#rip sovereign of the seas you will always be famous | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

captainmoonlite · 8 months

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i think one of my new favourite examples of wars of the three kingdoms-adjacent bullshit is the naming and renaming of ships. there are three main examples of this:

the commonwealth launches the ship marston moor in 1654. nice, cool name, makes sense - that was a very providential win for the parliamentarians. when the restoration happens the ship is renamed hms york. also fine and cool, but a little weird since the siege of york happened immediately before the battle of marston moor and was also a loss for the royalists. but that's gotta be a coincidence. anyway

the commonwealth also launches a very nice ship called naseby in 1655, similarly named after a decisive parliamentarian victory in the first english civil war. this is the ship they send to collect charles ii from the netherlands in 1660, so naturally they wanted to rename it, and it's thought that both the king and his brother called it royal charles. a bit boring imo

by far the best one has to be sovereign of the seas, which is a really cool name, but perhaps a little long because it's reduced to just sovereign after charles i's execution (since things over than monarchs e.g, parliament can also be sovereign ig?). after the restoration, rather than changing it back, they add a 'royal' at the front so now it's just royal sovereign. oh the wasted potential

#wars of the three kingdoms #rip sovereign of the seas you will always be famous

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josephjoseblog · 3 years

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The Battle of Trafalgar

“ England expects every man to do his duty”

These were the words Admiral Nelson told were to be put on the mizzen masts of his flagship HMS Victory on the 21st of October 1805, hours before the start of the battle.

The battle of Trafalgar was the last major sea battle to be fought under sail, it is therefore of great importance to us history buffs. But I would also like to tell you that this would be the battle that would ' chain the beast' that is Napoleon. The battle of Trafalgar takes place in the war of the third coalition against the French empire. It was not a great battle one may say but it would keep Napoleon's Grandee Armee from invading Britain and would establish the power of the Royal naval as the supreme naval power in the world. Like they say " Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves", and truly she did.

SETTING THE BACKDROP

Three coalition wars have been fought against France by England and her allies, in all three they have been defeated and brought to their keens by that great master of war Napoleon Bonaparte.

It seemed as though nothing was stopping France from conquering the world, hence making Napoleon the master of Europe. Another thing which has to be mentioned here is that this is taking place after the French revolution, Napoleon had tipped the balance of power by first establishing three counsels and he is the first, then he made himself the first counsel and later himself and counsel for life and eventually emperor of France, and one of his main aims was to spread the ideas of the French revolution abroad, so whichever country he conquered he established French satellite states, this was not good for business for the other European Monarchs however as they wanted to cling on the power they had and to douse the flames of revolution. The above factors and economical policies of the French lead to the formation of the various coalitions that would try to bring France to her keens.

But Napoleon's plans are always stopped by the weed in his French garden, the Brits. Napoleon knows that he will never be able to control the world if he is not able to stop Britain from interfering in his business. So as expected he plans an invasion of that small island nation. He is amassing a grand army in the French seaside, but here lies his greatest weakness, his navy, and finances, both of them are hampered due to Britain. Britain has the best navy in the world which has to lead her to be able to trade with the world and prosper economically. If the British and the French at this point in history were to have a land battle, Napoleon would certainly win, but this battle would be fought on the seas.

THE EVENTS THAT ARE LEADING UP TO THE BATTLE

The British have blockaded the French and they are unable to leave port. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson is commanding one of these blockading groups and his strategies are somewhat unorthodox, he does not have his ships guard in tight packs but instead leaves them in rather loose patterns, a trait of unorthodoxy would be the trademark of Lord Nelson. The French admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was not the best as Napoleon had lost good admirals due to the French revolution or that they had fallen out of his favor. He was first to sail to the Caribbean with his fleet and later move up to the English channel meet with the invasion fleet and help in the plan to invade England. Napoleon had famously said that if he could control the channel for just a few days he would have succeeded with his plans of world domination.

DEPARTURE

The combined French and Spanish fleets were anchored at Cadiz. On the 16th of September 1805, the French admiral received orders from Napoleon to sail with the fleet to Naples. So he did even though there were only light winds. But on the 18th he received news that he was going to be replaced by another, so he altered course, because of this he decided that he must leave the port before his replacement was to come, he then sailed to the cape of Trafalgar and there he would meet the British fleet.

COURSE OF THE BATTLE

On the 21st of October, the two fleets met near Cape Trafalgar. The French and Spanish fleet kept their lines straight and expected Nelson to do the same. But he changed tactics and formed two lines of ships with the concentration of the larger first and second rate ships In front.

As you can see in the picture above one line was lead by Vice-admiral Collingwood and the other by Nelson. This formation was actually in theory was a disadvantage to the Brits and this meant that they would come in the direct firing line of the broadsides of the combined fleet.

It was at this time lord nelson put up his famous signal and asked the bands on broad to play a couple of numbers in the hope that it would ease the anxiety of the men.

The French were the first to fire at the Royal Sovereign and then on the English began to take on immense amounts of fire with the steering of the HMS Victory being shot away and she had to be steered by the tiller. Intense fire and fighting broke about between the two with the Spanish ships the Santa ana and Santissima Trinidad surrendering and the French ship Reboutable also gave in followed by many more a much as 19. This was all possible because the English were able to cut the combined fleet into two hence if help were to be provided it would be too late.

But in the heat of the battle Lord Nelson was shot at by a French sharpshooter which ripped through his spine. He fell onto the floor. The admiral was then taken below deck to the last compartment and the doctors were to tend to him, he took special care to cover his medals as he did not what the crew to lose morale.

The British then had captured 22 ships of the combined fleet. Towards the end of the battle, it was reported to the admiral that they had been victorious that Nelson said " thank god I have done my duty and died".

A harsh storm ensued and the explosion of the French ship Achille caused the battle to come to an end. On reaching back to England the people were overwhelmed with joy at the news of the victory but also saddened at the death of their beloved admiral.

RESULTS.

The results are pretty clear cut the third coalition war was not won by the members of it but by Napoleon, but his plans to invade Britain were stopped in its tracks and the sea was now firmly in English hands. Napoleon would now have to fight on land, which eventually leads to his downfall in the battle of waterloo in 1815, and hence an end to the Napoleonic wars.

Admiral Peirre Charles

Lord Nelson.

The HMS Victory the last time she was afloat.

The Victory today at portsmouth ( she is the oldest commissioned warship in the world and the only ship of the line to exist)

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