Friday, October 21, 2005

Battle of Trafalgar

Bicentennial of the battle.

The battle of Trafalgar was joined just after noon on Oct. 21, 1805 -- 200 years ago today. Four and half hours later, on a warm afternoon of light winds, it would be over. A French and Spanish fleet of 33 sail-of-the-line had been savagely and utterly defeated, with some 4,500 men dead, by a slightly smaller but far more effective British fleet commanded by Horatio, Lord Nelson. At the moment of victory, Nelson himself died of a wound received early in the battle, knowing that victory was his and knowing, as he murmured to those around him, that he had "done his duty."

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