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The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of theFrench and Spanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1815).

Battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar, as seen from the starboard mizzen shrouds of the Victory. J. M. W. Turner (oil on canvas, 1806–1808)

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Strength

33 ships

(27 ships of the line and six others)

41 ships

(France: 18 ships of the line and eight others

Spain: 15 ships of the line)

Casualties and losses

458 dead
1,208 wounded

Total: 1,666^[1]

France:
10 ships captured,
one ship destroyed,
2,218 dead,
1,155 wounded,
4,000 captured^[2]

Spain:
11 ships captured,
1,025 dead,
1,383 wounded,
4,000 captured^[2]

Aftermath:
Apx. 3,000 prisoners drowned in a storm after the battle

Total: 13,781

Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, byLemuel Francis Abbott

Federico Gravina, the Spanish Admiral

Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victorydefeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under the French Admiral Villeneuve in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar, near the town of Los Caños de Meca. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost. It was the most decisive naval battle of the war.

RIS