Every Man Will Do His Duty (16 page)

B.
Captain
engaged with
Santissima Trinidad,
136, and two other three-decked ships, which were seconds to the Spanish Admiral.

C.
Culloden
, engaged with the rear ships on the enemy’s main body.

D.
Blenheim,
a three-decker of 90 guns, commanded by T. L. Frederick, advancing to the assistance of
Captain
and
Culloden.

E. Rear-Admiral W. Parker, in
Prince George,
98; with
Orion
, 74;
Irresistible
, 74; and
Diadem
, 64, approaching to support attack on center and rear of the enemy’s fleet.

F.
Colossus,
Captain G. Murray, disabled by the loss of her fore-yard and fore-topsail-yard.

G. Spanish ships that tried to rejoin fleet but were obliged to sheer off and made all sail to south.

Stage 3: About 3:45 P.M.

A. Rear division of British fleet: 1)
Britannia
, 2)
Goliath
, 3)
Barfleur
, 4)
Victory
, 5)
Namur
, 6)
Excellent
, 7)
Egmont
, covering prizes and injured ships of advanced division, against the enemy’s fresh ships, which have arrived to support their admiral-in-chief.

B.
Santissima Trinidad
striking or about to.

C. Two line-of-battle ships wearing, on the arrival of fresh ships, to support their Chief.

D.
Captain,
entangled with her two prizes,
Nicolas
and
San Josef.

E.
Diadem,
64, and
Minerva
frigate assisting
Captain,
to disengage her from her prizes.

F.
Colossus.

G.
Lively
frigate towing
San Ysidro,
the first Spanish ship that struck.

H.
Salvador del Mondo
attended by
Bonn Citoyenne.

The
Colossus
having, in the early part of the day, unfortunately lost her fore-yard and fore-top-sail-yard, was obliged, in consequence of these losses, to fall to leeward, and the
Minerve
’s signal was made to take her in tow, which was, however, handsomely declined by Captain Murray when the
Minerve
had come within hail in execution of her orders.

While the British advanced division warmly pressed the enemy’s centre and rear, the admiral meditated, with his division, a co-operation, which must effectually compel some of them to surrender.

In the confusion of their retreat, several of the enemy’s ships had doubled on each other, and in the rear they were three or four deep. It was therefore the British admiral’s design to reach the weathermost of these ships, then bear up, and rake them all in succession with the seven ships composing his division. His object afterwards was to pass on to the support of his van division, which, from the length of time they had been engaged, he judged might be in want of it. The casual position, however, of the rear ships of his van division, prevented his executing this plan: the admiral, therefore, ordered the
Excellent,
the leading ship of his own division, to bear up; and, with the
Victory,
he himself passed to leeward of the enemy’s rearmost and leeward most ships, which, though almost silenced in their fire, continued obstinately to resist the animated attacks of all their opponents.

Captain Collingwood, in the
Excellent,
in obedience to the admiral’s orders, passed between the two rearmost ships of the enemy’s line, giving to the one most to windward, a seventy-four, so effectual a broadside that, with what she had received before, her captain was induced to submit. The
Excellent
afterwards bore down on the ship to leeward, a three-decker; but observing the
Orion
engaged with her, and the
Victory
approaching her, he threw into her only a few discharges of musketry and passed on to the support of the
Captain,
at that time warmly engaged with a three-decker carrying a flag. His interference here was opportune, as the continual and long fire of the
Captain
had almost expended the ammunition she had at hand, and the loss of her fore-top-mast, and other injuries she had received in her rigging, had rendered her nearly ungovernable.

The Spanish three-decker had lost her mizenmast; and before the
Excellent
arrived in her proper station to open on this ship, the three-decker dropped astern aboard of, and became entangled with, a Spanish two-decker that was her second: thus doubled on each other, the
Excellent
gave the two ships her fire, and then moved forwards to assist the headmost ships in their attack on the Spanish admiral and the other ships of the enemy’s centre.

Meanwhile, Sir John Jervis, disappointed in his plan of raking the enemy’s rear ships, and having directed, as before observed, the
Excellent
to bear up, ordered the
Victory
to be placed on the lee-quarter of the rearmost ship of the enemy, a
three-decker, and having, by signal ordered the
Irresistible
and
Diadem
to suspend their firing, threw into the three-decker so powerful a discharge that her commander, seeing the
Barfleur,
carrying Vice-Admiral the Hon. W. Waldegrave’s flag, ready to second the
Victory,
thought proper to strike to the British chief. Two of the enemy’s ships had now surrendered, and the
Lively
frigate and
Diadem
had orders to secure the prizes. The next that fell were the two with which Commodore Nelson was engaged.

While Captain Collingwood so nobly stepped in to his assistance, as has been mentioned before, Captain R. W. Miller, the commodore’s captain, was enabled to replenish his lockers with shot and prepare for a renewal of the fight: no sooner, therefore, had the
Excellent
passed on than the gallant commodore renewed the battle.

The three-decker with which he was before engaged having fallen aboard her second, that ship, of84 guns, became now the Captain’s opponent. To her Commodore Nelson directed a vigorous fire; nor was it feebly returned, as the loss of the
Captain
evinced, near twenty men being killed and wounded in a very few minutes. It was now that the various damages already sustained by that ship through the long and arduous conflict which she had maintained, appearing to render a continuance of the contest in the usual way precarious, or perhaps impossible; and the commodore not bearing to part with an enemy of whom he had assured himself, he instantly resolved on a bold and decisive measure, and determined, whatever might be the event, to attempt his opponent sword in hand. The boarders were summoned and orders given to lay the
Captain
on board the enemy.

