accident. It came from the _Bellerophon_. To the surprise of the whole
fleet, as they were nearing the enemy a spurt of smoke flew out from
the side of the _Bellerophon_ followed by the boom of a single gun. It
was, according to the _Spartiate's_ log--the _Bellerophon_ herself does
not record it--just as Nelson's great message was going up. On board
every other ship they were holding their hands: the officers of the
batteries had orders to wait until their ship was in the act of passing
through the enemy. A boy midshipman of the _Bellerophon_ tripped, or
caught his foot, in the loose end of a gun-lock lanyard and let off one
of the ship's 32-pounders. His name is not on record, nor what they
did to him. The shot had the unfortunate effect of drawing the enemy's
attention specially to the _Bellerophon_, and as they got the ship's
range a little later they turned their guns on her and pounded at her
heavily, under the impression that the gun had been meant as a signal,
and that some officer of distinction was on board that particular ship.
Collingwood opened the battle on the British side and first of all
broke the enemy's line at Trafalgar, as all the world knows. All
the world knows also how he did it. The _Royal Sovereign's_ first
broadside, as she broke through immediately astern of the Spanish
flagship _Santa Ana_, struck down 400 men and dismounted fourteen guns.
'Il rompait todos,' it smashed down everything--as a Spanish officer on
board the _Santa Ana_ afterwards wrote. 'What sheep,'--asked in broken
English the Spanish officer who came on board Collingwood's flagship on
the surrender of the _Santa Ana_ to give up his sword on behalf of the
wounded Vice-Admiral Alava,--'What sheep is dis?' He was told. '_Royal
Sovereign!_' the Spaniard exclaimed, 'Madre de Dios! she should be
named de _Royal Devil_!'
The ships immediately facing Nelson as he advanced began their firing
a few minutes after the others, the _Victory_ and _Téméraire_ and the
leading ships of that column being farther off from the enemy. The
_Bucentaure_, an 80-gun ship, on board which Admiral Villeneuve was,
led off here.
Of the opening scene on the enemy's side at that point, we have a vivid
narrative from a French officer--Captain Lucas of the _Redoutable_, a
ship destined to fill a large part in the _Téméraire's_ story.[101]
'At half-past eleven,' says Captain Lucas,--giving the time, as it
would appear, according to his own watch, which was slow,--'the fleet
hoisted its colours, and those of the _Redoutable_ were done in an
imposing manner, the drums and fifes playing, and the soldiers[102]
presenting arms as the flag was hoisted. The enemy's column, which was
directed against our fleet, was now on the port side, and the flagship
_Bucentaure_ began firing. I ordered a number of the chief gunners
to mount to the forecastle and told them to notice how many of our
ships fired badly. They found that all their shots carried too low.
I then ordered them to aim at dismasting, and above all to aim well.
At a quarter to twelve the _Redoutable_ opened fire with a shot from
the first gun-division which cut through the foretopsail yard of the
_Victory_, causing it to lie over the foremast, whilst shouts of joy
resounded all over the ship.'
Lord Nelson held his fire. No notice was taken of the firing of the
French and Spaniards, except that, in response to the enemy's opening
shots, the whole British fleet simultaneously hoisted their colours.
Nelson showed a Vice-Admiral of the White's flag at the fore in the
_Victory_; Collingwood the flag of a Vice-Admiral of the Blue at the
fore in the _Royal Sovereign_; Lord Northesk, the third in command, a
Rear-Admiral of the White's flag at the mizen of the _Britannia_. All
the ships in both divisions displayed the White Ensign at the peak,
and, by Nelson's particular order, to ensure that there should be no
firing into friends in the smoke and confusion of battle, and in case
colours got shot away, every ship flew at least two other British flags
besides their ensigns: Jacks or Union flags, one on the foretopmast
stay and one on the main-topmast stay. Some ships showed more; the
_Victory_, for instance, flew five British flags; the _Orion_ flew
(including her ensign) four.
A young officer of the _Neptune_, the ship next astern to the
_Téméraire_, Midshipman Badcock, thus describes what things were
like near him about this time. 'Lord Nelson's van was strong:
three three-deckers--_Victory_, _Téméraire_, _Neptune_--and four
seventy-fours, their jib-booms nearly over the others' taffrails, the
bands playing "God Save the King," "Rule, Britannia," and "Britons
Strike Home"; the crews stationed on the forecastle of the different
ships, cheering the ship ahead of them when the enemy began to
fire, sent those feelings to our hearts that ensured victory.'[103]
'The _Téméraire_ at this moment,' Captain Harvey himself says, in a
letter to his wife after the battle, 'almost touched the stern of the
_Victory_, which station she had taken about a quarter of an hour
previous to the enemy having commenced their fire upon the _Victory_.'
