After the Battle
After the death of Nelson, Euryalus took Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood’s ship HMS Royal Sovereign in tow as it was badly damaged and Collingwood went on board Euryalus. She later sailed on to England with Pierre de Villeneuve as prisoner. The following report of the battle and the death of Lord Nelson was written by Admiral Collingwood while on board the Euryalus.
Allan
Letters from Collingwood to the Admiralty as printed in the London Gazette
THE LONDON GAZETTE EXTRA-ORDINARY. WEDNESDAY, Nov. 6, 1805. ADMIRALTY OFFICE, Nov. 6. Dispatches, of which the following are Copies, were received at the Admiralty this day, at one o’clock, A.M., from Vice-Admiral Collingwood, Commanderin-Chief of his Majesty’s ships and vessels off Cadiz:- Euryalus, off Cape Trafalgar, Oct. 22, 1805. SIR, The ever-to-be-lamented death of ViceAdmiral, Lord Viscount NELSON, who in the late conflict with the enemy fell in the hour of victory, leaves to me the duty of informing my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that on the 19th instant it was communicated to the Commander-in-Chief, from the ships watching the motions of the enemy in Cadiz, that the combined fleet had put to sea; as they sailed with light winds Westerly, his Lordship concluded their destination was the Mediterranean, and immediately made all sail for the Straights entrance with the British Squadron, consisting of twenty-seven ships, three of them sixty-fours, where his Lordship was informed by 16 12H S Lecky,The King’s Ships Volume III Endymion to Jupiter,; published in 1914 by Horace Muirhead London. Information from The King’s Ships provided by Chris Scott of the Chatham Dockyard Historical Society. 13These letters, written by Vice–Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood while aboard the Euryalus, were published in the London Gazette, The Hanford Chronicles and other publications following receipt of the letters at the Admiralty HER STORY Captain Blackwood (whose vigilance in watching and giving notice of the enemy’s movements has been highly meritorious) that they had not yet-passed the Straights. On Monday the 21st instant at daylight, when Cape Trafalgar bore E. by S. about seven leagues, the enemy was discovered six or seven miles Eastward, the wind about West, and very light. The Commander-in-Chief immediately made the signal for the fleet to bear up in two columns as they are formed in order of sailing: a mode of attack his Lordship had previously directed to avoid the inconveniences and delay in forming a line of battle in the usual manner. The enemy’s line consisted of thirty three ships (of which eighteen were French and fifteen Spanish), commanded in chief by Admiral Villeneuve: the Spaniards under the direction of Gravina, were with their heads Northward, and formed their line of battle with great closeness and correctness; but as the mode of attack was unusual, so the structure of their line was new; it formed a crescent, convexing the lee-ward, so that in leading down to the centre I had both their van and rear abaft the beam; before the fire opened, every alternate ship was about a cable’s length, to windward of her second ahead and astern, forming a kind of double line, and appeared when on their beam to leave a very little interval between them; and this without crowding their ships. Admiral Villeneuve was in the Bucentaure in the centre, and the Prince of Asturias bore Gravina’s flag in the rear; but the French and Spanish ships were mixed without any apparent regard to order of national squadron. As the mode of our attack had been previously determined on and communicated to the Flag Officers and Captains, few signals were necessary, and none were made except to direct close order as the lines bore down. The Commander-in-Chief, in the Victory, led the weather column, and the Royal Sovereign, which bore my flag, the lee. The action began at twelve o’clock by the leading ships of the column breaking through the enemy’s line, the Commander-in-Chief about the tenth ship from the van, the Second in Command about the twelfth from the rear, leaving the van of the enemy unoccupied: the succeeding ships breaking through in all parts, astern of their leaders, and engaging the enemy at the muzzles of their guns. The conflict was severe: the enemy’s ships were fought with a gallantry