making for the harbour.
This was owing to their having so few of our men on board them, and to our
not being able, in consequence of the loss of boats, to take out the
prisoners. We gave them some parting salutes. There were so many of us in
a crippled state it was thought prudent to haul to the westward, as the
swell was throwing us towards the shore, and the sky had all the tokens of
a gale of wind from the west-south-west. The signal was out to prepare to
anchor if necessary. The _Royal Sovereign_, which had only her foremast
standing, with four other ships of our fleet, had already anchored.

The _Santissima Trinidada_, one of the Spanish prizes, went down in
consequence of having received so many shot between wind and water. Her
crew were taken out by our frigates and she was scuttled. She was the
largest ship and had four regular tiers of guns, mounting in the whole one
hundred and thirty-six. About 7 P.M. the wind began to freshen from the
westward. The signal was made from the _Royal Sovereign_ for all those
ships that could carry sail to proceed to Gibraltar. About 9 P.M. the wind
increased to a heavy gale, and the ship which towed us was obliged to cast
us off. We fortunately had been able to fix the quarter tackles to the
ring-bolts of the rudder before the gale came on. The night was passed in
much painful anxiety, and we expected every time we wore to strike on the
rocks of Cape Trafalgar. Providentially the wind drew more round to the
north-east, and at daylight we weathered the Cape and about noon anchored
at Gibraltar. We found the four prizes with several of our fleet lying
there, and we were congratulated most cordially on our having escaped a
lee shore, as they had given us up as lost.

I must retrograde a little here and relate a few occurrences which took
place during the action, and of which I was an eye-witness. We had hoisted
our colours before the action in four different places, at the
ensign-staff, peak, and in the fore and main top-mast shrouds, that if one
was shot away the others might be flying. A number of our fleet had done
the same, and several of the enemy followed our example. The French
admiral's ship who so gallantly attempted to board us had his flag hoisted
in three places. One of our men, Fitzgerald, ran up his rigging and cut
away one of them and placed it round his waist, and had nearly, after this
daring exploit, reached his ship, when a rifleman shot him and he fell
between t