James Baquet

Visitors to London may find themselves facing a 52-meter-tall column with a statue of an elegantly-dressed soldier leaning on a sword at its pinnacle. The soldier is the Royal Navy’s Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson, and the monument honors his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar — indeed, the location of “Nelson’s Column” is known as Trafalgar (not “Nelson”) Square.

We have met Lord Nelson before, in discussing his victory at the Battle of the Nile. The engagement at Trafalgar — the name of a cape off the southwest coast of Spain — was, like that battle, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

The French had been attempting to assemble their fleet and those of their allies, including the Spanish, in order to take control of the English Channel, the strait between England and France. With that in hand, they could more easily manage an invasion of England.

The French and Spanish fleets sailed from the southern Spanish port of Cadiz on Oct. 18, 1805. As they progressed, they were stymied on the 21st by Nelson and the British fleet. Nelson’s decisive actions contrasted with the disorganized behavior of the French and the Spanish, and his two columns sailed straight into the wavering allied lines.

In those days, naval battles were usually conducted by two lines of ships facing each other. Nelson was an innovator, who would place his ships in lines perpendicular to the enemy line, making a smaller target and allowing them to sail at the enemy and ram them.

Twenty-seven British ships faced off with 33 French and Spanish ones. Nelson’s forward ships were heavily damaged, and the flagship — with Nelson aboard — was nearly disabled. But the training and experience of the British overrode the superior numbers of the enemy: Although 22 Franco-Spanish ships were lost, the British lost none.

Sadly, during the battle, Nelson was shot by a French musketeer, and died soon after the battle. The French admiral, taken prisoner, actually attended Nelson’s funeral in England. The Spanish admiral, too, was wounded, and died five months later of his wounds.

As he lay dying, Nelson was heard to murmur, “Thank God I have done my duty.”

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. not standing firm

2. narrow stretch of water

3. at right angles to

4. hindered, blocked

5. speak quietly

6. went beyond, superseded

7. appeared different (from)

8. one who does something new

9. highest point

10. person who shoots a kind of old-fashioned rifle