21 October 1805

The Build up to the Battle In 1803, Napoleon was planning an invasion of Britain To succeed he needed to control the English Channel, but Britain has a much stronger navy and much better sailors and leaders (e.g. Horatio Nelson) In 1804, Spain joined France against Britain Napoleon hoped to use the combined Spanish & French fleets to gain control of the Channel

To Fool Nelson…. The British tried to blockade the French & Spanish fleets in their harbours The French Admiral, Villeneuve managed to evade Nelson and sailed for the West Indies in March The plan was to meet up with the other French and Spanish fleets. In August the combined fleets (29 ships) sailed westwards back to Europe They arrived off Cadiz (Spain) on 20 th August The French had eluded Nelson and now had a strong fleet – a threat to British superiority in the Channel

The Battle – Opening Moves Villeneuve left Cadiz on 19 th October Nelson moved to block the French from entering the Mediterranean. The French fleet sailed in line astern On the morning of 21 st October the two fleets sighted each other Nelson ordered his fleet to attack in two “columns” He ordered his famous signal to be flown – “England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty” At12 noon the opening shots were fired

The Battle – Close Action The Victory & The Royal Sovereign led the columns and were the first to engage the French- Spanish fleet The Victory sailed past the Bucentaure and crashed into the Redoutable Other British ships began to engage the French in vicious broadsides At 1.15, Nelson was shot in the shoulder and was carried below deck It was obvious the wound was fatal. Slowly, the British got the upper hand as more and more enemy ships “struck their colours” By about 4.00pm the battle was won Nelson died at 4.30 pm “Thank God I have done my duty”

The Battle – The Aftermath The victory for the British was soured by the death of Nelson He was THE hero of the time – a national celebrity 18 French or Spanish ships were captured by the British British losses = 449 Killed, 1241 wounded French/Spanish losses = 4408 Killed and 2545 wounded Trafalgar secured British naval supremacy and ended the threat of invasion Forced Napoleon to change his strategy Nelson legend French did re-build their fleet but never engaged the British on such a scale again