Battle of Trafalgar ( 1805 ) Animation

A short animation of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Naval battle between a British fleet and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies.

British victory under command of Admiral Nelson.
#admiralnelson #trafalgar

[bsmartr]

"If you had One shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, in one moment, would you capture it?" - Admiral Nelson

[domdom-wk]

High risk high reward tactic, Nelson must have trusted in his fleet

[noahebert]

Doesn't seem very British to win a battle by cutting in line

[DoubleThinkTwice]

Thank you. This is short and to the point. After watching a couple of dramatized edutainment "documentaries" without being any wiser about how the battle actually went down, I finally found this little gem.

[davewilson]

The double formation used by Nelson was considered to be very risky as approaching ships would be facing intense broadsides without a chancre of replying, apart from the bow chasers. However Nelson knew that the French still used the slow match system when firing their guns, which was less efficient than the method used by the Royal Navy gunner's. Combined with the position of the French/ Spanish fleet, which had the lee shore of Cape Trafalgar too close for comfort and the ocean swells causing the ships to move erratically, making aiming at best, luck rather than accurate. Also they tended to want to dismast their opponent by aiming high, whereas the faster, more accurate firing from the British, aiming at the hulls sometimes managed to use ricochets off the surface and the practice of a broadside from a 3 decker into the stern of an enemy resulted in a large loss of life, as the final tally of the different casualty lists on both sides shows.

[in-depthhistory]

"The British army should be a projectile to be fired by the British navy." - Sir Edward Grey

[DLYChicago]

Missing from this animation is the wind direction. In the Age of Sail, this was a key factor in naval tactics. The French typically took the position downwind (leeward) of the enemy to give themselves an option to break off battle. The British typically took the position upwind (weather gage) of the enemy to give themselves the choice to engage or not. At Trafalgar the British and French took their typical positions. The wind was NNW (approx. 337º) so it was coming directly astern the British fleet. This was an ideal wind for the British to close quickly on the French and avoid French fire.

[jar-jarnotbinks]

In french we have a saying : "Un coup de Trafalgar", means a play that aim to get the initiative over your opponent with an unexpected blow. It's to say how this particular event has been burned in French culture.

[NYCZ]

These fleets had over 2, 000 guns in an era where armies having even a 100 guns was considered overwhelmingly superior firepower

[ftr]

Just a quick note to correct a little mistake spotted in the video: Spanish admiral Federico Gravina commanded the ship "Príncipe de Asturias". The "Santa Ana" was commanded by Ignacio de Álava.

[ShifTactical]

Man if only a battle like this can be recreated in games. Total war can't even reach such magnitude

[lesjames]

Ive been onboard HMS Victory and have a souvenir piece of oak from her, 76 men from my home town fought in the battle of Trafalgar. The first Trafalgar square was built in Sunderland several years before the London Trafalgar square, it was built as alms houses for retired sailors and their families.

[RunnerBeanzDad]

Many thanks. My great-great-grandfather, then about 15 years old, was on HMS Defiance. I have Hilary Rubinstein's biography of Captain Durham which includes an account of Defiance's actions on that day. From that I can pick out which blue ship in your animation represents my ancestor. It is very sobering to consider what he went through. Again, many thanks to you.

[swordmonkey]

Subbed. Great job.

This battle and Jutland are the two examples I like to give about how "Crossing the T" isn't instant win. Nelson decided to make the Franco-Spanish capital T into a lower case t by sailing through it. Nelson was a total unit when it came to ignoring the enemy's courage while piling on his own. Even in death, he still routed the enemy.

The Germans at Jutland (not having to worry about the wind) just turned out of the trap and used support ships and smoke to disengage.

[cammro]

from what i've gathered, villeneuve was being soft blockaded in Cadiz by nelson, and instead of waiting for a more opportune time such as the royal navies supplies running low, since you can't really sustain a blockade, he took the threat of being replaced at napoleon's order a little too personally and went out and fought at cape trafalgar, resulting in this. his ship was the first to surrender after nelson went for it and he was imprisoned in england.
sea strategies were much simpler than land strategies because of wind and weather limiting what you can do, the line of battle used makes a lot of sense for it's simplicity, if you out number them you can bend the line around to get multiple ships firing on targets, but it's also extremely wasteful when the line gets cut like this, since a number of the ships need to turn about.

[dougbaker]

Very interesting, I have been aboard the Victory it’s in Portsmouth England

[Divertedflight]

I remember in my extreme youth watching some kidadult program; so this kid had a bet on the horses while he was still in school history class . Subject of the moment the Battle of Trafalgar. Following the race on a quiet radio under his desk lid, the boy suddenly leapt up; "We won!! We Won!!!"
Teacher: "What?!"
Boy: "By two lengths Sir!!!"
Teacher: "Well, I'm glad someone's listening!"

[thewelcomer]

Man really just secured a century of British naval dominance and dipped

[robertsansone]

The British gun crews achieved twice the rate of fire than their enemies did. They were the best. "England expects every man to do his duty"! Nelson. Thanks for the video. I enjoyed it.

[brutusbarnabus]

The French and Spanish fleets used a slow burning fuse to fire their guns. Their average rate of fire was 3 to 5 minutes per volley. The British ships used a flintlock firing mechanism to fire their guns. Average rate of fire was 90 sec per volley. Even though the combined Franco-Spanish fleet had an extra six ships they could not make up for the rate of fire disparity. Combined with the inexperience of the combined fleet the battle was over before it even started.