The _Téméraire's_ log thus describes the opening of the battle:--
P.M. Variable light winds. Running down with lower topmast and
topgallant studding sails set, on the larboard side, within a ship's
length of the _Victory_, steering for the fourteenth ship of the
enemy's line from the van. Quarter past noon, cut away the studding
sails and hauled to the wind. At 18 minutes past noon the enemy began
to fire. At 25 minutes past noon the _Victory_ opened her fire.
Immediately put our helm a-port to steer clear of the _Victory_, and
opened our fire on the _Santisima Trinidad_ and two ships ahead of
her, when the action became general.
Nelson broke through immediately astern of the French _Bucentaure_,
the ship on board which he had himself made up his mind, from her
position, Villeneuve would most likely be found. For some unknown
reason the French admiral's flag was not flying that day. Nelson,
however, as they advanced, had kept the _Victory's_ bowsprit pointing
for the _Santisima Trinidad_. Something instinctively told him that
he should find the enemy's Commander-in-Chief on board one of the two
ships immediately astern of the big Spanish four-decker, probably in
the ship next astern. He was right. Villeneuve was on board that ship;
the next astern to the _Santisima Trinidad_, the _Bucentaure_.
As the _Victory_ steered through the enemy's line the _Téméraire_ put
her helm over to port and drew out from her leader's wake. She had
to find a passage through the enemy for herself. It was not easy.
Immediately ahead of her the French _Redoutable_, a seventy-four, the
ship following the _Bucentaure_, barred the way. The _Téméraire_ for
some little time drifted along slowly. She had received serious damage
aloft to sails and rigging during the previous half-hour as she and
the _Victory_ were nearing the enemy under fire, and the breeze was
dropping lighter every minute. She opened a brisk cannonade on the
_Redoutable_ and on the French _Neptune_, a large 80-gun ship that came
next astern of her.
The _Redoutable's_ fire shot away the head of the _Téméraire's_
mizen-topmast. She held on, however, standing to the south-east and
outside the enemy's line, until at length she bore up to avoid being
raked by the _Neptune_ and to go through the line. There was scarcely
any wind at all now, and the smoke hung heavily all round. Slowly the
_Téméraire_ forged her way ahead, groping her course forward in some
little uncertainty as to her own whereabouts. As she passed through
the line, she unavoidably gave a chance to the French _Neptune_, which
ship, getting her port broadside to bear on the _Téméraire's_ starboard
bow, attacked her fiercely. The _Neptune_ shot away the _Téméraire's_
main-topmast and foreyard, and crippled the foremast and bowsprit,
besides causing other damage which rendered the _Téméraire_ almost
unmanageable. In the dense smoke all round her officers hardly knew for
the moment where they had got to. 'We were engaged with the _Santisima
Trinidad_ and the other ships,' wrote Captain Harvey in his letter
home, 'when for a minute or two I ceased my fire, fearing I might, from
the thickness of the smoke, be firing into the _Victory_.'
Then for a brief space there was a rift in the smoke. It showed the
_Victory_ alongside a French two-decker (the _Redoutable_), and foul
of her. The two ships were seen not far off and were drifting down
directly on to the _Téméraire_. Every effort was made to move out of
the way and keep clear, but in her disabled state it was impossible
to get the _Téméraire_ under control. Within the past few minutes,
under the _Neptune's_ punishing fire, all three of the _Téméraire's_
topmasts had been shot away, her mizen yard had come down, the rudder
head had been smashed off. All that could be done was to cannonade the
_Redoutable_ as she gradually drifted nearer until the actual collision
came.
That took place just as Captain Lucas was about to make an attempt to
board the _Victory_. His musketry from the tops seemed to have almost
cleared the _Victory's_ upper decks of men, and, mad as was the idea
of so settling with a British first-rate, and Lord Nelson's flagship
to boot, the captain of the _Redoutable_ actually entertained it. A
sweeping _mitraille_ of grape from the 68-pounder carronade on the
_Victory's_ forecastle, fired into the thick of the French boarders
as they crowded on the gangways from below, did not daunt him, and
he still persevered after the first rush had been checked by the
impossibility of getting across the space between the bulwarks of the
two ships. That difficulty Captain Lucas saw his way to meet. 'I gave
the order,' he says, 'to cut the supports of the main yard and to cause
it to serve as a bridge. Midshipman Yon and four seamen sprang on board
by means of the anchor of the _Victory_, and we observed that there
was no one left in the batteries. At that moment, when our men were
hastening to follow, the ship _Téméraire_, which had noticed that the
_Victory_ fought no longer, and that she would be captured without
fail, came full sail on our starboard side, and we were subjected to
the full fire of her artillery.'