highly honourable to their Officers; but the attack on them was irresistible, and it pleased the Almighty Disposer of all events to grant his Majesty’s arms a complete and glorious victory. About three P.M., many of the enemy’s ships having struck their colours, their line gave way; Admiral Gravina, with ten ships joining their frigates to leeward, stood towards Cadiz. The five headmost ships in their van tacked, and standing to the Southward, or windward of the-British line, were engaged and the stern most of them taken; the others went off, leaving to his Majesty’s squadron nineteen ships of the line (of which three are first-rates, the Santissima, Trinidad, and the Santa Anna,) with three Flag Officers, viz., Admiral Villeneuve, the Commander-in-Chief; Don Ignatis Maria D’Aliva, Vice Admiral; and the Spanish Rear Admiral, Don Bathagar Hidalgo Cisueros. After such a victory it may appear unnecessary to enter into econiums on the particular parts taken by the several Commanders; the conclusion says more on the subject than I have language to express; the spirit which animated all was the same; when all exert themselves zealously in their country’s service, all deserve that their high merits should stand recorded; and never was high merit more conspicuous than in the battle I have described. The Achille (a French 74), after having surrendered, by some mismanagement of the Frenchman, took fire and blew up; two hundred of her men were saved by the Tenders. A circumstance occurred during the action which so strongly marks the invincible spirit of British seamen, when engaging the enemies of their country, that I cannot resist the pleasure I have in making it known to their Lordships. The Temeraire was boarded by accident or design by a French ship on one side and a Spaniard on the other; the contest was vigorous, but in 17 HM S EURYALU S (36) 1803 the end the Combined Ensigns were torn from the poop and the British hoisted in their places. Such a battle could not be fought without sustaining a great loss of men. I have not only to lament in common with the British Navy and the British Nation in the fall of the Commander-in-Chief, the loss of a hero whose name will be immortal and his memory ever dear to his country; but my heart is rent with the most poignant grief for the death of a friend to whom by many years intimacy and a perfect knowledge of the virtues of his mind, which inspired ideas superior to the common race of men, I was bound by the strongest ties of affection: a grief to which the glorious occasion in which he fell does not bring the consolation which perhaps it ought. His Lordship received a musket ball in his left breast about the middle of the action, and sent an Officer to me immediately with his last farewell, and soon after expired. I have also to lament the loss of those excellent Officers Captains Duff, of the Mars, and Cooke, of the Bellerophon: I have yet heard of none others. I fear the numbers that have fallen will be found very great when the returns come to me; but it having blown a gale of wind ever since the action, I have not yet had it in my power to collect any reports from the ships. The Royal Sovereign having lost her masts, except the tottering foremast, I called the Euryalus to me while the action continued, which ship lying within hail, made my signals - a service Captain Blackwood performed with great attention; after the action I shifted my flag to her, that I might more easily communicate any orders to, and collect the ships, and towed the Royal Sovereign out to seaward. The whole fleet were now in a very perilous position, many dismasted, all shattered, in thirteen fathom water, off the shoals of Trafalgar; and when I made the signal to prepare to anchor few of the ships had an anchor to let go, their cables being shot; but the same good Providence which aided us through the day preserved us through the night by the wind shifting a few points and drifting the ships off the land, except four of the captured, dismasted ships, which are now at anchor off Trafalgar, and I hope will ride safe until those gales are ever. Having thus, detailed the proceedings of the fleet on this occasion, I beg to congratulate their Lordships on a victory which I hope will add a ray to the glory of his Majesty’s crown, and be attended with public benefit to our country. I am, &c., (Signed,) C.
