Useful facts + excellent stories about Nelson's Column

Off Cape Trafalgar, "Victory" at about 11.00 hours leading Nelson's column into action.

The painting shows the leading ships of the column. These were "Victory", "Temeraire", "Neptune", "Conqueror", "Leviathan", "Britannia", "Ajax", "Agamemnon", "Orion", "Prince", "Minotaur" and almost off canvas, "Spartiate". Also shown in the background are "Africa" rejoining from the North having become detached during the night, the frigates "Euryalus" and "Phoebe" . and as usual the ubiquitous schooner "Pickle" .

This painting gives a clue as to why the French and Spanish of the Combined Fleet of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte were so impressed with the disciplined determination of the British Fleet.

Distances the ships are apart, sails set and order of sailing is based on official and eye witness accounts. Never mind making a "pretty picture" to sell, with this painting and others by this artist Gordon Frickers, you also have a reliable historic document. Click on the small image on the left to see Detail from Nelson's Column.

"Victory" at 06.10, as soon as it was light enough to be seen, hoisted signal number 72 (using Admiral Popham's 1803 Code ) and in accordance with Nelson's pre arranged plan known to his captain's as the Nelson Touch , the British fleet began to turn towards their opponents' and to form two columns.

This painting, one of a unique series produced with the intention of raising funds for H.M.S. Victory and with a letter of authority from her then captain, resulted from careful studies of the logs and diaries of officers in both fleets, a though reading of the Admiralty Committee Report of 1913 and numerous other sources including consultations with Peter Goodwin the ship's curator and Colin White (Now Dr Colin White), of the R N Museum, Portsmouth. Gordon Frickers visited Cape Trafalgar and Cadiz, and San Sebastian naval base (as a guest of the Spanish Navy) and most of all "Victory" at Portsmouth. Gordon Frickers also built a perspective model of the "Victory".

You may notice the "white horses" in this painting? During the slow approach, it is just possible there were a few by mid morning. A careful reading of the ships logs and the 2 books on the weather at the battle of Trafalgar written by Spanish authors after the battle indicate the light breeze progressively died and the cannon fire seemed to stifled it still more, so if you see a painting of the ships engaged, with white horses, dismiss it as fanciful!

Admiral Horatio Nelson had during the preceding days and the night before in particular, in response to pre arranged coloured rocket and light signals from his frigates, manovoeuvered the British Fleet into an advantageous position up wind of his opponents. At dawn the British fleet was up wind of the Combined Fleet and in a position to cut off any attempt by the combined fleet to return to Cadiz.

Admiral Pierre Villeneuve was well aware of this, several of his ships having chased the frigates, seen the British Fleet the day before and reported to Villeneuve's flagship "Bucentaure".

Admiral Villeneuve had also previously guessed Nelson's plan of attack and prepared counter measures with his Admirals and Captains. What went wrong for Villeneuve and why is a subject for another script.

Much has been written about Nelson's tactics and genius and undoubtedly he was a very remarkable commander. It is rarely acknowledged though that Nelson was well read and with slight modifications was using at the Battle of Trafalgar a tactic first known to have been used by the British during the Commonwealth period in Anglo Dutch wars.

For a brilliant account of that campaign read A Distant Storm: The Four Days Battle 1666, by F.L. Fox, ISBN 0-948864-29-X and see Zeven Provincien, elements of the Dutch Fleet.