Nelson had to reduce the number of divisions in which he wanted to fight. Originally had 33 two, but a little squadron had been sent for wittling off the coast of northern africa,. So they were reduced to the number of 27. And i think weld crete the lopsidedness of the ba as once this becomes a malee. Once it breaks down into a malee then the cohesion of the british navy wins out. That's where you start to see the casualties and captured ships startt up on the french and spanish side. The short answer is terrifying. In these sort of ship on ship actions, that natural instinct between fight or flight was removed
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events of 21st October 1805, in which the British fleet led by Nelson destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet in the Atlantic off the coast of Spain. Nelson's death that day was deeply mourned in Britain, and his example proved influential, and the battle was to help sever ties between Spain and its American empire. In France meanwhile, even before Nelson's body was interred at St Paul's, the setback at Trafalgar was overshadowed by Napoleon's decisive victory over Russia and Austria at Austerlitz, though Napoleon's search for his lost naval strength was to shape his plans for further conquests.
The image above is from 'The Battle of Trafalgar' by JMW Turner (1824).
With
James Davey
Lecturer in Naval and Maritime History at the University of Exeter
Marianne Czisnik
Independent researcher on Nelson and editor of his letters to Lady Hamilton
And
Kenneth Johnson
Research Professor of National Security at Air University, Alabama
Producer: Simon Tillotson