The Battle of Nelson

The battle everyone had been eagerly awaiting since the outbreak of the war over two years earlier was finally at hand. Villeneuve knew that if the British managed to break his line, the battle would descend into chaos. In an engagement like that, victory would go to the side whose captains were better able to read the tactical situation and act on it under their own initiative. At dawn on October 21st, the centuries of the British fleet caught sight of the combined fleet. The weather was still not cooperating, but what little wind there was favored the British.