Quote:
Originally Posted by grantp
I would guess that in naval terms you would get a set piece battle that all depended on who had been able to manoeuvre to take best advantage of the Wind - or whatever was thought to be the key to success in the likely conditions depending on the health of one's crews and the state of ones armaments
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Yes, Grant. Convention of the time had it that opposing naval forces would maneuver in two parallel lines alongside each other and slug it out with broadsides.
Nelson was outnumbered 27 to 33 ships i think, so drove at the French/Spanish in two columns at right angles to the enemy and split them in to 3 groups.
He then maneuvered such that his 2 groups could disable the smaller enemy groups before getting ships alongside each other and boarding for hand to hand fighting (wooden ships actually being quite difficult to sink). It was brutal.
The “hospital deck” on Victory has the deck painted in red so as sailors didnt recognise how much blood there actually was!!