And above, the heavy guns thundered a funeral dirge.
As we have already seen, the Victory was engaged in a duel with the Redoutable when Nelson received his death wound. For a short period the Frenchman did not return the fire, and thinking that Captain Lucas was about to surrender, the Victory’s guns also kept silence. But the interval had been used for another purpose. The French crew were swarming over the bulwarks of the British flagship, climbing chains, and even clambering over the anchor in their attempt to get on board. A desperate resistance was offered, Captain Adair was killed by a musket ball, as well as eighteen marines and twenty seamen.
Help came from a sister ship. The Téméraire (98)—the fighting Téméraire of Turner’s glorious picture—was now astern of the Redoutable. Had she possessed the machine guns of to-day she could hardly have swept the decks of the enemy with more deadly effect. The men who were attempting to board went down like ninepins. The carnage was awful; the sight sickening. When the smoke cleared, little heaps of corpses were seen piled up on the decks, while the bodies of other poor fellows floated on the sea, now tinged with the blood of victor and vanquished. Five hundred and twenty-two of the Redoutable’s crew fell that day before she struck her colours.
The Battle of Trafalgar (the “Victory” in centre of foreground)
W. L. Wyllie, A.R.A.
By permission of the Art Union of London, 112 Strand, Publishers of the Etching
The Bucentaure and the Santissima Trinidad were together throughout the battle and received a succession of attacks from various ships until they surrendered. Both of them were then little more than dismasted hulks. Villeneuve fought with the strength of despair, but the case was hopeless, and resistance only prolonged the agony. No assistance came to him despite his frantic efforts to attract attention. “My part in the Bucentaure is finished!” he cried at last, and so the gallant but weak-willed officer was taken.
In appearance Villeneuve was “a tallish, thin man, a very tranquil, placid, English-looking Frenchman; he wore a long-tailed uniform coat, high and flat collar, corduroy pantaloons of a greenish colour, with stripes two inches wide, half-boots with sharp toes, and a watch-chain with long gold links.”[72]
Other ships surrendered as the day wore on, the Algéçiras (74) to the Tonnant (80), the Swiftsure (74) and the Bahama (74) to the Colossus (74), the San Juan Nepomuceno (74) to the Dreadnought (98). Eighteen ships of the Allied Fleet were captured; one, the Achille (74), blew up with a terrific explosion.