It proved for the _Redoutable_, in the language of the prize-ring,
a 'knock-out' blow. As the _Téméraire_ came into collision with the
_Redoutable_ she fired her entire broadside, double-shotted, full
into the French boarding-parties as they stood massed thickly and
packed along the _Redoutable's_ upper decks from end to end. It meant
instant annihilation. It was a massacre. The awful tornado of the
_Téméraire's_ fire swept the _Redoutable's_ crowded decks clear of men,
as a garden broom sweeps a path clear of autumn leaves. It struck down
everything. At one blow it hurled into eternity nearly a third of the
_Redoutable's_ whole crew. Midshipman Yon, we are told, disappeared,
and was never seen again. Lieutenant Dupotet, at the head of the
boarders, was struck down, mangled and dying. Captain Lucas himself
received an ugly flesh wound--his first after seeing service in nine
battles.
Speaking of the _Téméraire's_ onslaught Captain Lucas in his official
report says: 'It is impossible to describe the carnage produced by
the murderous broadside of this ship; more than 200 of our brave men
were killed or wounded; I was wounded also at the same time, but not
sufficiently to prevent me staying at my post.'
[Illustration: CAPTAIN LUCAS
(From the Portrait in Hennequin's _Biographie Maritime_)]
The gallant captain of the _Redoutable_ stayed at his post. He set his
teeth and refused to admit that his ship had received her _coup de
grâce_. In spite of his awful losses the gallant fellow still tried
to make a show of fight. 'I ordered the rest of the crew to place
themselves promptly in the batteries and fire at the _Téméraire_ the
guns that her fire had not dismounted. This order was carried out.'
At the same time the _Redoutable_ met the _Téméraire_, as she swung
alongside, with a hail of bullets from the tops that almost cleared the
upper deck of Captain Harvey's ship, while the topmen also flung down
hand grenades and fire-balls. The _Redoutable's_ topmen, indeed, flung
the fire-balls about with criminal recklessness.[104] They endangered
their own ship. Some of the fire-balls falling short rebounded back on
board the _Redoutable_ and set the French ship herself on fire. One
fell blazing on board the _Téméraire_ and caused a fire below that
nearly led to a catastrophe which threatened to involve _Téméraire_,
_Redoutable_, and _Victory_ alike in one common destruction. The pluck
and presence of mind of the _Téméraire's_ master-at-arms, Mr. John
Toohig, saved the after-magazine, and with it the ship. The fire-ball,
as it was, caused a serious explosion and loss of life on the main
deck. At the same time the _Téméraire_ was set ablaze elsewhere, on the
upper deck, by a fire that had been caused on board the _Redoutable_
by one of her own fire-balls falling short, and had spread across to
the _Téméraire_, and also to the _Victory_ on the other side, but the
flames in all three ships were fortunately got under before they had
time to take serious hold.
The _Téméraire's_ captain very soon had something else to think of
besides the _Redoutable_. Hardly had the _Redoutable_ been lashed
fast alongside than another enemy came on the scene, and one that
was apparently approaching with the fixed intention of attacking the
_Téméraire_ at close quarters. The French _Neptune_ was at the same
time remaining near by, barely a ship's length off, firing her hardest
into the _Téméraire_.
The newcomer was the French _Fougueux_, the ship that had fired the
first shot in the battle. She had already had a rough time of it
elsewhere, but she was still full of fight, and with nearly 700 men
on board, was likely to prove a dangerous foe to a ship situated as
was the _Téméraire_ at that moment. The _Fougueux_ had been _matelot
d'arrière_, or 'second astern' to the Spanish flagship _Santa Ana_,
just as the _Redoutable_ had been the _Bucentaure's_ second. In that
capacity she had experienced some hard knocks at Collingwood's hands,
and then, after a brisk exchange of fire with the British _Belleisle_,
as that ship followed Collingwood into the fight, she had had a sharp
set-to with the _Mars_. Through all this the _Fougueux_ had not come
unscathed, but she was still a very formidable opponent for the
_Téméraire_ to tackle.
