Battle of Trafalgar

No, Nick, not at all.

At the Battle of Trafalgar, for example, Nelson's death of one and a half hours into the battle was completely irrelevant to its outcome.

And the reason for that was because he confided in all of his...

in all of his captains, they knew exactly what to do in any eventuality, and therefore the battle was almost won before it started.

The subtle strategy of the Emperor Napoleon with the counterstrokes of Nelson and the British Admiralty have been often described, but the history of those months, told day by day in the logbook of the Canopus, has a freshness of detail which gives reality to such stock phrases as contrary winds or strange sails, and makes one recognise that it was the men at sea who really did the work.

The escape of Villeneuve's fleet from Toulon begins the series of events in 1805 which led up to the Battle of Trafalgar.

Napoleon's original plan has since become well known.

Villeneuve was to be joined in the West Indies by the combined fleets under Ganton from Brest and Missiesi from Rochefort.

The severity of tone of the Naval Chronicle towards those who were fighting the country's battles finds its parallel in the French newspapers of the date.

Villeneuve was deeply stung by a sneering remark in the Moniteur upon what the conduct of the French fleet might be if commanded by a man of ability, so much so as to induce him to disregard Napoleon's wishes that he should go to Toulon, collecting forces on the way, and to lead him to come to close quarters with our fleet as soon as a convenient opportunity offered.

Of that opportunity, and the battle of Trafalgar to which it led, we will speak in the following chapter.

End of Chapter 9 Read by Bryn Roberts Kingswinford March 2023 Chapter 10 of Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers by Edith Hubback and John Hubback This LibriVox recording is in the public domain A Melancholy Situation The month of September was spent in blockading Cadiz.

Just as you said that, my mind drifted off, speaking of the 1700s, early 1800s, to Nelson and his huge big cask of brandy.

They saved his body after the Battle of Trafalgar.

They didn't throw him overboard to bring him back and bury him in St. Paul's Cathedral, as they should have done.

Anyways, that's some form of...

Question number four.

October 21st, 1805, the British Royal Navy defeated the combined two enemy fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar.

One was the French fleet, but who was the other one? Was it Danish, Dutch, or Spanish? Spanish, was it? Spanish is the correct answer.

And number five, what is the specific name of the first full moon that occurs after the harvest moon, traditionally falling in October? Anyone know? Hunter's moon.

Okay.

So today's October 21st, and it was on this day in 1805 that the Battle of Trafalgar was fought.

It was one of the most decisive Navy battles in history, and Horatio Nelson led the British fleet to victory, but he died in battle on this day.

It was also on this day in 1833 that Alfred Nobel was born, so of course we know him for the Nobel Prize, but I don't know if everybody remembers that he invented dynamite.

It's widely celebrated for observances like Back to the Future Day, National Apple Day, National Reptile Awareness Day.

On this day in history, in 1805, a British fleet under Vice Admiral Rachel Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar.

Nelson was killed during the battle.

1879, Thomas Edison tests and perfects his first long-lasting functional electric incandescent light bulb in Menlo Park, New Jersey.