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Home The Napoleonic War, 1803-1815 Napoleon and the Invasion of England, 1803-1805 1803-1805; Part 2 |
1803-1805; Part 2But when Nelson had reached Barbados (June 4), and was within a hundred miles of his quarry, inaccurate information given him by a British general caused him to go south to Trinidad instead of north to Martinique where Villeneuve was (" But for wrong information," said Nelson, "I should have fought the battle on June 6th, where Rodney fought his"). The latter, when he heard of Nelson's arrival, wisely decided on an immediate return home. Nelson followed some days later, and sent forward a fast brig to announce the news. The brig passed Villeneuve's fleet on the way home, and brought intelligence to the admiralty in time for a fleet to be concentrated under Calder to meet Villeneuve on his return journey off Cape Finisterre (The captain of the brig reached the admiralty one night at eleven o'clock. But Lord Barham, being an old man nearly eighty years of age, had gone to bed, and no one dared to arouse him. Lord Barham was furious next morning when he heard of the delay; but in half an hour he had made up his mind what to do, and without waiting to dress drafted the necessary orders. By nine o'clock in the morning the admiralty messenger was carrying these orders to Portsmouth). Calder, with an inferior force, fought an action in a fog, and captured two of Villeneuve's ships (July 22). The action, however, was not decisive, and Calder failed to renew it the next day; consequently Villeneuve was enabled to withdraw to Corunna, a port near Ferrol. Meantime Nelson had returned to the south of Spain, and, hearing nothing of Villeneuve, went to join Cornwallis off Brest (Even if Villeneuve had not met Calder, it is unlikely that he would have eluded Cornwallis, who was guarding the approaches to the Channel as well as blockading Brest, or that he would have effected a junction with the Brest fleet. As has been pointed out, Napoleon in his schemes ignored two factors - first, that a wind favourable for the relieving force to attack was usually foul for the blockaded force to come out; secondly, that if the blockading force did go away to meet the attack, the blockaded force would not be able to tell under a day or two whether it had gone or not).With Villeneuve at Corunna the danger to England was not yet over. In August, however, Villeneuve left that port, and, instead of going north to attempt co-operation with the Brest fleet, he went south and entered Cadiz. There he was shortly afterwards blockaded by the British fleet, and Napoleon had to give up all ideas of invasion. Moreover, Pitt, who had displaced Addington as prime minister, had succeeded in forming another coalition against France - the third that he formed - consisting of Russia, Austria, Great Britain, and Sweden. Accordingly Napoleon marched his army away from Boulogne to attack Austria. Meantime Villeneuve was watched by Nelson, who had, after a short rest in England, returned to his command. Villeneuve, however, could not lie idle whilst the British assumed the offensive, as they began to do, in the Mediterranean; urged on by Napoleon, and on the point of being superseded, he ventured to leave Cadiz, intending to check the British operations against Naples. But Nelson attacked him and the battle off Cape Trafalgar resulted (Oct. 21). The allied fleet of thirty-three ships of the line, after it left Cadiz, was discovered by Nelson in a slightly curved line some five miles long. Nelson had previously determined to make an attack upon the centre and rear of the allied fleet, with his own twenty-seven ships arranged -in two columns. Of one of these columns Collingwood was in command with orders to attack the rear ships, whilst Nelson himself led the other with the object of fighting the centre and keeping off the van ships of the enemy. The action began about noon. Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign outdistanced the ships in his own column ("See how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into action!" was Nelson's comment, and almost at the same time Collingwood exclaimed, "What would Nelson give to be here!" It was just before Collingwood began his attack that Nelson issued his famous signal, " England expects every man to do his duty"), and for a quarter of an hour fought the enemy single-handed. Somewhat later Nelson's column got into action. Nelson's ship, the Victory, led, and her first broadside dismounted twenty guns and killed or wounded some four hundred men of the enemy. The fighting was carried onwith fierce determination by both sides; but the British gunnery proved its superiority, and eventually, out of thirty-three ships of the enemy, the British captured nineteen. In the course of the battle, however, Nelson was wounded in the spine with a musket ball and died in the hour of victory (Just before his death Nelson was told that fourteen or fifteen of the enemy's ships had surrendered. "That is well," he answered, "but I bargained for twenty"). "It does not become me to make comparisons", Lord St. Vincent had written previously, "there is but one Nelson". And later generations have endorsed this verdict. |
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