanoir ships had drifted out of range in total 18 of the Franco Spanish Fleet were lost that day ail had surrendered shortly before she blew up but along with her the hall was quite impressive the Spanish third rates neptuno San Augustine monaka Bahama aronora sanil defo and San Juan nepu muso along with the first rats Santa Anna and of course Santisima Trinidad had all struck their colors amongst the French the buenta Reda fuo in Ed agler Alerus swifta and baric were also under British control the last two more properly restored to British control in the immediate aftermath as the remaining ships of the Franco Spanish Fleet tried to escape the Spanish First Rate REO would be captured 2 days later on the 23rd of October the French skon formid dabla dug troa and monblanc were taken on the 4th of October and the indomptable and San Francisco deis were both in the hurricane that struck all survivors of the Battle 2 days afterwards again on the 23rd this meant that of the 33 ships of the line that the Franco Spanish Fleet had started the battle with only the AOS Neptune San Leonardo San Gusto pluton montanes argonut and princip atorus made its home safe eight ships in total four from each nation in the Franco Spanish Alliance this would later be supplemented by the Santa Ana which was recaptured whilst under toe on the 23rd as well as the aljas but we'll cover those incidents a little bit later whilst the battle had been going well for the Royal Navy as a whole Nelson himself was having a rather less than ideal time of it about an hour and a half after combat was first joined in general and 50 minutes after Victory had broken the French line Nelson had been walking the deck with Captain Hardy when suddenly collapsed from a vantage point up in Rua's masts a French Marksman had hit him who knows how many shots have been taken at Nelson already the Firearms of the time combined with the smoke the rolling of the ships and the fact that Target was always moving making it rather unlikely that this was the first time in the action someone had tried to hit him and with all his shiny medals and gold Bret The Admiral did make for one of the more obvious targets but nonetheless no matter how many shots have been sent at him before he had now been shot Nelson seemed to realize that the blow was a fatal one albeit given that he'd also thought the flesh wound he'd received at the Battle of the Nile was fatal perhaps he was just pessimistic and happened to be correct this time round he was taken below to the allop deck with his face covered by a handkerchief so as not to demoralize the men although one does have to question the efficacy of such a measure as it wasn't like there was anyone else with that many medals on the ship and that also presupposes that a bunch of men locked in the the middle of a deadly combat would spare a moment to turn around and watch casualty Party come past but in any case down to what passed for the Victor's medical Bay he went up top The Mystery of the fate of who exactly had shot Nelson was already unfolding and Dr Bey the ship surgeon would later recount there were only two Frenchmen Left Alive in the mizen top of the redoutable at the time of his lordship's being wounded and by the hands of these he fell at length one of them was killed by a musket ball and on the others then attempting to make his escape from the top down the rigging midshipman poed fired his musket at him and shot him in the back and he fell Dead from the shrouds onto the redoubles poop later some claims would be made that the sniper had in fact survived either placing him on the main M rather than the mizen or hidden from view somehow on the mizen M but it turned out that the supposed individual that most of these accounts claimed was the sniper Sergeant Rober guar was a literary invention of a different author and not actually real given that no one who actually existed physically came forward later on and also given the high casualty C aboard ruer whoever it was probably died in the Battle whether it was from Mitch poed shot or from the salvos from torare unfortunately for Nelson despite the bullet having comprehensively made it impossible to save him given the medical equipment on hand and quite possibly even impossible to save with modern surgical equipment as it had smashed his shoulder punctured a lung broken two ribs nicked an artery and broken his spine it was also not a quick death taking about 3 hours however he seems to have accepted this fate and spent most of the time trying to put his last Affairs in order and keep up with the progress of the battle he asked Dr Bey to remember him to his friends his daughter and his mistress entrusting the latter two into the care of the nation he checked in with Hardy repeatedly on the progress of the battle and would ask not to be thrown overboard when he died but rather conveyed back to England towards the end he also asked how many of the enemy had struck bearing in mind the fighting was still going on at this point Hardy told him that 14 or maybe 15 had been taken to which Nelson replied that he'd rather hoped for 20 in fact as we've seen in the subsequent hours several other ships would also strike their colors the total ending up closer to Nelson's time Target and if you account for the ships that were captured in the following days his goal was actually exceeded he also gave orders for the fleet to prepare for a storm in the aftermath of the battle as he felt that he had sensed one coming and then finally just before 1630 he summoned Captain Hardy and said that he felt in a few minutes he should be no more this is where the famous phrase kiss me Hardy was delivered three separate accounts survive of the these last moments of Nelson's life and all agree that shortly thereafter Admiral Nelson spoke his final words thank God I have done my duty and with that one of Britain's Finest Admirals was dead his warning of a storm was to prove spoton 2 days later on the 23rd five of the surviving Franco Spanish ships of the line together with an equal number of frigs having patched up their damage as best they could decided to sail out and try and reclaim some of the prizes as the British Fleet and the prizes were still in the vicinity making their own repairs almost as soon as the rescue Force sailed the storm that Nelson predicted began to rise Collingwood