The _Fougueux_ came on as though bent on rescuing the _Redoutable_. It
did not look an impossible task. Both the _Victory_ and the _Téméraire_
showed signs of having undergone a very severe mauling, and there was
the French _Neptune_ near by, apparently quite fresh and ready to
lend a hand, only waiting for an opportunity to join in the fray. The
_Téméraire_ particularly, looked in a bad way. Under the _Neptune's_
punishing fire, she had been reduced aloft to the appearance of a
wreck. Her topmasts had gone, her foreyard was gone, her foremast was
tottering, all her rigging was torn and tangled, her sails hung down in
rags. Her ensign, too, had been shot away, or at least was down owing
to the fall of the gaff; very few men were to be seen alive on her
upper deck; not a shot came from her guns on the broadside facing the
_Fougueux_.
Captain Baudoin, the captain of the _Fougueux_, seemed at first
uncertain whether he would lie off to leeward, and with the _Neptune's_
help rake and cannonade the _Téméraire_ into submission, or come to
close quarters at once and board. The second alternative seemed to
promise quicker results, and he adopted it. He made up his mind to
bring the matter to an issue on the spot before other British ships
could interfere, and carry the _Téméraire_ by a _coup de main_. The few
people he saw about on the _Téméraire's_ upper deck was one inducement
to try boarding her. He could not know, of course, that Captain Harvey
had ordered everybody who could possibly be spared to go below so as
to avoid unnecessary loss of life from the _Redoutable's_ musketry.
Another was that the _Téméraire's_ attention seemed to be wholly
devoted to the _Redoutable_. Captain Baudoin put the _Fougueux's_
head directly for the _Téméraire_, and as they closed, the French
ship's shrouds quickly became black with men, cutlass in hand, while
more swarmed on the forecastle and gangways cheering and shouting 'À
l'abordage! à l'abordage!' So the _Fougueux_ neared the _Téméraire_.
For her part, as it befell, the _Téméraire_ had for some time foreseen
what was coming. She was by no means so incapable of meeting a new
antagonist as she looked.
The _Téméraire_, as it happened, had not yet fired a single shot
from her guns on the starboard broadside. She had her triple tier of
32-pounders and long 18's ranged there all ready, all double-shotted
and clear for action. To man these guns was quick work. Without
checking the fire that the _Téméraire_ was keeping up into the
_Redoutable_ and the _Neptune_, Lieutenant Kennedy, the first
lieutenant, rapidly called away sufficient hands from the guns on the
port side to man all the starboard batteries. Then the gallant officer
and his men waited--the captain of each gun standing ready with arm
raised and his firing lanyard out-stretched stiff as wire--all eagerly
watching the coming on of the _Fougueux_. Not a sign that the guns were
manned came from the _Téméraire's_ ports, as nearer and nearer the
French seventy-four swept down on her. Now she was 200 yards off--now
150--now 100--now 80 yards! Confidently came the _Fougueux_ on as to
certain conquest, amid wild tempestuous shoutings of 'A l'abordage!'
'Vive l'Empereur! Vive l'Empereur!' The supreme moment came.
'_Téméraires_--stand by--fire!'
Holding back until the yard-arms of the two ships all but touched,
with a deafening thunder-burst that for the instant overpowered all
other sounds of battle, the _Téméraire's_ whole starboard broadside
went off at once, in one salvo, like one gigantic gun. A terrific crash
re-echoed back, with yells and shrieks. There was no more shouting
from the _Fougueux_. As the smoke drifted off, the _Téméraire's_ men
looked and saw the enemy's rigging and forecastle and decks swept clean
and bare. The next minute, with her whole side practically beaten
in, crushed in like an eggshell trampled under foot, the hapless
seventy-four ran, blundering blindly, in hopeless confusion, right into
the _Téméraire_.[105]
Like the _Redoutable_ she was promptly lashed fast, and then--'Boarders
away!' was the call. A master's mate, a little middy, twenty seamen,
six marines, followed close behind Lieutenant Kennedy as he clambered
into the _Fougueux's_ main rigging, and thence down on to the
_Fougueux's_ quarter-deck. One of the seamen with the boarding-party
had a Union Jack rolled round his neck. 'It'll come handy perhaps,'
said the brave fellow as he followed his messmates over the side. There
was a sharp tussle on the quarter-deck of the _Fougueux_, where Captain
Baudoin, struck down by the _Téméraire's_ broadside, lay mortally
wounded. Second-Captain Bazin hastily rallied seventy or eighty men,
called up from below to meet the boarders, but the impetuous onset of
the nine-and-twenty _Téméraires_ carried everything before it despite
the odds. The _Fougueux's_ second captain was cut down. A lieutenant
who took his place was shot dead with a pistol bullet through the
heart. The Frenchmen then gave way and broke and were driven off the
quarter-deck pell-mell. Slashing and stabbing their way, without a
single fresh man from the ship, in less than twelve minutes Lieutenant
Kennedy's party were masters of the _Fougueux_. They hustled the
surrendered Frenchmen down into the hold, clapped the hatches on them,
and then the Union Jack came in 'handy' to hoist over the tricolour on
the _Fougueux_' ensign staff.
