Battle of Trafalgar by Sam Willis

Author:Sam Willis
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781405934107
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

It is also possible to read in this signal a level of uncertainty. Why would Nelson need to remind his captains of their duty – of what was expected of them?

The answer is that Nelson knew his history, and he knew that, in spite of the overwhelming story of British naval success in the recent years, there had also been examples of incompetence, confusion, outright cowardice and mutiny that had marred the conduct of the Royal Navy.

Nelson flew that signal, therefore, not just to ‘amuse’ the fleet, but because he needed to remind his men of their duty as they sailed towards injury and death.

The coming battle would test his men as they had never been tested before. The total firepower of both armies at Waterloo amounted to just 7.3 per cent of the firepower that was about to be unleashed at Trafalgar.

The men lay down next to their guns. British gunnery doctrine rested entirely on proximity to their enemy and sustained ferocity of fire. They would, therefore, have to withstand the full force of the enemy before they could fire back. Lying down, making their bodies as small a target as possible to a gun trained horizontally, increased their chance of survival until that moment.

On the Victory alone thirty men died and twenty were wounded before they fired a single shot at their enemy.

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