COLLINGWOOD. To: William Marsden, Esq. (Signed,) C. COLLINGWOOD. Euryalus, off Cadiz, Oct. 24, 1805. SIR, - In my letter of the 22nd I detailed to you for the information of my Lords’ Commissioners of the Admiralty, the proceedings of his Majesty’s Squadron on the day of the action and that preceding it, since which I have had a continued series of misfortunes, but they are of a kind that human prudence could not possibly provide against or my skill prevent. On the 22nd, in the morning, a strong Southerly wind blew, with squally weather, which, however did not prevent the activity of the Officers and Seamen of such ships as were manageable from getting hold of many of the prizes (thirteen or fourteen), and towing them off to the Westward, when I ordered them to rendezvous round the Royal Sovereign, in tow by the Neptune; but on the 23rd the gale increased and the sea ran so high that many of them broke the tow rope, and drifted far to leeward before they were got hold of again; and some of them taking advantage in the dark and boisterous night, got before the wind, and have perhaps drifted upon the shore and sunk on the afternoon of that day; the remnant of the Combined Fleet, ten sail of ships who had not been much engaged, stood up to leeward of my shattered and straggled charge, as if meaning to attack them, which obliged me to collect a force out of the least injured ships and turn to leeward for their defence; all this retarded the progress of the hulks, and the bad weather continuing determined me to destroy all the leewardmost that could be cleared of the men, considering that keeping possession of the ships was a matter of little conse18 HER STORY quence compared with the chance of their falling again into the hands of the enemy; but even this was an arduous task in the high sea which was running. I hope, however, it was accomplished to a considerable extent; I entrusted it to skillful Officers, who would spare no pains to execute what was possible. The captain of the Prince and Neptune cleared the Trinidad and sunk her. Captains Hope, Baystun and Malsobes, who joined the Fleet this moment from Gibraltar, had the charge of destroying four others - The Redoubtable sank astern of the Swiftsure while in tow. The Santa, I have no doubt, is sunk, as her side was almost entirely beat in; and such is the shattered condition of the whole of them, that unless the weather moderates, I doubt whether I shall be able to carry a ship of them into port. I hope their Lordships will approve of what I (having only in consideration the destruction of the enemy’s fleet) have thought a measure of absolute necessity. I have taken Admiral Villeneuve into this ship; Vice Admiral Don Aliva is dead. Whenever the temper of the weather will permit and I can spare a frigate (for there were only four in the action with the fleet, Euryalus, Sirius, Phoebe, and Naiad; the Melpomene joined the 22nd and the Eurydice and Scout the 23rd), I shall collect the other Flag Officers and send them to England with their flags (if they do not all go to the bottom) to be laid at his Majesty’s feet. There were four thousand troops embarked under the command of General Contamin, who was taken with Admiral Villeneuve in the Bucentaure. I am, (Signed,) C. COLLINGWOOD.
After the death of Nelson, Euryalus took Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood’s ship HMS Royal Sovereign in tow as it was badly damaged and Collingwood went on board Euryalus. She later sailed on to England with Pierre de Villeneuve as prisoner. The following report of the battle and the death of Lord Nelson was written by Admiral Collingwood while on board the Euryalus.
Allan
Letters from Collingwood to the Admiralty as printed in the London Gazette
THE LONDON GAZETTE EXTRA-ORDINARY. WEDNESDAY, Nov. 6, 1805. ADMIRALTY OFFICE, Nov. 6. Dispatches, of which the following are Copies, were received at the Admiralty this day, at one o’clock, A.M., from Vice-Admiral Collingwood, Commanderin-Chief of his Majesty’s ships and vessels off Cadiz:- Euryalus, off Cape Trafalgar, Oct. 22, 1805. SIR, The ever-to-be-lamented death of ViceAdmiral, Lord Viscount NELSON, who in the late conflict with the enemy fell in the hour of victory, leaves to me the duty of informing my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that on the 19th instant it was communicated to the Commander-in-Chief, from the ships watching the motions of the enemy in Cadiz, that the combined fleet had put to sea; as they sailed with light winds Westerly, his Lordship concluded their destination was the Mediterranean, and immediately made all sail for the Straights entrance with the British Squadron, consisting of twenty-seven ships, three of them sixty-fours, where his Lordship was informed by 16 12H S Lecky,The King’s Ships Volume III Endymion to Jupiter,; published in 1914 by Horace Muirhead London. Information from The King’s Ships provided by Chris Scott of the Chatham Dockyard Historical Society. 13These letters, written by Vice–Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood while aboard the Euryalus, were published in the London Gazette, The Hanford Chronicles and other publications following receipt of the letters at the Admiralty HER STORY Captain Blackwood (whose vigilance in watching and giving notice of the enemy’s movements has been highly meritorious) that they had not yet-passed the Straights. On Monday the 21st instant at daylight, when Cape Trafalgar bore E. by S. about seven leagues, the enemy was discovered six or seven miles Eastward, the wind about West, and very light. The Commander-in-Chief immediately made the signal for the fleet to bear up in two columns as they are formed in order of sailing: a mode of attack his Lordship had previously directed to avoid the inconveniences and delay in forming a line of battle in the usual manner. The enemy’s line consisted of thirty three ships (of which eighteen were French and fifteen Spanish), commanded in chief by Admiral Villeneuve: