Admiral at War: Nelson and HMS Victory

You are on board HMS Victory, the flagship of the British Navy, commanded by Admiral Lord Nelson. It is 1805 and Britain is engaged in a terrible war with France. The French Emperor, Napoleon, is threatening to invade Britain and seems unstoppable. The British ships are sailing towards the French to fight in what will become a legendary engagement: the Battle of Trafalgar.

More experienced sailors were called “able seamen.” As an able seaman, when battle approached you would help prepare the ship by clearing the lower decks so that the cannon could “run out” - rolled up to the gun ports.

The warning beat of the drums told the crew that battle was beginning, and everyone would feel a flicker of fear. Ships could sink and burn, or be boarded and captured by enemies armed with pistols, pikes, and cutlasses.

As a member of the cannon crew you help load gunpowder, wadding, and a cannon ball into the cannon. The Victory had 104 cannon at the Battle of Trafalgar, capable of sending 1.25 tons of metal flying at Napoleon’s navy.

As the drums sound, Admiral Nelson is in his spacious living quarters, known as the Great Cabin. He is surrounded by his commanders and announces a new plan. He tells them: “we must attack in two columns, surround them, and destroy them.” This was a new way of fighting and it required a lot of planning.

Planning happened around this table, where everyone listened carefully to what Nelson had to say. The Admiral had won many battles before Trafalgar and the whole fleet respected his bravery. He was a great motivator and coach of his men. 

Ships like the Victory were dependent on the wind to take them into battle. They moved fairly slowly and it took a great deal of planning and skill to get the fleet into position, ready to fire on the enemy.

The Admiral and his commanders worked late into the night, trying to guess the enemy’s next move. Each side had powerful ships and experienced crews: they were well matched. This battle was not going to be easy.

During battle, the crew would clear the decks so that cannon balls (known as shot) and powder could be brought up from below as quickly as possible. A good crew could fire three times in two minutes and needed as much powder and shot as the powder monkeys (young boys on the crew) could carry. Nothing could get in the way of this.

Hammocks were hung between the cannon and were much more comfortable than sleeping on the floor. Like all ships of the time, the Victory was infested with rats, which was another good reason not to sleep on the floor. 

There was little room on the Victory - a crew of 821 men was needed to sail the ship and operate the guns. Sailors were packed into the lower decks as tightly as possible. 

Around 6000 trees were used in the construction of the Victory, mostly oak but also elm, pine, fir, and a small amount of lignum vitae. Lignum vitae wood is tough, strong, and dense –important properties in shipbuilding.

The deck is a hive of activity: as drumbeats sound the coming of battle, marines prepare the boarding party with muskets, pikes, and swords, while powder monkeys bring up as much shot and powder as they can carry and officers coordinate their men.

When cannonballs hit the Victory’s oak sides, they threw up long splinters that pierced the flesh viciously. Sailors could be hit by musket balls, cannonballs and grapeshot (small balls fired from a cannon). 

Flying sparks could cause accidental explosions, and men sometimes fell from the rigging. In fact, sailors were more likely to die from accidents or disease than from battle wounds. There were lots of ways to get hurt. If you did it was time to visit the surgeon.

Every ship had a surgeon, who was helped by the surgeon’s mate. He had no anesthetics, no antibiotics, and no way of treating diseases like typhus and TB.

Being taken to the ship’s surgeon was terrifying as treatments were seriously limited. He couldn’t operate on chest wounds and damaged limbs were simply amputated. If you were injured badly, you would be lucky to live.

Nelson slips the Victory behind the Bucentaure so that its guns are pointing at the French flagship’s stern. The order comes to “fire as you bear” – meaning crews should fire whenever they have a target in sight. The stern was a weak point of ships in those days, and was badly protected.

Passing the Bucentaure’s stern, you fire again. The Victory covers the ship with cannonballs and musket fire at point-blank range. The ship is shattered, 200 Frenchmen killed, and Admiral Villeneuve is left unable to control the rest of his fleet.

You hear a scream and look out to see that the Victory is trapped between three French ships and having to fight hard. On the quarterdeck, Nelson is shot in the lung by a marksman from the French ship Redoubtable.

The Victory fights off a boarding party from the Redoubtable and eventually the French ship surrenders.

As Nelson dies, he learns that the British have won the Battle of Trafalgar, meaning the threatened invasion of Britain by the French will not come to pass. He manages to say, “Thank God I have done my duty."