Twenty-seven British ships of the line under Nelson engaged a combined Franco-Spanish fleet of thirty-three vessels, employing an unorthodox perpendicular attack that shattered the enemy line. Nelson was struck by a French sniper's musket ball and died aboard HMS Victory that afternoon, having secured Britain naval supremacy for the next century.
Nelson signaled the fleet before battle with the famous flags: "England expects that every man will do his duty." It was a calculated risk, breaking with two centuries of naval tactical orthodoxy that favored parallel lines of battle, and it worked devastatingly well — the British lost no ships while the Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two.
Nelson was shot through the shoulder and spine by a marksman perched in the rigging of the French ship Redoutable. He lived for nearly three hours below deck, long enough to learn of the victory, reportedly murmuring "Thank God, I have done my duty" before he died. His body was preserved in a cask of brandy for the voyage home.
The victory ended any realistic French plan to invade England and confirmed the Royal Navy's dominance of the seas until the First World War. Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, erected decades later, still gazes down Whitehall in tribute.
Key people: Horatio Nelson, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve