Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson
Horatio Nelson won three fleet actions and died at the third, and no British admiral since has escaped comparison with him. Born in 1758 in a Norfolk rectory, the sixth of eleven children, he went to sea at twelve under an uncle and was a post-captain at twenty. He lost the sight of his right eye at Calvi in 1794 and his right arm at Santa Cruz in 1797, and was seasick for most of his life. His method was to break the enemy line rather than fight parallel to it, and to tell his captains what he intended and then let them do it — the band of brothers, which is why his fleets kept fighting when signalling failed. At Cape St Vincent in 1797 he took his ship out of the line without orders to cut off the Spanish van, and boarded two ships in succession. At the Nile in 1798 he found the French anchored in a bay at Aboukir and sent part of his fleet inshore of them, between the anchorage and the shoal, so that they were engaged on both sides. Eleven of thirteen ships were taken or destroyed, and Napoleon's army was stranded in Egypt. At Copenhagen in 1801 he put the telescope to his blind eye when signalled to withdraw. At Trafalgar in October 1805 he attacked in two columns at right angles to a combined Franco-Spanish fleet and took or destroyed twenty-two ships without losing one. He was shot by a marksman from the Redoutable and died that afternoon.
- Lived: 1758 CE – 1805 CE
- Nationality: British
- Roles: admiral, naval_commander