the Spaniards under the direction of Gravina, were with their heads Northward, and formed their line of battle with great closeness and correctness; but as the mode of attack was unusual, so the structure of their line was new; it formed a crescent, convexing the lee-ward, so that in leading down to the centre I had both their van and rear abaft the beam; before the fire opened, every alternate ship was about a cable’s length, to windward of her second ahead and astern, forming a kind of double line, and appeared when on their beam to leave a very little interval between them; and this without crowding their ships. Admiral Villeneuve was in the Bucentaure in the centre, and the Prince of Asturias bore Gravina’s flag in the rear; but the French and Spanish ships were mixed without any apparent regard to order of national squadron. As the mode of our attack had been previously determined on and communicated to the Flag Officers and Captains, few signals were necessary, and none were made except to direct close order as the lines bore down. The Commander-in-Chief, in the Victory, led the weather column, and the Royal Sovereign, which bore my flag, the lee. The action began at twelve o’clock by the leading ships of the column breaking through the enemy’s line, the Commander-in-Chief about the tenth ship from the van, the Second in Command about the twelfth from the rear, leaving the van of the enemy unoccupied: the succeeding ships breaking through in all parts, astern of their leaders, and engaging the enemy at the muzzles of their guns. The conflict was severe: the enemy’s ships were fought with a gallantry highly honourable to their Officers; but the attack on them was irresistible, and it pleased the Almighty Disposer of all events to grant his Majesty’s arms a complete and glorious victory. About three P.M., many of the enemy’s ships having struck their colours, their line gave way; Admiral Gravina, with ten ships joining their frigates to leeward, stood towards Cadiz. The five headmost ships in their van tacked, and standing to the Southward, or windward of the-British line, were engaged and the stern most of them taken; the others went off, leaving to his Majesty’s squadron nineteen ships of the line (of which three are first-rates, the Santissima, Trinidad, and the Santa Anna,) with three Flag Officers, viz., Admiral Villeneuve, the Commander-in-Chief; Don Ignatis Maria D’Aliva, Vice Admiral; and the Spanish Rear Admiral, Don Bathagar Hidalgo Cisueros. After such a victory it may appear unnecessary to enter into econiums on the particular parts taken by the several Commanders; the conclusion says more on the subject than I have language to express; the spirit which animated all was the same; when all exert themselves zealously in their country’s service, all deserve that their high merits should stand recorded; and never was high merit more conspicuous than in the battle I have described. The Achille (a French 74), after having surrendered, by some mismanagement of the Frenchman, took fire and blew up; two hundred of her men were saved by the Tenders. A circumstance occurred during the action which so strongly marks the invincible spirit of British seamen, when engaging the enemies of their country, that I cannot resist the pleasure I have in making it known to their Lordships. The Temeraire was boarded by accident or design by a French ship on one side and a Spaniard on the other; the contest was vigorous, but in 17 HM S EURYALU S (36) 1803 the end the Combined Ensigns were torn from the poop and the British hoisted in their places. Such a battle could not be fought without sustaining a great loss of men. I have not only to lament in common with the British Navy and the British Nation in the fall of the Commander-in-Chief, the loss of a hero whose name will be immortal and his memory ever dear to his country; but my heart is rent with the most poignant grief for the death of a friend to whom by many years intimacy and a perfect knowledge of the virtues of his mind, which inspired ideas superior to the common race of men, I was bound by the strongest ties of affection: a grief to which the glorious occasion in which he fell does not bring the consolation which perhaps it ought. His Lordship received a musket ball in his left breast about the middle of the action, and sent an Officer to me immediately with his last farewell, and soon after expired. I have also to lament the loss of those excellent Officers Captains Duff, of the Mars, and Cooke, of the Bellerophon: I have yet heard of none others. I fear the numbers that have fallen will be found very great when the returns come to me; but it having blown a gale of wind ever since the action, I have not yet had it in my power to collect any reports from the ships. The Royal Sovereign having lost her masts, except the tottering foremast, I called the Euryalus to me while the action continued, which ship lying within hail, made my signals - a service Captain Blackwood performed with great attention; after the action I shifted my flag to her, that I might more easily communicate any orders to, and collect the ships, and towed the Royal Sovereign out to seaward. The whole fleet were now in a very perilous position, many dismasted, all shattered, in thirteen fathom water, off the shoals of Trafalgar; and when I made the signal to prepare to anchor few of the ships had an anchor to let go, their cables being shot; but the same good Providence which aided us through the day preserved us through the night by the wind shifting a few points and drifting the ships off the land, except four of the captured, dismasted ships, which are now at anchor off Trafalgar, and I hope will ride safe until those gales are ever. Having thus, detailed the proceedings of the fleet on this occasion, I beg to congratulate their Lordships on a victory which I hope will add a ray to the glory of his Majesty’s crown, and be attended with public benefit to our country. I am, &c., (Signed,) C.
