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but Nelsons thinking already included the possibility

Even before leaving for the fleet he discussed the basic plan with Captain Keats at Merton his home

"No day can be long enough to arrange a couple of fleets and fight a battle according to the old system"

"I would go at them at once if I can, about one third of their line from the leading ship.
What do you think of it?
I'll tell you what I think of it.
I think it will surprise and confound the enemy.
They wont know what I'm about.
It will bring forward a pell-mell battle and that is what I want"

On the nights of 29 and 30 of September he invited his captains to dinner and afterwards wrote
" .. I laid before them the plan I had arranged for attacking the enemy
and it was not only my pleasure to find it generally approved
but clearly perceived and understood"

His formal order on 9th October restated both his reasons and conclusions

It started

"Thinking it almost impossible to bring a Fleet of forty sail of Line into a Line of Battle. 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... "

"The whole impression of the British Fleet must be to overpower from 2 or 3 ships ahead of their commander in chief, supposed to be in the centre of their fleet
I will suppose twenty of the enemy's line to be untouched;
it must be some time before they could perform a manoever to bring a force compact to attack any part of the British Force engaged
or to succour their own ships without mixing with the force engaged"

In reality Nelson aimed at the French Flag ship, Collingwood at the Spanish - and the Combined Fleet cut into three almost equal parts
so far fewer of the enemy were left "untouched"

Nelson knew he was taking a risk; his written orders to his captains continued

"something must be left to chance; nothing is sure in a sea fight above others.
Shot will carry away the masts and yards of friends as well as foes"

but the plan remained

"... I look forward with confidence to a victory before the van of the enemy can succour their rear
and then the British fleet would most of them be ready to receive their twenty sail of the line
or to pursue them should they be endeavour to make off"

but his main confidence was in the continuing aggression of his captains

"No Captain can do very wrong if he places his Ship alongside that of the Enemy".

In fact that's pretty much what happened in OTL,

In fairness Dumanoir originally commanded the REAR squadron becoming the lead ships only when Villeneuve turned back to the safety of Cadiz.
He almost certainly had not been briefed for the circumstances that arose.
Note that this turn - a wear in succession not a tack together and in a fairly comfortable wind-
took about 90 minutes and left the whole fleet in disarray


When action was joined the whole Combined Fleet was still heading North on the wind under plain sail but with many ships out of position
At 1245 Victory broke the line under Bucentares stern; by 1300 Villeneuve was signalling for help.
It certainly seems Dumanoir did indeed ignore or not see the signals of recall until nearly 1400.

once he decided to turn, he was further delayed by a drop in wind (Scipion had to be towed about by her boats)
Some of his ships tacked, others had to wear individually a much slower evolution
this lead to half his ships (including the Spanish 3 decker) heading for Cadiz across the bow of the fight
i.e. roughly North east

Dumanoir eventually reformed a group of five 74s and 80s under his direct command
They were spotted from Victory and Hardy ordered any ships not engaged to intercept
Dumanoir steered about half a mile to windward i.e. north west of the RN ships
None the less they ran into the unengaged rear of Nelsons column - they lost Neptuno to Minotaur
and were forced away by others coming up.

At the same time survivors of the rearward squadron were peeling of the melee with Collingwood's column
falling to leeward of the line and hence to cadiz.


Only two ships steered directly back for the melee, San Augustin and Intrepide.
Both were "orphans" - San Augustin being part of the centralquadron not Dumanoirs command,
Intrepide having never been able to join the line at all.

San Augustin steered for the enormous Santissimma Trinidad aiming to retake her
and thus was taken under fire successively by several RN ships who had already won their original fights
She struck having 184 dead plus 200 wounded

Intrepid was intercepted by Africa (64) the weakest and slowest of Nelsons fleet that had become detached in the night and was steering to attack the van virtually alone
and held for 40 minutes until Orion a late arrival from Nelsons column dismasted her.
her resistance was much admired by the British. Cpt Senhouse of HMS Conqueror said "it deserves to be recorded in the memory of those who admire true courage"
However her dead alone numbered 162 - and remember that the whole British fleet suffered only 449 dead

During the storm that started on the night of 21 October, the RN was forced to abandon many of the prizes especially those under tow.

some of the surrendered crews overpowered their British Prize crews However only Algeciras reached safety

The combined fleet was not entirely cowed, despite its losses
On the 23rd some of the least damaged ships sortied from Cadiz to try and retake prizes from the scattered British fleet
Some hulks were rescued but all foundered or wrecked as did Indomptable (80) one of the rescue party

The virtually undamaged Rayo (100) was caught and captured by HMS Donegal (74) and a prize crew anchored her.
Unfortunately Rayo, official name San Pedro, was also wrecked when the storm strengthened again on the 26th with few survivors on either side.

After repairing damage in Cadiz, Dumanoir lead his 4 of the line north in an attempt to reach France during November
they were spotted by the British Frigates and brought to action of Cape Ortegal by an equal battle squadron under Sir Richard Strachan.
All four french ships struck and were taken into British service.

Those loses made the nett effect of the Trafalgar campaign:
10 taken by the RN (2 by calder, 4 saved after Trafalgar, 4 by strachan)
1 sunk (exploded)
12 foundered, scuttled or wrecked in the storms of the 22/23 or 26/27.

So in a way, Nelson in fact exceed his bargain for twenty.

BTW: Not all the prizes gave long service but Duguay-Trouin actually served for 30 years as HMS Implacable
Even after that she was retained in port and was around in world war 2 used as a base ship -
but was scuttled in 1949. (her figurehead is in the National Maritime museum at Greenwich)

Various sources but mostly "The Price Of Admiralty" John Keegan Section 1 pp 52-80

(sorry for teh many etdts - my typings not up to much)

than my typing.

However, to get back to the original question

For Dumanoir to have had any significant effect at least 5 things needed to occur

1. Yes he needed to act earlier ... possible if he had been sharper
but I think Nelson would still have had between 30 and 45 minutes to complete the breakthrough

2. all Dumanoirs ships needed to follow his lead without question almost without instruction
the broken chain of command and other confusion meant little chance to explain
Perhaps thats why most of his Spanish ships continued with the original course North East to Cadiz

3. however Dumanoir managed his turn, he had to keep at least his own ships together
and that is less likely given the overall sailing qualities

4. Dumanor had to have the imagination to ignore one of the prime tenet of fighting under sail
and not try and take position to windard

This course put him to the west of the British line but also placed the rear ships of the British colums between him and the melee
thats why his group of 5 managed so little before they had to break off.

if he had arrived at the same point earlier with 10 that might have been better,
but RN column would also have been less committed and could have opposed him with more ships

His best chance was to dive straight in and hope to catch the breakthrough force before they reorganised

5. In either case, what Dumanoir would have acheved was to make the melee bigger - with more one on one duels
Given the AVERAGE performance of the Combined fleet thats unlikely to have made enough of a difference in the fight

though it might well have made teh storm more costly for the RN