'England expects that every man will do his duty' — a signal hoisted in Popham's telegraphic code (21 October 1805)
The admiral first wanted 'Nelson confides'; 'expects' was in the code book and saved flags.
History · Revolutions & empires
The Battle of Trafalgar
21 October 1805
Nelson destroys the Franco-Spanish fleet and ends the invasion threat
Off a cape on Spain's Atlantic coast, a British fleet of 27 ships of the line broke a Franco-Spanish line of 33 by sailing at it in two perpendicular columns. The tactic wrecked the enemy centre and rear: about two-thirds of their fleet was taken or destroyed and not a single British ship was lost. The commander died of a musket wound in the hour of victory, and the battle secured British naval supremacy for a century.
How to spot them
- ▸Two columns sailing straight at an enemy line off Cape Trafalgar, south of Cádiz
- ▸A signal hoisted in flags before the action: England expects that every man will do his duty
- ▸A three-decked first rate, launched in 1765, now in dry dock at Portsmouth
- ▸The admiral shot from the mizzen-top of the Redoutable and dying below decks
What happened
The flagship, a 104-gun first rate now preserved in dry dock at Portsmouth
Launched in 1765, she is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission.
A French admiral who sailed out of Cádiz against his better judgement and was taken prisoner
Villeneuve was later found dead in a Rennes inn, officially by suicide.
Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign, first to break the enemy line
He took command after the admiral's death and wrote the victory despatch.
A Spanish four-decker of 136 guns, the largest warship afloat, captured and later wrecked in the storm
Many prizes were lost in the gale that followed the battle.
A dying admiral's last exchange with his flag captain: 'Kiss me, Hardy' (21 October 1805)
Hardy commanded Victory; the body was brought home preserved in spirits.
A London square and column laid out in the 1840s to commemorate the victory
Nelson's Column, by William Railton, was completed in 1843.
Key ideas
- The 'Nelson touch': attacking in two columns at right angles to the enemy line, accepting fire on the approach in order to break the line and force a close-range melee British gunnery would win
Quick-fire facts
- •Fought on 21 October 1805 off Cape Trafalgar, between Cádiz and the Strait of Gibraltar
- •The combined French and Spanish fleet was commanded by Vice-Admiral Villeneuve, with Federico Gravina leading the Spanish
- •Horatio Nelson was shot by a marksman in the mizzen-top of the French Redoutable and died about three hours later
- •Twenty-two of the thirty-three allied ships were captured or destroyed; the British lost none, though about 1,700 men were killed or wounded
- •Nelson's body was brought home in a cask of brandy, later topped up with wine, and he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral in January 1806
- •The victory ended any realistic French plan to invade Britain, Napoleon having already broken up the Boulogne camp
- •Trafalgar Day is still marked by the Royal Navy on 21 October
- •No formal treaty ended the battle's war; the campaign closed instead with Austerlitz that December and the Treaty of Pressburg
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- Royal Museums Greenwich — Stories from the National Maritime Museum
- Fondation Napoléon — History of the Two Empires: the Napoleonic wars at sea