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The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
The Trafalgar campaign was a long and complicated series of fleet manoeuvres carried out by the combined French and Spanish fleets; and the opposing moves of the Royal Navy during much of 1805. These were the culmination of French plans to force a passage through the English Channel , and so achieve a successful invasion of the United Kingdom .
The Battle of Trafalgar by J. M. W. Turner shows the last three letters of the signal flying from the Victory. "England expects that every man will do his duty" was a signal sent by Vice-Admiral of the Royal Navy Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, from his flagship HMS Victory as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October 1805.
The Battle of Trafalgar saw the Royal Navy defeat a joint Franco-Spanish fleet thus preventing it from taking control of the English Channel, which would have enabled the French dictator to launch ...
The Trafalgar Companion: A Guide to History's Most Famous Sea Battle and the Life of Admiral Lord Nelson. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 1-84513-018-9. "The Battle of Trafalgar". Broadside. 2012. Archived from the original on 27 April 2007. Clash of Steel (2007). "Order of Battle: The British Fleet". Archived from the original on 27 October 2007.
At the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October, the ship went into action immediately astern of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory. During the battle Temeraire came to the rescue of the beleaguered Victory, and fought and captured two French ships, winning public renown in Britain.
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805: beginning of the action by Thomas Buttersworth (oil on canvas). The ship in the right foreground is the Bucentaure in starboard-bow view, with her mizzen mast and main topgallant mast shot away. In port-bow view and passing astern of her is Neptune, delivering raking fire.
The combined fleet sailed from Cadiz in October 1805. The Battle of Trafalgar immediately followed. Villeneuve, the French admiral, drew up his fleet in the form of a crescent. The British fleet bore down in two separate lines, the one led by Nelson in HMS Victory, and the other by Collingwood in HMS Royal Sovereign.