make the signal to engage the Enemy to leeward, and to cut
through their Fleet about the sixth Ship from the Van, passing
very close; they being on a wind, and you going large, could cut
their Line when you please. The Van-Ships of the Enemy would, by
the time our Rear came abreast of the Van-Ship, be severely cut
up, and our Van could not expect to escape damage. I would then
have our _Rear_ Ship, and every Ship in succession, wear,
continue the Action with either the Van-Ship, or second Ship, as
it might appear most eligible from her crippled state; and this
mode pursued, I see nothing to prevent the capture of the five
or six Ships of the Enemy's Van. The two or three Ships of the
Enemy's Rear[122] must either bear up, or wear; and, in either
case, although they would be in a better plight probably than
our two Van-Ships (now in the Rear) yet they would be separated,
and at a distance to leeward, so as to give our Ships time to
refit; and by that time, I believe, the Battle would, from the
judgment of the Admiral and Captains, be over with the rest of
them. Signals from these moments are useless, when every man is
disposed to do his duty. The great object is for us to support
each other, and to keep close to the Enemy, and to leeward of
him.

If the Enemy are running away, then the only signals necessary
will be, to engage the Enemy as arriving up with them; and the
other ships to pass on for the second, third, &c., giving, if
possible, a close fire into the Enemy in passing, taking care to
give our Ships engaged notice of your intention.

MEMORANDUM.

(Secret)

Victory, off CADIZ, 9th October, 1805.

[Sidenote: General Considerations.] Thinking it almost
impossible to bring a Fleet of forty Sail of the Line into a
Line of Battle in variable winds, thick weather, and other
circumstances which must occur, without such a loss of time that
the opportunity would probably be lost of bringing the Enemy to
Battle in such a manner as to make the business decisive, I have
therefore made up my mind to keep the Fleet in that position of
sailing (with the exception of the First and Second in Command)
that the Order of Sailing is to be the Order of Battle, placing
the Fleet in two Lines of sixteen Ships each, with an Advanced
Squadron of eight of the fastest sailing