27 - Build-up to Battle, September–October 1805

Summary

Nelson had just 25 days’ leave before he returned to Spithead to hoist his flag once more in the Victory on 14 September 1805. Although it was known by then in London that Napoleon had abandoned – or at any rate postponed – his invasion, the large Combined Fleet still represented a significant threat, and the government were determined to deal with it. Every effort was made to mobilise as many battleships as possible and to concentrate them off Cadiz, where Villeneuve was known to have taken refuge. Command of this special force was given, without question and by common consent, to Nelson.

He accepted his destiny with resignation and with a new-found humility. He told his friend, Captain Richard Keats:

I am now set up for a conjurer and God knows they will very soon find out I am far from being one, I was asked my opinion against my inclination, for if I make one wrong guess the charm will be broken.

He threw himself into the preparations with his usual blend of thoroughness and enthusiasm, meeting with senior politicians and minor officials alike to drive forward the preparations. Then, having galvanised Whitehall, the Admiralty, the Navy Board, and even Portsmouth Dockyard, within the space of a fortnight, he sailed for Cadiz to work the same magic on his subordinates in the hastily assembled fleet. No more than a third of the captains had served with him before, and yet he quickly managed to mould them into another ‘Band of Brothers’, exciting and inspiring them with his singular but simple battleplan, which he dubbed ‘The Nelson Touch’. Captain George Duff of HMS Mars, who had never met him before, told his wife on 10 October: ‘He is so good and pleasant a man that we all wish to do what he likes, without any kind of orders.’ Eleven days later, Duff joined his admiral at the head of the British casualty list, when he and his comrades attacked the Combined Fleet, off Cape Trafalgar. I a ferocious action, lasting about four and half hours, the British succeeded in capturing or destroying 18 of the Franco-Spanish battleships. It was one of the most decisive naval victories ever won by the Royal Navy.