Trafalgar campaign

Napoleon had been planning an invasion of England for some time, with the first Army of England gathering on the Channel coast in 1798. Napoleon's concentration on campaigns in Egypt and Austria, and the Peace of Amiens caused these plans to be shelved in 1802. The resumption of hostilities in 1803 led to their revival, and forces were gathered outside Boulogne in large military camps in preparation for the assembling of the invasion flotilla. The Royal Navy was the main obstacle to a successful invasion, but Napoleon declared that his fleet need only be masters of the Channel for six hours and the crossing could be effected. Though the intended departure points were known and were being closely blockaded by the Royal Navy, First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Melville was short of ships. If a combined Franco-Spanish fleet were to force the Navy from its station for even a short while, the French invasion force might succeed in crossing unmolested. The French aimed to achieve at least temporary control of the Channel, while the British aimed to prevent this at all costs. ==Changing French plans==

Napoleon proposed a total of four different strategies between July 1804 and March 1805, each with the object of collecting a large force of ships and moving up the Channel. Common elements included the decoying of some or all of the blockading Royal Navy fleets away from the Channel, the combining of the French fleets to lift the blockade of any ships that remained trapped in port, and the advancing of the fleet up the Channel to Boulogne, where they would escort the invasion force across. Plan I: July – September 1804 , commander of the French forces that broke out of Toulon Napoleon's first plan, put forward in May 1804 for execution between July and September envisaged the break-out from Toulon of 10 ships of the line and 11 frigates under Admiral Latouche Tréville. They would evade the patrolling British fleet under Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson and sail into the Atlantic, slipping past Alexander Cochrane's fleet off Ferrol and entering the Bay of Biscay. They would then make for Rochefort where they would be joined by another six ships of the line. Having evaded Nelson he would collect the from Cádiz and pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, after which he would detach two ships carrying 1,800 troops. Nelson immediately rushed his fleet to sea, determining that considering the weather and the fact the French had embarked troops, that Villeneuve was heading east, perhaps to attack locations on the Italian coast, or the islands of Malta or Sardinia, or maybe even Greece or Egypt. He rushed south, hoping to intercept them south of Sardinia, but when they had not appeared by 25 January, he worried that he had missed them, and pressed further east, calling at Greece and then Alexandria on 7 February. Finding no news of the French, he turned westward, calling at Malta on 19 February, where he received news that the French were back in Toulon. The error of the frigates leaving the fleet unobserved when they had rushed to report to Nelson meant that he had spent nearly six weeks sailing back and forth across the Mediterranean through heavy seas while the French remained in port. A frustrated Nelson returned to resume the blockade. ==Strategic situation in March 1805==

The French Navy was largely confined to port, blockaded by various fleets and commands of the Royal Navy, while the main invasion force of 93,000 men in four Army corps waited in Boulogne. A combined French and Dutch squadron of nine ships of the line were quartered in the Netherlands, covered by Admiral Lord Keith's Downs squadron of 11 ships of the line. Neither squadron took part in the campaign. The main Channel Fleet, patrolling between Ushant and the Irish coast under Admiral William Cornwallis and his deputy Vice-Admiral Charles Cotton, consisted of 15 ships of the line, with detached squadrons of five ships of the line under Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves blockading Rochefort, and eight ships of the line under Vice-Admiral Robert Calder blockading Ferrol. ==The Trafalgar Campaign: The French plan==

The fleet at Brest under Ganteaume was to embark 3,000 troops and sail to Ferrol, where he would chase away Calder's blockading squadron and unite with the French and Spanish forces in the port under Gourdon and Grandallana. The three fleets—Ganteaume's 33 ships of the line; Missiessy's five ships of the line, if they were still in the area; and Villeneuve's 11 ships of the line—would unite and sail back across the Atlantic. Sweeping away any resistance, they would then cover the invasion flotilla. Ganteaume had orders to avoid battle, and waited until conditions seemed favourable on 26 March, when a fog came down that would help him to slip past the British. But as he made his way out the weather changed suddenly, blowing away the fog and making it difficult to return to the anchorage. Temporarily trapped outside the port Ganteaume reluctantly prepared for battle as Cotton's force approached. In reality Nelson was preparing a trap, and having allowed himself to be observed off the Spanish coast, had withdrawn to a position south of Sardinia, hoping that in attempting to avoid the supposed location of the British fleet, Villeneuve would sail straight into them. Villeneuve put to sea on 30 March, observed by the British frigates Active and , and as Nelson hoped, set course to sail between the Balearic Islands and Sardinia. Convinced that Villeneuve was headed for the West Indies Nelson set off in pursuit. ==Villeneuve in the West Indies==

Villeneuve arrived at Fort de France, Martinique on 14 May, and was joined over the next two days by the Spanish fleet under Gravina. The small British garrison surrendered on 2 June, by which time the French frigate had arrived with orders from Napoleon. Villeneuve was instructed to await the arrival of two extra ships under Counter-admiral Charles René Magon de Médine and then spend a month attacking the British West Indies. He was then to sail his fleet back to Europe, join Ganteaume at Brest and cover the invasion flotilla. The orders also noted that Nelson had sailed to Egypt in search of him. In fact Nelson was by now only two days away from Barbados, where he would anchor on 4 June. Villeneuve gathered his fleet and pressed northwards towards Antigua, but on 7 June he came across a lightly defended convoy of British merchants, and captured several of them the following day. This led him to discover that Nelson had arrived at Barbados. A shocked Villeneuve decided to break off operations and head north and east again, back to Europe. His fleet got underway on 11 June, causing one of the army officers attached to the fleet, General Honoré Charles Reille to note: We have been masters of the sea for three weeks with a landing force of 7000 to 8000 men and have not been able to attack a single island. ==Nelson in the West Indies==

