Nelson's Tactics
With Nelson being heavily out-gunned and out-manned on the day of the battle, nelson relied heavily on his tactics. Traditional methods of fighting in battle in sea and on land with infantry was to fight parallel to your enemy. For both fleets this gave the Commanding officers an opportunity to easily communicate from ship to ship. However these tactics gave either side a chance for them to flee and get away reducing casualties, and so resulting in battles sometimes being inconclusive. And Nelson wanted to see the Battle through to the end. He devised a plan and ordered his captains to form two lines perpendicular to that of the opposing force. By doing so he could head straight into the heart of Villeneuve fleet. He ordered Collingwood to take his fleet and head for the trailing ships at the rear. By heading in two columns it minimised surface area, so that the guns of the French and Spanish fleets cannot shoot as accurately and with such devastating affects at them.
As seen here in the diagram, it clearly shows Nelson sailing his ships into the Franco-Spanish fleet. Nelson and the Weather column sailed directly for the centre just behind Bucentaure the flag ship of Pierre Villeneuve. By doing this it would be almost impossible for Bucentaure to signal to ships ahead of her, meaning that before they noticed what was going on Nelsons ships would be engaging with the Bucentaure. Collingwood and the Lee column sailed behind the Santa Anna to come in to fire with the ships behind her. Collingwood decided to make his ships form a Delta/arrow formation (on one side) and so when coming into firing range with the enemy they were in the right position to perform a broadside manoeuvre against the enemy. This had devastating affects. http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php#
Nelson despite being heavily outnumbered, in terms of guns and men, did have a slight advantage. Villeneuve was expecting that Nelson would use some "unorthodox" means of attacking and stated that he (Nelson) would dive right for his lines, and that the cat and mouse chase he had been having with Nelson over the past years had worn him thin. Villeneuve knew that he had inexperienced officers and it would be hard for him to maintain order and control of his fleet if he was to split them up and act upon his accurate assessment of Nelson tactics.
Nelson knew that sometimes it doesn't matter if the odds are stacked against you. By having a high morale amongst the crew and keeping a high level of order and strong leadership and determination, that can be the key to winning a battle. Nelson and his crews had all of this, so they were triumphant in the Battle of Trafalgar!
Nelson knew that sometimes it doesn't matter if the odds are stacked against you. By having a high morale amongst the crew and keeping a high level of order and strong leadership and determination, that can be the key to winning a battle. Nelson and his crews had all of this, so they were triumphant in the Battle of Trafalgar!