COLLINGWOOD. To: William Marsden, Esq. (Signed,) C. COLLINGWOOD. Euryalus, off Cadiz, Oct. 24, 1805. SIR, - In my letter of the 22nd I detailed to you for the information of my Lords’ Commissioners of the Admiralty, the proceedings of his Majesty’s Squadron on the day of the action and that preceding it, since which I have had a continued series of misfortunes, but they are of a kind that human prudence could not possibly provide against or my skill prevent. On the 22nd, in the morning, a strong Southerly wind blew, with squally weather, which, however did not prevent the activity of the Officers and Seamen of such ships as were manageable from getting hold of many of the prizes (thirteen or fourteen), and towing them off to the Westward, when I ordered them to rendezvous round the Royal Sovereign, in tow by the Neptune; but on the 23rd the gale increased and the sea ran so high that many of them broke the tow rope, and drifted far to leeward before they were got hold of again; and some of them taking advantage in the dark and boisterous night, got before the wind, and have perhaps drifted upon the shore and sunk on the afternoon of that day; the remnant of the Combined Fleet, ten sail of ships who had not been much engaged, stood up to leeward of my shattered and straggled charge, as if meaning to attack them, which obliged me to collect a force out of the least injured ships and turn to leeward for their defence; all this retarded the progress of the hulks, and the bad weather continuing determined me to destroy all the leewardmost that could be cleared of the men, considering that keeping possession of the ships was a matter of little conse18 HER STORY quence compared with the chance of their falling again into the hands of the enemy; but even this was an arduous task in the high sea which was running. I hope, however, it was accomplished to a considerable extent; I entrusted it to skillful Officers, who would spare no pains to execute what was possible. The captain of the Prince and Neptune cleared the Trinidad and sunk her. Captains Hope, Baystun and Malsobes, who joined the Fleet this moment from Gibraltar, had the charge of destroying four others - The Redoubtable sank astern of the Swiftsure while in tow. The Santa, I have no doubt, is sunk, as her side was almost entirely beat in; and such is the shattered condition of the whole of them, that unless the weather moderates, I doubt whether I shall be able to carry a ship of them into port. I hope their Lordships will approve of what I (having only in consideration the destruction of the enemy’s fleet) have thought a measure of absolute necessity. I have taken Admiral Villeneuve into this ship; Vice Admiral Don Aliva is dead. Whenever the temper of the weather will permit and I can spare a frigate (for there were only four in the action with the fleet, Euryalus, Sirius, Phoebe, and Naiad; the Melpomene joined the 22nd and the Eurydice and Scout the 23rd), I shall collect the other Flag Officers and send them to England with their flags (if they do not all go to the bottom) to be laid at his Majesty’s feet. There were four thousand troops embarked under the command of General Contamin, who was taken with Admiral Villeneuve in the Bucentaure. I am, (Signed,) C. COLLINGWOOD.