The Dangerous Book of Heroes (34 page)

Despite controlling the seas, Britain remained in a critical situation. A change of wind might blow the Royal Navy blockading fleets away and allow the rebuilt French and Spanish fleets out of port. If they could combine and take control of the English Channel for a single day, Bonaparte might slip his army across and French boots would march up Whitehall.

Cornwallis's brief was to blockade the French fleet in Brest and control the Western Approaches, while Admiral Keith's division held the channel. Nelson's orders were to blockade the French fleet in Toulon. With Saint Vincent at the Admiralty, those four men controlled the destiny of the world. A single mistake, a single error of judgment, would have tipped Europe into a military abyss.

Nelson commanded the
Victory,
nine ships of the line, a frigate,
and two sloops. Captain of the
Victory
was Thomas Hardy, Nelson's old friend who'd been present at both the Nile and Copenhagen. For two years the blockades were maintained, two years in which the British fleets were continuously at sea. Such a time at sea without refitting in a dockyard has never been surpassed by any fleet. Those square-rigged sailing ships, constantly patrolling the channel, off Brest, off Cadiz, and in the Mediterranean, were the “wooden walls” of Britain. Nelson never left the
Victory,
though his eyesight deteriorated further and his stomach wound bothered him constantly.

Finally, in April 1805, under the very capable Admiral Villeneuve, the French fleet slipped out of Toulon while the majority of Nelson's ships were taking on water. A great chase ensued—over the western Mediterranean, through the Strait of Gibraltar, across the Atlantic to the West Indies, and back to Ferrol in northern Spain by the end of July. Yet nothing had changed. The French fleet still avoided major action, the French army remained camped by the channel ports, and the invasion barges sat waiting. Nelson was given leave and set foot off the
Victory
for the first time in two years.

At the end of August, Villeneuve slipped his fleet south to Cadiz, where, with Spanish reinforcements, it numbered more than forty ships. Bonaparte ordered him to combine with the fleet in Brest and gain control of the English Channel.

Nelson was recalled from leave. When he rejoined the
Victory
at Portsmouth, a large crowd collected. Some were in tears, some cheered and lifted their children high to see him, others knelt and blessed him as he passed. He said to Hardy: “I had their huzzas before. I have their hearts now.” The
Victory
arrived off Cadiz on September 28.

The combined French and Spanish fleets under Villeneuve's command put to sea on October 19 and 20 and assembled south of Cadiz. The British under Nelson lay out of sight, while his inshore frigates relayed the enemy's movements.

During the night, Nelson maneuvered his fleet. At daybreak on the twenty-first they were positioned so that if Villeneuve continued south to Gibraltar, he would have to fight, if Villeneuve sailed northwest to
the channel, he would have to fight, and if Villeneuve returned to Cadiz, he would also have to fight. Importantly, Nelson had maintained the commanding, windward position.

As Nelson had predicted, when Villeneuve sighted the twenty-six waiting British ships at dawn he altered course to return to Cadiz. At 5:40
A.M
. Nelson signaled his captains: “Form the order of sailing in two columns.” This signal was repeated at 6
A.M
. so that the captains knew this was also the order of battle.

In the
Victory,
Nelson commanded the northern column of eleven ships of the line, which included the
Temeraire.
Vice Admiral Collingwood, second in command in the
Royal Sovereign,
commanded the southern column of fifteen ships of the line. A latecomer, the 64-gun
Africa,
was ten miles to the northwest, sailing to join Nelson.

His Majesty's ships were
Victory, Royal Sovereign, Britannia, Temeraire, Revenge, Prince, Tonnant, Belle Isle, Mars, Neptune, Spartiate, Defiance, Conqueror, Defense, Colossus, Leviathan, Ajax, Achille, Bellerophon, Minotaur, Orion, Swiftsure, Polyphemus, Agamemnon, Dreadnought, Thunderer,
and
Africa.

East and downwind of the Royal Navy, the French and Spanish fleet of thirty-three ships of the line sailed northward in a curved formation, roughly two abreast. It included Villeneuve's flagship, the
Bucentaure,
and the largest and second-largest warships in the world, the 130-gun
Santissima Trinidad
and the 112-gun
Santa Ana.
The enemy fleet had superiority by six ships of the line, 474 guns, and 8,124 men. In addition, Villeneuve had seven frigates to Nelson's four.

A total of seventy-one warships, sixty of them ships of the line, slowly converged at the shoals of Cape Trafalgar off Spain on the morning of October 21, 1805—the day ever after known as Trafalgar Day. Although the wind was only light from the west-northwest, drawing the fleets together at just one and a half knots, the swell was gradually increasing, indicating a coming gale. It would blow hard by the end of the day. The British ships—flying the white ensign for easy identification—set all sail, including stunsails, instead of the usual, reduced fighting sails so as to close on the enemy as quickly as possible. In the tense waiting Nelson remarked to his officers: “I'll
now amuse the fleet,” and so was hoisted the most famous naval signal ever made.

It began as “Nelson confides that every man will do his duty.” At the suggestion of another officer Nelson amended it to “England confides that every man will do his duty” (there was a single code flag meaning “England” but not for “Britain” or “Nelson”) and, at the suggestion of the flag lieutenant in order to use even fewer flags, it was finally hoisted as “England expects that every man will do his duty.” The fleet cheered, although Collingwood said: “I wish Nelson would stop signaling. We all know well enough what we have to do.”