Nelson had arrived at Barbados on 4 June, where he received fragmentary reports that the French had been seen a week earlier, sailing southwards. Nelson set off in pursuit, but the information was wrong, Villeneuve and his fleet were north of Barbados and heading farther north with each day. A series of mistaken sightings, deliberate misinformation, and sheer coincidence kept Nelson heading south until 8 June, when more concrete information reached him that Villeneuve was north of his position, and heading towards Antigua. Nelson left in pursuit on 13 June, anticipating that his quarry would make either for Cádiz, or would attempt to re-enter the Mediterranean. Villeneuve was in fact heading for Ferrol, and by hoping to catch them at sea before they could make port, Nelson set his course too far to the south and missed them. ==Villeneuve intercepted==

Nelson had sent despatches back to the Admiralty aboard the brig . While sailing across the Atlantic Curieux had, on 19 June, spotted the combined Franco-Spanish fleet, sailing northwards from Antigua. The action eventually began when the frigate , in the van of the British fleet, attempted to attack the French frigate Siréne, trailing in the rear. Fearing the British were attempting to cut off his rear, Villeneuve brought his fleet about and the Spanish van opened fire on the leading British ships at about 5.30 pm. Both fleets were still scattered the following day. They continued to observe each other, but neither made an attempt to resume the action, and despite more favourable winds on 24 July, Calder declined to give battle. By 25 July the fleets had drifted out of sight of each other, at which point Villeneuve sailed south to Vigo, while Calder headed east. Both admirals claimed a victory, with Villeneuve assuring Napoleon that he intended to sail north to rendezvous with Allemand's force from Rochefort, before heading to the Channel. While sailing to Gibraltar with his prize in tow, Baker fell in with the 74-gun on 14 August. The following day the combined fleet under Villeneuve, heading for Brest and then on to Boulogne to escort the French invasion forces across the Channel, sighted the three British ships. Villeneuve mistook the British ships for scouts from the Channel Fleet and fled south to Cadiz to avoid an action. A furious Napoleon raged 'What a Navy! What an admiral! All those sacrifices for nought!' ==Battle of Trafalgar==

'' by J. M. W. Turner (oil on canvas, 1822–1824) combines events from several moments during the battle Villeneuve's fleet underwent repairs in Cádiz, covered by a hastily assembled blockade of British warships, initially commanded by Rear-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, and from 27 September by Vice-Admiral Nelson, who had arrived from England to take command. He spent the following weeks preparing and refining his tactics for the anticipated battle and dining with his captains to ensure they understood his intentions. Nelson had devised a plan of attack that anticipated the allied fleet would form up in a traditional line of battle. Drawing on his own experience from the Nile and Copenhagen, and the examples of Duncan at Camperdown and Rodney at the Saintes, Nelson decided to split his fleet into squadrons rather than forming it into a similar line parallel to the enemy. These squadrons would then cut the enemy's line in a number of places, allowing a pell-mell battle to develop in which the British ships could overwhelm and destroy parts of their opponents' formation, before the unengaged enemy ships could come to their aid. Nelson led his column of ships into battle aboard HMS Victory, and succeeded in cutting the line and causing the pell-mell battle he desired to break out. After several hours of fighting 17 French and Spanish ships had been captured and another destroyed, without the loss of a single British ship. Nelson was among the 449 British dead, having been mortally wounded by a French sharpshooter during the battle. Nine of the prizes were later scuttled or sunk in a storm that blew up the following day. A sortie led by some of the ships that managed to escape under Julien Cosmao managed to recapture the Spanish , but in doing so he lost three more of his ships, wrecked in the gale, while a fourth was captured by the British, but later wrecked. The British fleet and the surviving French prizes put into Gibraltar over the next few days. ==Cape Ortegal==

Though the combined fleet had been decisively crushed at Trafalgar, the final action of the campaign was fought nearly a fortnight later, on 4 November. Four French ships under Rear-Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley had escaped Trafalgar and headed north, hoping to reach Rochefort. On 2 November they came across the 36-gun frigate , some forty miles of Cape Ortegal. They gave chase, but the Phoenix lured them towards a squadron of five ships of the line under Captain Sir Richard Strachan. Using his frigates to harass and wear down the enemy while avoiding their broadsides, Strachan used his larger ships to attack the enemy's rear and centre. He was eventually able to surround the French ships, and after four hours of close fighting all of the French ships were forced to surrender. ==Outcome and significance==

By early November the combined fleet had been practically destroyed. Two ships of the line had been lost at Finisterre, twenty-one at Trafalgar and in the ensuing storm, and four at Cape Ortegal. No British ships had been lost in these engagements. Many of those that had survived in French or Spanish hands were badly damaged and would not be ready for service for some time. The British victory gave them unchallenged supremacy of the seas, securing British trade and sustaining the Empire. The continued failure of Napoleon to marshal his navies as he did his armies meant that the invasion of England never occurred. Already postponed several times, Villeneuve's defeat at Finisterre and his final failure to link up with the Rochefort and Brest fleets caused Napoleon to abandon his plans in favour of a march eastward. After 1805 the morale of the French navy was destroyed, while its continued blockade in port robbed it of efficiency and will. While Napoleon returned to the possibility of an invasion some years later, it was never with the same focus or determination. The failure of his navy to fulfil its objectives left him disillusioned, while the timidity of its commanders and the determination of the British to resist them, both factors clearly expressed at various stages throughout the Trafalgar campaign, left the navy with a lack of purpose and direction. ==Notes==