Battle of Trafalgar

battle_name=Battle of Trafalgar

Strategic background to the battle

In 1805, the First French Empire, under Napoleon, was the dominant military power on the European continent, while the British Royal Navy controlled the seas. During the course of the war, the British imposed a naval blockade on France, which affected French trade and kept the French from fully mobilising their own naval resources. Despite several successful evasions of the blockade by the French navy, they were unable to inflict a major defeat on the British. The British control of the seas enabled them to attack French interests at home and abroad with relative ease.

Related Topics:
1805 - First French Empire - Napoleon - Royal Navy - Naval blockade

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When the Napoleonic War broke out in 1803, after the short lived Peace of Amiens, Napoleon Bonaparte was determined to invade Britain. To do so, he had to ensure that the Royal Navy would be unable to disrupt the invasion flotilla, which would require the French fleet to control the English Channel.

Related Topics:
Napoleonic War - 1803 - Peace of Amiens

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At that time, there were major French fleets in Brest, Brittany, and Toulon on the Mediterranean coast. Other ports on the French Atlantic coast had smaller but potent squadrons. In addition, France and Spain were now allied, so the Spanish fleet based in Cádiz and El Ferrol was also available.

Related Topics:
Brest - Brittany - Toulon - Mediterranean - Cádiz - El Ferrol

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The British possessed an experienced and well-trained corps of naval officers. By contrast, most of the best officers in the French navy had either been executed or dismissed from the service during the early part of the French Revolution. As a result, Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was the most competent senior officer available to command Napoleon's Mediterranean fleet. However, Villeneuve had shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm to face Nelson and the Royal Navy after his defeat at the Battle of the Nile.

Related Topics:
French Revolution - Pierre-Charles Villeneuve - Battle of the Nile

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Napoleon's naval plan in 1805 was for the French and Spanish fleets in the Mediterranean and Cádiz to break through the blockade and combine in the West Indies. They would then return, assist the fleet in Brest to emerge from blockade, and in combination clear the English Channel of Royal Navy ships, ensuring a safe passage for invasion barges.

Related Topics:
Cádiz - West Indies - English Channel

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West Indies

Early in 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson was commanding the British fleet blockading Toulon. Unlike William Cornwallis, who commanded the Channel Fleet's tight blockade of Brest, Nelson adopted a loose blockade in hopes of luring the French fleet out of port. Nelson hoped to engage and destroy the French in a major battle. However, Villeneuve's fleet successfully emerged and evaded Nelson's fleet when his forces were blown off station by storms. While Nelson was searching for them in the Mediterranean, Villeneuve passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, rendezvoused with the Spanish fleet, and sailed as planned to the West Indies. Once Nelson realised that the French had evaded him and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, he abandoned his station in the Mediterranean to pursue them. Admirals of the time, due to the slowness of communications, had to have considerable autonomy to take strategic as well tactical decisions. Nelson's task was to contain or destroy Villeneuve's fleet. As they had managed to evade his forces off Toulon, he decided to pursue them.

Related Topics:
William Cornwallis - Straits of Gibraltar - West Indies - Atlantic Ocean

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Cádiz

In the West Indies, the French fleet again evaded Nelson's forces. The French sailed for Europe, originally intending to break the blockade at Brest, but after two of his Spanish ships were captured during the Battle of Cape Finisterre by a squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Calder, Villeneuve decided not to attempt joining the fleet in Brest, and sailed back to Ferrol.

Related Topics:
Battle of Cape Finisterre - Robert Calder

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Napoleon's invasion plans for England depended entirely on his ability to rendezvous a sufficiently large number of ships-of-the-line before Boulogne, France. This would require Villeneuve's force of thirty-two ships to successfully join Vice-Admiral Ganteaume's force of twenty-one ships at Brest, along with a squadron of five ships under Captain Allemand, which would give him a combined force of fifty-three ships of the line.

Related Topics:
Boulogne - France

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When Villeneuve set sail from Ferrol on 10 August, he was under these strict orders from Napoleon to sail northward toward Brest. Instead he grew nervous of the British observing his manoeuvres, so on 11 August he sailed southward towards Cádiz on the south-western coast of Spain. With no sign of Villeneuve's fleet, by 26 August the three French army corps invasion force near Boulogne became needed elsewhere. This force broke camp and made for Germany, where it would thereafter be fully engaged.

Related Topics:
10 August - 11 August - Cádiz - 26 August - Boulogne - Germany

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The same month, Nelson returned home to England after two years of duty at sea for some well-earned rest and recuperation. He would be ashore for a total of twenty-five busy days, and he was warmly received by the British who were understandably nervous about the possibility of French invasion. Word reached England on 2 September about the presence of the combined French and Spanish fleet in the Cádiz harbour. Nelson had to wait until 15 September before his ship HMS Victory was ready to sail.

Related Topics:
2 September - 15 September - HMS ''Victory''

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On 15 August, Cornwallis made the fateful decision to detach twenty ships of the line from the fleet guarding the channel and to have them sail southward to engage the enemy forces in Spain. This left the channel somewhat denuded of ships, with only eleven ships of the line available. However this detached force would form the nucleus of the British fleet that would fight at Trafalgar. Initially this fleet was placed under the command of Vice-Admiral Calder. This force reached Cádiz on 15 September, and Nelson would join the fleet on 29 September to take command.

Related Topics:
15 August - 15 September - 29 September

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The British fleet kept a constant watch on the Cádiz harbour by means of frigates, while his main force remained out of sight 50 miles (80 km) west of the shore. Nelson's hope was to lure the combined Franco-Spanish force out and engage them in a battle of obliteration by means of a "pell-mell battle". The force watching the harbour was led by Captain Blackwood, commanding HMS Euryalus. He was brought up to a strength of seven ships on 8 October, consisting of five frigates and two schooners.

Related Topics:
Frigate - HMS ''Euryalus'' - 8 October

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Supply situation

At this point Nelson's fleet badly needed provisioning, however, and on 2 October six ships of the line, Queen; Canopus, captained by Francis Austen; Spencer; Zealous; Tigre; and Endymion were dispatched to Gibraltar for supplies. These ships were later diverted for convoy duty in the Mediterranean, whereas Nelson had expected them to return. British ships continued to arrive, and by 15 October the fleet was up to their full strength for the battle. Although it was a significant loss of strength to the fleet, once the first-rate Royal Sovereign had arrived, Nelson allowed Calder to sail for home in his flagship, the 90-gun Prince of Wales rather than sending him back in a smaller ship. Calder was under a cloud for his actions during the engagement off Cape Finisterre on July 22.

Related Topics:
2 October - ''Queen'' - ''Canopus'' - Francis Austen - ''Spencer'' - ''Zealous'' - ''Tigre'' - ''Endymion'' - Gibraltar - 15 October - ''Prince of Wales'' - July 22

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Meanwhile, Villeneuve's fleet in Cádiz was also suffering from a serious supply shortage that could not be readily rectified by the cash-strapped French. His ships were also more than two thousand men short of the force they would need to sail. In these circumstances he received fresh orders from Admiral Decrès in Paris to return to the Mediterranean, and sail to the port of Naples in southern Italy. Villeneuve's supply situation began to improve in October, but news of Nelson's arrival made Villeneuve reluctant to leave port. Indeed the captains of the fleet had held a vote on the matter and the result was a decision to stay in the harbour.

Related Topics:
Paris - Naples - Italy

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