The Battle of Trafalgar - Admiral Nelson's Moment I PIRATES

over the last three episodes of battlefields we've looked at encounters at sea whether it's the swashbuckling pirates of the Golden Age or a naval battle from the 1500s and to round off this season today we're going to look at one of the most famous naval battles of all time the year is 1805 and off the small Spanish headland of Trafalgar seventy four ships of the line are going to decide once and for all whether it's France or Britain that is to rule the waves i'm indy neidell welcome to battlefields during the first five years of the 19th century Napoleon had taken control of France beaten basically everyone else on the continent and was even crowned Emperor he had a problem though whenever he defeated one coalition of his enemies it was only a matter of time before another one sprang up and the mastermind was always Britain with her massive trade network providing riches with which to support and sometimes bribe her allies Napoleon had long planned to put an end to this but the sea was so far firmly under British control and all plans for launching an invasion of Britain had proved unworkable and every attempt the French had made at lifting the neverending blockades by the Royal Navy had been fruitless okay in September 1805 the French fleet under Admiral Villeneuve was again blockaded this time in the port of Cadiz along with the allied Spanish Navy by a British fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson but Napoleon ordered his fleet to escape to Sardinia to cause havoc in the Mediterranean October 20th Villeneuve's fleet set sail for the Straits of Gibraltar but he soon realized he could not outrun the British and he ordered the fleet to turn around and return to Cadiz but it was too late by late morning of the 21st with the French and Spanish ships drawn out in a long disorganized line sailing north Nelson had intercepted them off cape trafalgar now by this point nelson was already a national hero in britain he had won two famous victories at Abu QIR Bay and Copenhagen and had lost his right arm and the use of his right eye in the service of his country the Maine 18th century naval tactic had been the line of battle both sides would line up huge ships of the line from bow to stern right and these two columns would then sail in parallel firing broadsides at each other until one withdrew the problem was that this strategy seldom achieved a decisive result and Nelson's previous successes had involved heavily altering or simply ignoring the standard doctrine to now beat the numerically superior Napoleonic fleet he had something special plan rather than having one line running parallel to the enemy fleet he drew up two parallel columns of his own which approached the French and Spanish ships from a 90-degree angle one column led by Nelson's second-in-command Admiral Collingwood aboard the Royal sovereign would engage the rearward French and Spanish ships now the other column was led by Nelson himself onboard his flagship the 40 year-old HMS Victory followed by the temeraire and they were aiming straight for the French and Spanish flag ships the Buchan tower and the 140 gun behemoths Santissima Trinidad he was of course well aware of the risks involved until they reached the Allied fleet the British ships would be exposed to a constant barrage of fire while themselves virtually unable to respond just past noon the British were within range for the next half hour it was just a matter of waiting and enduring the French cannonballs those that hit home would blow away anything in their path destroying limbs and cutting men in half wherever they struck would the air would be filled with splinters each as deadly as a musket ball fortunately for the British the French and Spanish crews hadn't had much opportunity to train their gunnery skills while they were blockaded all those years so most of their shots missed but the victory took considerable damage for sail and rigging shredded and her wheel destroyed the first British ship to reach the line was the Royal Sovereign which had sped ahead of the victory she wasted no time firing a broadside into the stern of the 112 guns Santa Ana the Spanish ship responded with a broadside of its own and for the next few hours the two ships would be engaged in a fierce duel the other ships from Collingwood's column soon caught up and just as Nelson had intended a chaotic melee broke out half an hour after Royal sovereign the victory finally also made it to the allied column and delivered a devastated raking shot to the stern of the Buchan tower 200 men were killed in an instant and the French flagship was put out of action the victory had opened up a gap in the line and the ships behind her in Nelson's column engaged the enemy the French warship redoubtable pulled up alongside the victory if the day was to be won they would need to take out the British flagship and the commander on board knowing the relative strength of the British canon crews captain Lucas of the redoubtable ordered his soldiers to fire on the Victory's deck with their muskets in preparation for boarding the effect was devastating but the British officers in accordance with naval tradition stood their ground amid the chaos not flinching nor sinking cover and a bullet from a French sharpshooter struck Nelson he was hit in the spine and knew immediately he was done for the ship surgeon confirmed this so the dying Admiral was carried far below deck so as to not demoralize his men in the meantime the musket fire from the redoubtable showed no sign of ceasing and the deck of the victory was more and more only manned by the dead Lucas soon ordered his men to board the victory but just as the first of his crew had boarded the temeraire pulled up on the starboard side of the redoubtable Lucas quickly withdrew his crew to man the guns but it was too late the two British ships led off broad sides on either side of the redoubtable from point-blank range with his ship virtually destroyed half of his 600 men dead and most of the rest wounded Lucas was asked to surrender his men responded with musket fire in the meantime though most of the British ships had joined the melee and their crews quickly proved their superiority over their counterparts the Buchan tar and Santissima Trinidad were surrounded and disabled and soon surrendered one by one Napoleon ships struck their colors and surrendered eventually including the redoubtable one remaining threat was the vanguard of the French and Spanish line which had sailed on ahead as the British approached it now returned but after a failed attempt at engaging the ships turned to escape to the south all that was left for the British now was to repair their vessels in preparation for an oncoming storm soon after receiving word that the battle was all but won and thanking God that he had done his duty Admiral Horatio Nelson died the battle was over but some of the worst damage was yet to come the massive storm reached the fleet by the evening and raged for the following five days in the stormy seas a large number of the captured ships ran aground or sank roughly 3,000 people drowned in the storm almost as many as it died during the actual battle Napoleon would not hear about the defeat for several weeks but whatever plans he might have had left for invading England they were no more Britain was the undisputed master of the Seas and there would be no more major naval battles during the Napoleonic Wars so that was our very nautical first season of battlefields we looked at small boarding actions in the Caribbean and some of the biggest naval battles of the great age of sailing you can find all the episodes so far in the corner up here for our next season we'll be looking at some of the conflicts that arose during the Cold War please let us know in the comments what other great historical battles you'd like to hear about and don't forget to subscribe to its history for people inventions conflicts and 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Channel: IT'S HISTORY

Views: 266,399

Rating: 4.9262176 out of 5

Keywords: Napoleon Bonaparte (Military Commander), Battle Of Trafalgar (Military Conflict), Trafalgar, Trafalgar Square (Tourist Attraction), Battlefields, Napoleon, France, Invasion, Spain, Great Britain, Horatio Nelson, Battle, Villeneuf, Cuthbert Collingwood 1st Baron Collingwood (Military Person), Pirate, Naval Tactics, History Channel, It's History, Modern History, Documentary, Easy, Explained, Short, Education, Fleet, Sea

Id: T62n8F2w_tw

Length: 8min 8sec (488 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2015