October 21, 1805

Battle of Trafalgar

British victory and Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar

Nelson was shot at about 1:15 p.m. and died at 4:30. The guns went on firing for roughly another hour after that.

21 October 1805: two columns, bearing down

At daylight on 21 October 1805 the British and combined Franco-Spanish fleets sighted each other west of Cape Trafalgar. Nelson ordered his 27 ships of the line to bear down in two columns against Villeneuve's 33 — about 18,000 British men and 2,148 guns against nearly 30,000 men and 2,632 guns.

At 11:45 a.m. Victory made the signal "England expects that every man will do his duty." Firing began shortly before noon.

Through the line

Nelson's and Collingwood's columns broke through the combined line and forced close-range actions, leaving the allied van initially unengaged while British force concentrated on the centre and rear. Villeneuve's flagship Bucentaure was disabled and Villeneuve himself captured.

Nelson was struck by a musket ball aboard Victory at about 1:15 p.m. and died at about 4:30; Collingwood succeeded to command. Firing ceased around 5:30 p.m., with the Royal Navy in control of the water off southwestern Spain.

Seventeen prizes, then the gale cost Britain most of them

By the close of the action 17 allied ships had been captured and the French Achille was a burning wreck. No British ship was lost — which is not the same as a bloodless day: the National Maritime Museum's tally records 449 British killed and 1,217 wounded, against 4,408 French and Spanish dead, 2,545 wounded and about 20,000 prisoners.

The victory did not survive the weather intact. A gale immediately put both fleets and the captured ships in danger, and the British had to abandon most of their prizes.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

Ship-loss totals vary depending on whether they count ships captured at the end of the action, ships recaptured or wrecked during the following storm, and four escapees taken weeks later. The National Maritime Museum’s date-specific count is 17 captured plus Achille destroyed; Collingwood’s first dispatch initially claimed 19 prizes. Sources: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/maritime-history/battle-trafalgar-timeline and https://www.naval-history.net/WW0LG-Trafalgar.htm
The individual who fired the fatal shot at Nelson is unknown. Sources can locate it to Redoutable and identify it as musket fire, but “a French musketeer” should not become a named or certainly identified sniper. Source: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/100305