saw the approach of the Franco Spanish Squadron and formed a line with his 10 most intact ships the Franco Spanish ships seeing this decided not to attack but with various prizes temporarily cast off so the towing ships could form the line as the waves grew and grew and the visibility fell and fell some of the French frigates managed to sneak around and retake the Santa Ana which we've mentioned previously along with the smaller neptuno seeing this some of the other captured ships saw their Crews rise up and retake them as well the buenta AGA and baric all successfully Got Away only to all be wrecked by the storm with extensive loss of of Life only aljas managed to get free and make it back to Port monaka also got away but was recaptured inadvertently leading the British to the dismasted Roo which was then also captured neptuno went on the Rocks as well worried by these uprisings and with the storm becoming ever more violent the British were also faced with another problem having done such a good job of shooting up the Frank Spanish Fleet a lot of the remaining prizes were taking on water rather rapidly and the Royal Navy's own ships although generally in a slightly better state were having a tough time of the storm themselves and so with a heavy heart because there was a lot of prize money going down to Davi Jones Locker the monara Rio argonot San Antonio intreped SAN Austine rubla and even the mighty santis of Trinidad were evacuated of their Crews and the prize Crews and then either set a blaze or left to sink depending on how far gone they already were by the time the weather cleared again although the British hadn't lost any of their own ships only four prizes from the battle itself remained to them the recaptured Swift Shire and three Spanish ships Bahama San IL deleno and San Juan nepo muneno as it turned out none of these were actually in a state to allow them to be returned to Frontline duties and all would see the war in second line roles back aboard the victory Nelson's body was placed in a cask of Brandy mixed with other preservatives where it remained until the ship was towed to jalter at some point between here and the coast of England he was put into a leadline coffin that was filled with even more preservatives but throughout the Voyage Home at all times he remained aboard his Flagship whilst the news of the battle and some of his personal effects were sent ahead of the fleet on the tiny HMS pickle oddly for one of the most decisive victories Britain had ever achieved the reaction back in the UK was mostly one of mourning for the loss of Nelson the fact that the Franco Spanish Fleet had lost so many ships that neither it nor any other enemy Fleet would seriously challenged the Royal Navy's main Battle Force for control of the high seas until over a century later at the Battle of Jutland seemed to be a footnote compared to the death of the Admiral eventually somewhat patched up H Miss Victory made her way back to the UK and Nelson's casket was taken off at chattam and placed within a larger one this was the coffin that had been fashioned for him from the remains of the main Mast of the French Flagship lauron from the Battle of the Nile and which had proved to be quite the conversation piece for Nelson in the intervening years he would then be afforded the honor of a full State funeral something that has only been granted to 14 non-royals in the country's entire history to date and that's if you're being somewhat generous with the term State funeral prior to this event only Admiral Blake Sir Isaac Newton and the composer handle had been given such a sendoff and the last recipient at least as of 2023 had was Sir Winston Churchill the funeral involved Nelson being laid in state for 3 days at Greenwich before a royal barge conveyed him up River to the admiralty building and then on the 9th of January 180 6 he was finally taken to St Paul's Cathedral in a massive procession Bard a carriage modeled after hm Victory the event spoke to both the esteem he was held in and the power of the Navy that he'd helped to forge as no less than 32 Admirals and more than 100 full captains of the royal Navy attended and yet the Royal Navy's iron grip on the high seas was not diminished hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the Street and as he was laid to rest finally in a sarcophagus that had originally bizarrely been made back in the Tuda period for Cardinal woy the crew from HMS Victory or at least Representatives thereof bore in the three flags that she'd been flying at the battle two a naval Jack at a St George's flag had already been folded and were buried with him but the largest a battle ensen large enough to cover half a basketball court was in the act of being lowered in when when Victory Sailors thought better of it tore it to pieces and kept the pieces as fragments and so concluded the life if not the impact of Horatio Nelson as it turned out Trafalga proved to be a hazard to the lives of all the senior officers involved in addition to those like magon who were killed in the battle Admiral VV was released back to France in early 1806 and then found dead on the 22nd of April in his hotel his death being quickly ruled a suicide by French authorities despite him having somehow conspired to stab himself deeply in the chest six or seven times with a kitchen knife yeah personally I'm siding with murder Dash assassination on that one Admiral graina had been hit in the arm by grapeshot during the battle and never actually recovered from his wounds although he did manage to lead a small contingent of ships back to space as previously mentioned he would die of his injuries on the 9th of May 1806 the only senior Commander from the battle to see its first anniversary was Admiral Collingwood who remained pretty much in constant sea service from that point until 1810 when his health collapsed and he died on the way back to the UK he would later be interred at St Paul's in a spot adjacent to Nelson [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Drachinifel

Views: 448,457

Keywords: wows, world of warships, Royal Navy, 21st October 1805, Battle of Trafalgar, Marine Nationale, Spanish Armada, Admiral Nelson, Admiral Gravina, Admiral Villenueve, Santissima Trinidad

Id: dvbHcV7ZKzs

Length: 64min 46sec (3886 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 25 2023