s ship into action!" The Victory, at
four minutes past twelve, opened it's fire on the enemy's van, while
passing down their line; in about a quarter of an hour after which,
finding it impossible to penetrate through, the Victory fell on board
the eleventh and twelfth ships. The Temeraire, Captain Harvey, by which
the Victory was seconded, in consequence of the closeness of this part
of the enemy's line, fell also on board one of them. These four ships
were thus, for a considerable time, engaged together as in a single
mass; so that the flash of almost every gun fired from the Victory set
fire to the Redoutable, it's more immediate opponent. In this state,
amidst the hottest fire of the enemy, was beheld a very singular
spectacle; that of numerous British seamen employed, at intervals, in
very coolly throwing buckets of water to extinguish the flames on board
their enemy's ship, that both might not be involved in one common
destruction. His lordship had been particularly desirous to have began
the action, by passing a-head of the Bucentaure, Admiral Villeneuve's
ship, that the Victory might be a-head of the French commander in chief,
and a-stern of the Spanish Santissima Trinidada of a hundred and
thirty-six guns, the largest ship in the world. The Bucentaure, however,
shooting a-head, his lordship, who was thus obliged to go under that
ship's stern, immediately raked it, and luffed up on the starboard side.
The Bucentaure fired four broadsides at the Victory, before our hero
ordered his ports to be opened; when the whole broadside, which was
double shotted, being poured in, the discharge made such a tremendous
crash, that the ship was instantly seen to heel. Lord Nelson now shot
a-head to the Santissima Trinidada. In contending with this ship, on the
celebrated 14th of February 1797, our hero had already acquired
considerable renown. Having got alongside his tremendous opponent, which
he familiarly called his old acquaintance, he ordered the ships to be
lashed together. The battle was now raging with a fury not to be
described; and the enemy's ships being full of men, and many of them
engaged muzzle to muzzle of the guns with our's, the carnage was most
horrible. The crash, too, of the falling masts, yards, &c. incessantly
mowed down, by the respective shots on both sides, with the almost
general blaze, and incessantly tremendous roar, had an aweful grandeur
which no verbal or graphic description or delineation can ever