Admiral Collingwood
Page 32
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 columns 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, a-stern 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 events to grant His Majesty’s arms a complete and glorious victory. About three o’clock 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 to windward of the British line, were engaged, and the sternmost of them taken; the others went off, leaving to His Majesty’s squadron nineteen Ships of the line, (of which two are first-rates, the Santissima Trinidada and the Santa Anna,) with three Flag Officers; viz. Admiral Villeneuve, the Commander in Chief; Don Ignatio Maria d’Alava, Vice-Admiral; and the Spanish Rear-Admiral, Don Balthazar Hidalgo Cisneros.
After such a victory it may appear unnecessary to enter into encomiums 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 Frenchmen 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 Témeraire 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 the end the Combined ensigns were torn from the poop, and the British hoisted in their places, forming a glorious group.
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 his 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 even 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, and when their Lordships consider that I have 23 infirm ships, 18 of them hulks, without a stick standing, and scarce a boat in the fleet, I am sure that they will have due consideration for the slowness with which all that kind of duty must necessarily be done, but as I feel the great importance of those reports to the Service, and to individuals, they may trust that I shall leave nothing undone to obtain them speedily.
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 my orders to, and collect the Ships, and towed the Royal Sovereign out to seaward. The whole fleet were now in a very perilous situation; many dismasted; all shattered; in thirteen fathoms 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 such a day preserved us in the night, by the wind shifting a few points, and drifting the Ships off the land, except for four of the captured dismasted Ships, which are now at anchor off Trafalgar, and I hope will ride safe until those gales are over.
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,
C. COLLINGWOOD
Euryalus,
October 24th, 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, where I ordered them to rendezvous round the Royal Sovereign, now 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 of 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 form 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 of the Ships was a matter of little [consequence] importance 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 has been accomplished to a considerable extent. I entrusted it to skilful Officers, who would spare no pains to execute what was possible. The Captains of the Prince and Neptune cleared the Trinidad and sunk her. Captains Hope, Bayntun, and Malcolm, who joined the Fleet this moment from Gibraltar, had the charge of destroying four others. The Redoutable sunk astern of the Swiftsure while in tow. The Santa Anna, 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 – if I had anchored such as had good cables, they (having all their crews on board) would certainly have cut them, and run for Port in the stormy weather; and there were 10 sail, and five frigates, ready to come to their assistance in fair weather, so that 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 am under the most serious apprehensions for several of the ships of my squadron – the Bellisle is the only one totally dismasted, but the Victory, Royal Soverei
gn, Téméraire, and Tonnant are in a very decrepid state.
I have taken Admiral Villeneuve into this Ship. Vice-Admiral Don Alava 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.
I cannot discover what the destination of the Enemy was, but if the Bucentaure is above water when the gale abates, I will endeavour to do it. There were four thousand Troops embarked, under the command of General Contamin, who was taken with Admiral Villeneuve in the Bucentaure.
I am, Sir, &c
C. COLLINGWOOD
APPENDIX 2
Collingwood’s commissions
1761–1810
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