Quotes About Battle

It would take the fleets all day just to catch sight of each other, let alone come to quarters

The first shots had been fired from the enemy line. The Battle of Trafalgar had begun.

Each gun fired in turn, straight into the unprotected stern of the Santa Ana,

Shortly before 7 p.m., Captain Jean Lucas of the Redoutable caught his first glimpse of Nelson's fleet to starboard:

Villeneuve didn't hesitate. Gravina was right. The whole fleet must form line of battle at once,

Napoleon had been in the thick of it, leading from the front.

Turning hard aport, the Royal Sovereign quickly drew alongside the Santa Ana,

It was a race to see which ship could fire

With almost fifty guns already loaded and still working on the starboard side, the Spanish won.

The crossfire was so heavy that French and Spanish cannon balls smacked into each other

Captain Harvey held his fire until the Fougueux's yardarms were almost touching the Téméraire's

At his command, three decks of guns fired simultaneously into the Fougueux,

Almost a mile to the north, the Victory was still short of the enemy line,

The enemy ships in her path included the Santissima Trinidad, the Redoutable and the Bucentaure,

Villeneuve's flagship.

To Midshipman Badcock, watching from two ships behind the Victory, the scene was one he would never forget.

the teeth marks he left in it on the day of Trafalgar are visible still.

Badcock's ship had already tried to push ahead of the Victory and lead the dash towards the enemy line,

The French waited a couple of minutes and fired again. That shot fell alongside.

Then seven or eight French and Spanish ships opened up together

all firing at the Victory in unison. Their purpose was to dismast the British flagship

A raking shot, which entered in the lower deck, had glanced along the beams and through the thickest of the people,

French officer declared that this shot alone had killed or disabled nearly forty men.

the French and Spanish fleets were moving hurriedly to form a line of battle in the dark.