On this day, the British Royal Navy inflicted a resounding defeat on a combined fleet of the French and Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. When Napoleon’s fleet sailed from the port of Cadiz with the aim of taking control of the English Channel as part of his plan to invade Britain, it encountered a recently assembled British fleet under the command of Lord Nelson. The British were outnumbered, but Nelson’s strategy to sail his fleet directly at the allied fleet’s flank in two columns, hoping to break it into pieces, proved to be successful. With temporary superiority in the ensuing battle, 18 allied ships were captured or destroyed, while the British lost none. Nelson himself was shot by a French musketeer during the battle, and died shortly before it ended, but the victory confirmed British naval supremacy, and was achieved in part through Nelson’s departure from prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy.