So the _Redoutable's_ would-be rescuer was added to the row of
four ships, all fast to one another side by side, the _Victory_,
_Redoutable_, _Téméraire_, and _Fougueux_.
Relieved from the hostile presence of the _Fougueux_, the _Téméraire_
turned her attention to finishing off the _Redoutable_, now plainly
at her last gasp, though still unsubdued. Her guns were silenced,
but musket shots still came from the tops. A few minutes later the
_Victory_ broke herself clear and steered away from the group. She
boomed herself off, leaving Captain Harvey to receive in due course the
submission of the _Redoutable_.
But even now Captain Lucas would not give up. 'The _Téméraire_, to
quote Captain Lucas's own words once more, 'hailed us to give ourselves
up and not prolong a useless resistance. I ordered some soldiers near
me to answer this summons by firing, which was done with alacrity.'
The end, though, was at last really at hand. Scarcely had the British
flagship broken away than the _Redoutable's_ main and mizen masts came
down. The main-mast crashed over the _Téméraire's_ poop, and in its
fall formed a bridge from ship to ship, across which a party of the
_Téméraire's_ officers and men, headed by the second lieutenant, John
Wallace, promptly clambered. With more than 500 of his original crew of
600 odd _hors de combat_, dead or wounded, there was no opposition
possible, and Captain Lucas had to yield up his sword.
[Illustration: _Victory._ _Redoutable._ _Téméraire._ _Fougueux._
BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. October 21, 1805--2.15 P.M.
After J.C. Schetky.]
No captain, perhaps, ever fought his ship better against overwhelming
odds than Captain Lucas fought the _Redoutable_ at Trafalgar. Napoleon
had him specially exchanged as soon as possible, and sent for him to
St. Cloud where, in the presence of the assembled _État Major_, he
decorated him with his own hand with the Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honour.[106] 'Had my other captains,' said the Emperor, 'behaved as you
did, the event of the battle would have been very different.' There is
an ironclad _Redoutable_ in the French navy to-day which bears the name
in remembrance of the gallant two-decker lost with honour at Trafalgar.
The _Téméraire_, however, had still one of her first foes left. The
French _Neptune_ was still dangerously near. She was lying where she
had been from the first, pounding away steadily into the _Téméraire_
from a short distance off, 'willing to wound but still afraid to
strike.' It says little for the courage of the French captain that he
had not ventured to force home an attack at close quarters, and less
still for the gunnery of his men that it had not before this reduced
the _Téméraire_ to a sinking state. Not far off, also, there was, as
the _Téméraire's_ log notes, 'a Spanish two-decked ship ... on the
larboard bow or nearly ahead, who had raked us during great part of
the action.' On seeing the _Victory_ move off, the French _Neptune_
apparently took heart of grace. She now made as if she really meant
at last to close with the _Téméraire_. It was not very brave of the
_Neptune_, seeing how the _Téméraire_ was situated, with five-sixths
of her guns blocked in by the two prizes alongside. But all the same
the _Téméraire_ did her best to give the _Neptune_ a warm reception.
By clearing away the wreckage from aloft that overlay most of the
_Téméraire's_ upper-deck guns, Captain Harvey was able to get some
of these into action and keep the _Neptune_ off. Then a few minutes
later assistance arrived. The approach of the _Leviathan_, a British
seventy-four, once more daunted the _Neptune_, and she sheered off and
withdrew altogether from the scene.
After that came a well-earned breathing space for the _Téméraire_ and
her gallant crew, a brief half-hour's pause that Captain Harvey and his
men made use of in putting prize-crews in charge of the _Redoutable_
and _Fougueux_, and doing what they could towards repairing their
own damages and clearing away their wrecked top-hamper. The _Sirius_
frigate during this spell, in response to a signal from Captain
Harvey, took the _Téméraire_ and her prizes in tow.
A note in the _Téméraire's_ log shows how intermixed some of the
British ships had now got. 'The _Royal Sovereign_,' it says, 'was a
short distance to leeward, and the _Colossus_, dismasted, with one of
the enemy's two-deckers on board of her, who had struck, and appeared
to be Spanish.'