Fortune favors the brave; nor on this occasion was she unmindful of her favorite. Captain Miller so judiciously directed the course of the
Captain
that she was laid aboard the starboard quarter of the eighty-four gun ship, her spritsail yard passing over the enemy’s poop, and hooking her mizen shrouds; and the word to board being given, the officers and seamen destined for this duty, headed by Lieutenant Berry, together with the detachment of the 69th regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Pearson, then doing duty as Marines on board the
Captain,
passed with rapidity on board the enemy’s ship; and in a short time the
San Nicolas
was in the possession of her intrepid assailants. The commodore’s impatience would not permit him to remain an inactive spectator of this event. He knew the attempt was hazardous; and his presence, he thought, might contribute to its success. He therefore accompanied the party in this attack, passing from the fore chains of his own ship into the enemy’s quarter gallery, and thence through the cabin to the quarterdeck, where he arrived in time to receive the sword of the dying commander, who was mortally wounded by the boarders. For a few minutes after the officers had submitted, the crew below were firing their lower-deck guns: this irregularity, however, was soon corrected, and measures taken for the security of the conquest. But this labor was no sooner achieved, than he found himself engaged in another
and more arduous one. The stern of the three-decker, his former opponent, was directly amidships on the weather-beam of the
San Nicolas;
and, from her poop and galleries, the enemy sorely annoyed, with musketry, the British on board the
San Nicolas.
The commodore was not long in resolving on the conduct to be observed upon this momentous occasion. The alternative that presented itself, was to quit the prize, or advance. Confident in the bravery of his seamen, he determined on the latter. Directing therefore an additional number of men to be sent from the
Captain,
on board the
San Nicolas,
the undaunted commodore headed himself the assailants in this new attack, and success crowned the enterprise. Such, indeed, was the panic occasioned by his preceding conduct that the British no sooner appeared on the quarter-deck of their new opponent than the Commandant advanced, and asking for the British commanding officer, dropped on one knee and presented to him his sword; making, at the same time, an excuse for the Spanish admiral’s not appearing, as he was dangerously wounded. For a moment Commodore Nelson could scarcely persuade himself of this second instance of good fortune; he therefore ordered the Spanish Commandant, who had the rank of a brigadier, to assemble the officers on the quarter-deck, and direct steps to be taken instantly for communicating to the crew the surrender of the ship. All the officers immediately appeared, and the commodore found the surrender of the
San Josef
ascertained, by each of them delivering to him his sword.

The coxswain of Nelson’s barge had attended him throughout this perilous adventure. To his charge the commodore gave the swords of the Spanish officers as he received them; and the jolly tar, as they were delivered to him, tucked these honorable trophies under his arm, with all the
sang-froid
imaginable.

It was at this moment also that an honest Jack Tar, an old acquaintance of Nelson’s, came up to him in the fullness of his heart, and excusing the liberty he was taking, asked to shake him by the hand, to congratulate him upon seeing him safe on the quarter-deck of a Spanish three-decker.

This new conquest had scarcely submitted, and the commodore returned on board the
San Nicolas,
when the latter ship was discovered to be on fire in two places. At the first moment appearances were alarming; but presence of mind and resources were not wanting to the British officers in this emergency. The firemen were immediately ordered from the
Captain;
and proper means being taken, the fires were soon got under.

A signal was now made by the
Captain
for boats to assist in separating her from her prizes; and as the
Captain
was incapable of further service until refitted, the commodore hoisted his pendant, for the moment, on board the
Minerve
frigate, and in the evening removed it to the
Irresistible,
Captain Martin.

Four of the enemy’s ships were now in [the] possession of the British squadron (two of three decks, the
Salvador del Mondo
and the
San Josef,
of 112 guns each; one of 84, the
San Nicolas;
and the
San Ysidro,
of 74 guns;) and the van of the
British line still continued to press hard the
Santissima Trinidad
and others in the rear of the enemy’s flying fleet. The approach, however, of the enemy’s ships which had been separated from their main body in the morning, two new ships also bearing down from to windward, and two of the enemy’s flying ships wearing to support their chief, at that time severely pressed, add to which, the closing of the day—these circumstances, but more particularly the lateness of the hour, while the prizes were not yet properly secured, determined the British admiral to bring to. The headmost of the enemy’s approaching ships (in all nine in number, two of which were of three decks) had indeed advanced to fire on the
Britannia,
in which Vice-Admiral Thompson carried his flag, and the sternmost ships of the rear-division, which were fortunately, at this period, in a situation to keep the enemy in check. The
Victory
likewise, with the
Barfleur
and
Namur,
had formed to cover the prizes. The British admiral, therefore, a little before four o’clock,
p.m.,
made the preparative, and soon after the signal for the British fleet to bring to. The enemy’s fresh ships, on approaching, opened afire on our covering ships; but, though both fresh, and so superior in numbers, they contented themselves with the noise of a few irregular broadsides, leaving their captured friends, and seeming too happy to be allowed to escape with their discomfited chief, and his disabled companions, to think of molesting our squadron in bringing to on the starboard tack.