The plan of battle, an improvement on the battle of Saint Vincent, was already agreed. Instead of one column, two British columns would break the enemy line from windward, turn port and starboard to lay alongside from leeward, and so prevent the enemy from escaping downwind. It was simple and brilliant. Nelson's last words to his senior officers were: “No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy.”

In his diary he wrote the prayer he had composed that morning: “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 endeavours for serving my country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen, amen, amen.”

It was Collingwood in the 100-gun
Royal Sovereign
who first came under fire, just before noon, from the 112-gun
Santa Ana.
Minutes later the
Victory,
feinting as though to attack the head of the enemy fleet, came under fire from several ships. Her wheel was destroyed and she had to be steered by emergency tackle from below. The
Royal Sovereign
broke the enemy line astern of the
Santa Ana,
the eighteenth ship, into which Collingwood fired double-shotted broadsides.

Nelson steered the
Victory
back toward the 120-gun
Santissima
Trinidad
and the 80-gun
Bucentaure,
thirteenth in the line. After sustaining twenty minutes of unanswered fire, the
Victory
passed astern of the
Bucentaure
to fire a running port broadside, double-shotted, through Villeneuve's stern windows and the entire length of the vessel. French reports state that twenty guns were destroyed and four hundred men killed or wounded from that first broadside alone.

The
Victory
passed on, turned alongside the
Redoutable,
and fought that ship with her starboard guns while her port guns fought the
Santissima Trinidad.
The
Redoutable
under Captain Lucas was one of the best-manned French ships, and it was hard going for the
Victory
—she was almost boarded—until HMS
Temeraire
approached and fired a series of broadsides into the
Redoutable.
Then the
Fougueux
came to the
Redoutable
's assistance and the four vessels fought it out for a further three hours. One after another, the British ships broke the line, turned, and engaged one or more enemy ships, until the ships and the sea itself were obscured by greasy cannon smoke.

At about 1:15
P.M
., on the quarterdeck of the
Victory,
Nelson was shot. A marksman above in the mizzenmast of the
Redoutable
—her only surviving mast—fired and the musket ball passed through the gold epaulette on Nelson's left shoulder. It broke two ribs, severed a main branch of the pulmonary artery to the heart, and continued on to break two vertebrae. He sank to his knees and then slid to the deck as Hardy went to his assistance. “They have done for me, at last,” Nelson said to him. He was carried below to the cockpit—on the way ordering damaged tiller ropes to be repaired—but there was nothing surgeon Beatty could do for him.

Nelson asked for Hardy to come to him, but the fighting was fierce. At 1:45
P.M
. Villeneuve surrendered the flagship
Bucentaure
to HMS
Conqueror.
The
Bucentaure
had been dismasted, and her decks and gangways were filled with wreckage and the dead. At 2:15
P.M
., the
Santa Ana
struck her colors to the
Royal Sovereign.
It wasn't until the
Fougueux
and the
Redoutable
surrendered to the
Victory
and the
Temeraire
that Hardy could leave the quarterdeck at 2:20
P.M
.

“Well, Hardy, how goes the battle?” Nelson asked weakly. “How goes the day with us?” Hardy reported that twelve or fourteen enemy
ships were already captured, but another five were bearing down upon the
Victory.
“I hope none of our ships have struck, Hardy?”

“No, my lord,” Hardy replied, “there is no fear of that.” Hardy shook his friend's hand and returned to the deck.

Some fifty minutes later Hardy returned to the surgeon's cockpit, took and held Nelson's cold hand, and this time was able to congratulate him on a brilliant victory. The Royal Navy had carried the day, again without the loss of a single ship. The news of Nelson's mortal wound was passed only to Collingwood in the
Royal Sovereign.

“Don't throw me overboard, Hardy,” Nelson whispered, and then: “Take care of my dear Lady Hamilton…. Kiss me, Hardy.” The tall, angular Hardy knelt down and kissed his cheek. Nelson murmured: “Now I am satisfied; thank God, I have done my duty.” Hardy stood gazing at his friend for a moment and then knelt again and kissed his admiral's forehead. “Who is that?” asked Nelson. It appears his sight had gone.

“It is Hardy,” the captain replied.

“God bless you, Hardy.” Then Hardy returned to the quarterdeck.

Nelson lingered a little longer, saying again: “Thank God, I have done my duty.” The
Victory
's logbook re
cords in pencil: “Partial firing continued until 4.30
P.M
., when a victory having been reported to the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Nelson, KB, and Commander-in-Chief, he died of his wound.”

At 5
P.M
. there was a massive explosion. The French
Achille,
dismasted and on fire, had blown up. The tally that day was twenty-eight French and Spanish ships of the line surrendered and one destroyed. Eleven of those surrenders, including the
Santa Ana,
escaped during the gale to reach Cadiz. One was wrecked on the beach, while the remainder were found to be so severely damaged that they never put to sea again. In addition, three more French ships of the line were wrecked in an attempt to retake captured French ships the following day, while the final four ships that escaped to the south were captured fourteen days later.

Ultimately, twenty-six enemy ships were captured or destroyed in the battle of Trafalgar, 5,860 French and Spanish killed or wounded, and 20,000 taken prisoner. No British ship was lost, but 1,600 seamen were killed or wounded. The battle of Trafalgar was Nelson's third total victory.

That night, when the gale lashed the fleets and the British seamen risked their lives to rescue French and Spanish
crews from their battered ships, it was observed with dismay that the three admiral's lanterns at the stern of HMS
Victory
were not lit.