SHIPS AND FIRST LIEUTENANTS. Achille. OFFICERS KILLED. OFFICERS WOUNDED. William Westcott Mids. Francis John Mugg. Lieut. Parkins Prynn. Dreadnought. Lieut. Josias Bray. Capt. Palmes Westropp, R.M. Many of the British ships suffered severe material damage. The Belleisle lost all three masts and bowsprit; the Royal Sovereign lost main and mizen; the Tonnant lost all three topmasts; and the Victory, Téméraire, Leviathan, Conqueror, Africa, Orion, Minotaur, Mars, Bellerophon, Colossus, Dreadnought, and Swiftsure had a 1805.] COLLINGWOOD ASSUMES COMMAND. 2 161 larger or smaller number of important spars shot away or irretrievably injured. It has been seen that thirty-three allied ships of the line went into action. When the battle ceased, seventeen of these had been taken, and one had caught fire and blown up.1 Of the remainder, four ships, under Dumanoir, having hauled to the southward, had got away for the time, though they never again entered a French port; and eleven, under Gravina, had run to the north-east. Some of the latter were very little the worse, having scarcely been in action; but others, more or less dismasted, were in tow of the frigates. All Gravina's division anchored, nevertheless, in the course of the night about a mile and a half from Rota, the state of the wind 3 preventing them from entering Cadiz. When, at 6 P.M., Vice-Admiral Collingwood, who had succeeded to the command-in-chief, shifted his flag from the much-damaged Royal Sovereign to the Euryalus, which subsequently took the Royal Sovereign in tow and stood off shore, the situation was as follows. Of the seventeen prizes, eight were entirely and nine were partially dismasted; and of the twenty-seven British ships of the line, half were, comparatively speaking, unseaworthy for the moment. The fleet was in about thirteen fathoms of water; the wind blew with moderate but increasing strength from W.S.W., or dead on shore; there was a nasty swell which greatly distressed the crippled vessels; and, only six or seven miles to leeward, lay the shoals of Trafalgar. Collingwood had ignored Nelson's dying wish that the fleet should be anchored. At 9 P.M., however, he ordered his ships to prepare to anchor; but, the wind veering towards midnight to S.S.W., and freshening, he signalled to them to wear with their heads to the westward. With the exception of four vessels which had previously anchored off Cape Trafalgar, the whole command obeyed this order and drifted seaward. It has been urged that many of the vessels which did not anchor were in no condition to do so, their anchors having been lost or their cables having been cut to pieces; but it is certain that some could have held the ground, and it is more than probable that, had they anchored, their fate would have been better than that which actually overtook them; seeing that all those vessels which did anchor fared well. 1 See table on p. 131. 2 Formidable, Duguay Trouin, Mont Blanc, and Scipion. All of these were taken on Nov. 3rd by Sir R. J. Strachan. 3 In shore it blew from S.S.E.; in the offing, from W.S.W. 4 Defence, San Ildefonso, Bahama, and French Swiftsure. VOL. V. M On the 22nd, the Neptune, instead of the Euryalus, took the Royal Sovereign in tow, and Collingwood issued a general order expressing his thanks to the fleet, and another, directing a day to be set apart for the thanksgiving to God for the victory. The wind, blowing fresh from the south, was squally; but most of the prizes were then under way under sail or were being steadily towed to the westward, to make the appointed rendezvous near the Royal Sovereign. At about 5 P.M., however, the Redoutable, then in tow of the British Swiftsure, signalled that she was in distress. As many as possible of her people were taken off; but, at 10.30 P.M., when she was half under water, the Swiftsure had to cut her loose and abandon her for the night. At about 12 P.M., the wind, then blowing with the force of a gale, shifted to N.W. Early on the following morning, more of the Redoutable's people were picked up; but many, together with eighteen British seamen, unhappily perished when the ship sank. In consequence of the same gale, the Fougueux drove ashore near Torre Bermeja, and became a total wreck, with the loss of all on board save about twenty-five persons; and the Algésiras1 was retaken by her crew, who had been humanely allowed on deck when the ship appeared to be in danger, and was carried into Cadiz. The Bucentaure,2 moreover, was wrecked on the Puercos, after she had been recaptured by her ship's company. 3 The N.W. wind which blew on the morning of the 23rd, induced Commodore de Cosmao-Kerjulien, the senior French officer in Cadiz, to put to sea with the object of picking up some of the unmanageable prizes. He weighed with his own ship, the Pluton, 74, and with the Indomptable, 80, Neptune, 84, Rayo, 100, and San Francisco de Asis, 74, and with the five frigates and two brigs which had been present at the battle. Soon after he had made an offing, the wind veered to W.S.W. and blew harder than ever. At noon he found himself near the British ships, ten of which, casting off the vessels in tow, formed line and prepared to protect their prizes. With an unfavourable wind, M. Cosmao did 1 Lieut. Charles Bennett, in command. 2 Lieut. Richard Spear, in command. 3 Adm. Gravina, being mortally wounded, could not take command. Julien Marie, Baron de Cosmao-Kerjulien, was born in 1761. In 1805, in command of the Pluton, he captured the Diamond Rock, and rendered the services here narrated. He was, in consequence, promoted to be a rear-admiral and made a grandee of Spain. He quitted the navy at the restoration in 1815, and died in 1825. |