Nelson's mood had yet to be taken into account, and Nelson was in no humour to see his flagship passed. No ship in the world should give the Victory a lead on the day of battle. As the Téméraire sheered alongside, the admiral stepped up briskly to the Victory's poop and from there hailed across in a curt tone to the quarter-deck of the Téméraire. Speaking with a strong nasal twang, in his Norfolk accent, as we are told, he called over: 'I'll thank you, Captain Harvey, to keep your proper station, which is astarn of the Victory!'
The Téméraire had to drop back, exactly as the Neptune had previously had to do, and content herself with following in the Victory's wake. She closed up astern and kept so near that her jib-boom, in Captain Harvey's own words, 'almost touched the stern of the Victory.'[98]
The same spirit of eager anxiety to get early into battle prevailed everywhere, coupled with the utmost friendliness and good-comradeship. The Tonnant, the second ship in Collingwood's line, was ordered in the course of the morning to give up the place of honour to the faster Belleisle. As the Belleisle was passing her. Captain Tyler of the Tonnant on a carronade slide and called across to the other captain (Hargood): 'A glorious day for old England: we shall have one a-piece before night!' A moment later the Tonnant's band, by way of greeting to the Belleisle, began to play 'Britons Strike Home.'[99]
Such was the spirit in which Nelson's Captains went into battle at Trafalgar as the hour for the opening of the fight drew on.
There is, as it happens, no note in the Téméraire's log of Nelson's famous signal, 'England expects that every man will do his duty'; but it is on record that it was received by Signal Midshipman Eaton, who acknowledged it to the Victory. We know from Captain Blackwood, who was with the Admiral at the time, how it was received by all the ships near by with 'a shout of answering acclamation,' and the Téméraire was the nearest ship of all to the Victory at that moment. After the battle the Téméraire's officers had the words engraved on a brass plate which was let into the quarter-deck in front of the steering wheel, where it remained till the ship came to her end.
At noon, almost to the minute, the first shot was fired—by the enemy. It came from a French ship lying nearly opposite the head of Collingwood's line, the Fougueux. It was aimed at the Royal Sovereign—to try the range. The shot went home, and at once other French and Spanish ships near by took up the firing. The Royal Sovereign was about 400 yards off at the moment, about three-quarters gunshot.
At the same time the enemy all along their line hoisted their colours, the Spaniards in addition hanging up large wooden crosses at their gaffs. Why they did so has never been explained. Some of the Spanish captains had held special religious services on board their ships at an earlier hour that morning,[100] but it is not known that that had any connection with the display of the crosses.
A midshipman fired the first shot on the British side at Trafalgar—by accident. It came from the Bellerophon. To the surprise of the whole fleet, as they were nearing the enemy a spurt of smoke flew out from the side of the Bellerophon followed by the boom of a single gun. It was, according to the Spartiate's log—the Bellerophon herself does not record it—just as Nelson's great message was going up. On board every other ship they were holding their hands: the officers of the batteries had orders to wait until their ship was in the act of passing through the enemy. A boy midshipman of the Bellerophon tripped, or caught his foot, in the loose end of a gun-lock lanyard and let off one of the ship's 32-pounders. His name is not on record, nor what they did to him. The shot had the unfortunate effect of drawing the enemy's attention specially to the Bellerophon, and as they got the ship's range a little later they turned their guns on her and pounded at her heavily, under the impression that the gun had been meant as a signal, and that some officer of distinction was on board that particular ship.
Collingwood opened the battle on the British side and first of all broke the enemy's line at Trafalgar, as all the world knows. All the world knows also how he did it. The Royal Sovereign's first broadside, as she broke through immediately astern of the Spanish flagship Santa Ana, struck down 400 men and dismounted fourteen guns. 'Il rompait todos,' it smashed down everything—as a Spanish officer on board the Santa Ana afterwards wrote. 'What sheep,'—asked in broken English the Spanish officer who came on board Collingwood's flagship on the surrender of the Santa Ana to give up his sword on behalf of the wounded Vice-Admiral Alava,—'What sheep is dis?' He was told. 'Royal Sovereign!' the Spaniard exclaimed, 'Madre de Dios! she should be named de Royal Devil!'