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October 21 of this year marks the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, when the British Navy, under Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, engaged the combined navies of Spain and France.
Nearly 5000 men, including Nelson, died in the of the largest naval engagements among sailing ships.
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0510/feature3/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar
Nearly 5000 men, including Nelson, died in the of the largest naval engagements among sailing ships.
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0510/feature3/index.html
As Lt. Paul Nicolas stood on the forward edge of the poop deck of H.M.S. Belleisle, a 74-gun ship of the line, the only thing he could think of was lying down. It wasn't that he was tired. But he was only 16 and new to the ship. Now he was about to get his first taste of battle. It was shortly after midday on October 21, 1805, near Cádiz in southern Spain. As Belleisle plowed slowly toward the enemy, Nicolas could see a crescent-shaped line of 33 French and Spanish ships stretching for miles along the coast from Cape Roche in the north to Cape Trafalgar in the south.
William Hargood, Belleisle's captain, ordered the crew to lie down as the first incoming shots tore through the rigging. A young recruit near Nicolas was decapitated by a cannonball. Blood and body parts spattered the deck. Nicolas would have given his eyeteeth to lie down, but he was second in charge of a detachment of marines, and as an officer he had to stay on his feet. So he moved next to John Owen, a junior lieutenant, who was slightly older. Years later, Nicolas would write that Owen's spirit "cheered me on to act the part it became me."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar