the most part tried and trained sailors, while a considerable
proportion of the Spaniards were almost raw levies.

The morning of the 14th February was foggy, and neither the number nor the
size of our ships could be made out by the Spaniards until we were within
a mile of them. Then, as mid-day approached and the fog cleared off, they
saw Jervis bearing down upon them in two lines. His object was to separate
the Spanish squadron to leeward from the main body, and in this he
completely succeeded.

The _Culloden_ led the way, and the greater part of the fleet followed,
opening a tremendous fire as they came up with the Spaniards, and
receiving their broadsides in return. The Spanish vice-admiral attempted
to cut through the British line, but was thwarted by the rapid advance of
the _Victory_, which forced the admiral's ship, the _Principe de
Asturias_, to tack close under her lee, pouring in a tremendous raking
broadside as she did so. Fortunately at this moment Commodore Nelson was
in the rear, and had a better view of the movements of the enemy than had
the commander-in-chief. He perceived that the Spanish admiral was
beginning to bear up before the wind, with the object of uniting the main
body with the second division. Accordingly he ordered his ship the
_Captain_ to wear.

Up to this time she had hardly fired a gun, but this movement gave her the
lead of the fleet, and brought her at once into action with the enemy. In
a few minutes she was attacked by no fewer than four first-raters and two
third-raters. The _Culloden_, however, bore down with all speed to her
assistance, and some time afterwards the _Blenheim_ came up to take a
share in the fight. Two of the Spanish ships dropped astern to escape the
tremendous fire of the three British seventy-fours, but they only fell in
with the _Excellent_ coming up to support the _Captain_, and she poured so
tremendous a fire into them both that one of them struck at once. She left
the other to her own devices and pressed on to join Nelson, who greatly
needed help, for the _Captain_ was now little better than a wreck.

Her chief antagonist at this time was the _San Nicholas_. Into that ship
she poured a tremendous fire, and then passed on to the _San Isidro_ and
_Santissima-Trinidada_, with which the _Captain_ had been engaged from the
beginning. The fire of the _Excellent_ had completed the work done by the
_Captain_, and the _San Nicholas_ and the _San Josef_ had collide