Here are the 10 that always blow my mind.

1. “Et tu, Brute?” – Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar did not say “et tu, Brute?” as he was being stabbed by a gang of assassins. It was made up by William Shakespeare, who may have borrowed it from an earlier playwright.

The Roman historian Suetonius writes that Caesar said nothing. Others claim he spat out the Greek phrase kai su, teknon which means roughly, “you too, young man.”

2. “Houston, we have a problem” – Jack Swigert

Perhaps it was Tom Hanks in the movie Apollo 13, but the expression “Houston, we’ve got a problem” is used so often that it’s probable that at any one point in time someone on earth is saying it. Maybe.

Anyway, in the film, the spaceship’s commander Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks, issues the famous line. But in reality Jack Swigert, the Command Module Pilot from Apollo 13, called Mission Control and said, “okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”

3. “Let them eat cake!” – Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette has become the ultimate meme. The go-to personification for an out-of-touch, super-wealthy idiot who totally fails to understand the rage and discontent of the people who are hungry, angry and mobilised.

As she watched a massive crowd of protestors from a palace window, she is supposed to have said, “let them eat cake.” Her reputation was sealed.

Marie Antoinette with her two eldest children, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte and the Dauphin Louis Joseph, in the gardens of the Petit Trianon

Image Credit: Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Problem is, she never said this—the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau did. Even better, he was not even talking about Marie Antoinette or cake for that matter. He wrote a book before the French Revolution even began in which an anonymous ‘great princess’ says of the hungry, “let them eat brioche!”

4. “I see no ships” – Admiral Horatio Nelson

Admiral Horatio Nelson famously ignored a signal from the flagship of his commanding officer during his victory over the Danish navy at the Battle of Copenhagen. But he did not say, “I see no ships.”

Instead, he said, “I have a right to be blind sometimes. I really do not see the signal.” Nelson did however say, “kiss me, Hardy”, on his death bed at the Battle of Trafalgar a couple of years later.

5. “We are not amused” – Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria has a bad rep. In the popular imagination, she is thought of as the grumpy, round granny who never got over the death of her beloved husband – a bit of a fun-free zone who epitomises the stuffy era over which she presided.

This is, like all two-dimensional characterisations, obviously unfair. She was as varied and full of surprises and contradictions as any of us. And her diaries are pretty racey, but that’s another story.

What matters here is that Queen Victoria almost certainly never said “we are not amused.” According to her granddaughter, in fact, Victoria herself insisted that she had never said this. It was seemingly made up by a courtier who said she heard the story from someone at Windsor Castle.

6. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – Neil Armstrong

To be fair, the audio from Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon is as patchy as you would expect a signal broadcast across a quarter of a million miles of empty space in the 1960s to be. That has helped to muddle the memory of the exact words that he spoke as he stepped onto the surface of another celestial object.

We all quote, “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” but it doesn’t actually make sense. It’s tautological, man and mankind are synonyms. In fact, he said, “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

7. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” – Henry Morton Stanley

Explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley did indeed go looking for Dr. David Livingstone, history’s most useless missionary, after he had disappeared in east Africa. After a terrible 700 mile trek, in which many of his porters were killed by tropical diseases, Stanley found Livingstone living in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, in modern Tanzania.

Stanley later claimed that he held out his hand and said, in an appropriately clipped, detached Victorian manner, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Neither of the men mentions it in accounts at the time and Stanley probably made it up later, to make himself sound cool.

8. “We shall fight them on the beaches” – Winston Churchill

It is Winston Churchill’s signature line, the ultimate roar of defiance in the face of the Nazi war machine, one of the greatest expressions of resolution in history. But he didn’t exactly say, “We shall fight them on the beaches” in the summer of 1940.

He did say, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

9. “Walk softly but carry a big stick” – Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt helped to reshape the Americas as European colonial powers retreated in the face of independence movements and the growing power of the economically vibrant USA. He is famous for using the expression, “walk softly but carry a big stick,” which he actually never used.

But he was fond of the expression, “speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far.” He used it in relation to New York politics, and then he used it again as Vice President when commenting on the American role in the world.

Four days after using the line in Minnesota, President William McKinley was assassinated, Roosevelt was sworn in, and it was now to be seen whether he would turn these words into actions.

President Theodore Roosevelt delivering a speech in Concord, New Hampshire. 28 August 1902.

Image Credit: SMU Central University Libraries / Public Domain

10. “The only two certainties in life are death and taxes” – Mark Twain

There comes a time in all of our lives when we throw down the old Mark Twain quote, “the only two certainties in life are death and taxes.” We think it makes us sound worldly-wise, cynical about government and, most importantly, witty.

But maybe the joke is on us, because Mark Twain never said this. It’s also not true, there are many other certainties, like the fact that we will end up misattributing fake historical sayings throughout our lives.

Two far less famous writers in the 18th century said something similar to the famed quote oft attributed to Twain. Christopher Bullock, for example, wrote in 1716, “tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes,” surprisingly ignoring the certainty of renewed Jacobite attempts to regain the throne. And Edward Ward wrote in 1724, “death and taxes, they are certain.”

Bonus: “May the force be with you” – Obi-Wan Kenobi

And here’s a bonus misquote. Many oft-quoted lines from movies are wrong. But my particular favourite is that Alec Guinness, aka Obi-Wan Kenobi, never says “may the force be with you” in the original Star Wars movies.

He had a charisma that made men undertake his commands willingly. His letters are filled with concern for the welfare of his crews. But I cannot pretend that the scale of his crushing victory at Trafalgar was down solely to his leadership.

Britain’s Georgian Royal Navy was a phenomenon. Technologically and numerically superior to all the other navies of the world combined, its officers and men hardened by generations of war, and motivated by a powerful tradition of victories.

The HMS Victory in Portsmouth in 1900, where it remains to this day.

Image Credit: Library of Congress / Commons.

The stunning defeat it inflicted on its French and Spanish enemy at Trafalgar is testament both to the potency of the Royal Navy as an instrument of war, and to the leadership of Nelson, who recognised its strengths, and came up with a plan of battle that would accentuate them.

The result was a decisive victory that annihilated the French and Spanish navies, capturing or destroying two thirds of their force, bringing to an end any talk of invading Britain, and creating a reinforcing a myth of British invincibility that would endure for over a century.

A change in strategy

Since the Spanish Armada in 1588, ships carrying cannon along either side of the vessel could only do serious damage to an enemy who were perpendicular to their line of advance, so tactics evolved whereby long lines of battleships would blast each other while travelling on parallel courses.

Nelson decided to dispense with these tactics at Trafalgar. They too often allowed one side to break off the action and it was hard to achieve a decisive result with long cumbersome lines tacking and wearing ship in unison. Nelson would split his fleet and send two columns right into the middle of the enemy.

Tactical map showing Nelson’s strategy to split the French and Spanish lines.

Image Credit: Oladelmar / Commons

This would precipitate a melee in which he knew his better trained crews, and faster, heavier guns would overcome the enemy.

His decision has gone down in military legend. Hungry for a result, he would sail straight at the enemy fleet, crash through their line, throw all into confusion, cut off at least a third of their ships and systemically destroy them. This was the plan of an admiral confident in the superiority of his raw materials.

Superior gunnery

Nelson’s cannons were triggered by gunlocks, these mechanisms sent a spark instantly down a touch hole to ignite the gunpowder in the barrel of the cannon. They made them quicker and safer to reload and much easier to aim than the Franco-Spanish fleet who were still using a much more primitive method.

Nelson’s ships also carried a terrible new weapon, 68-pounder carronades. These massive guns were designed for short range battering.

One infamous shot from a carronade on Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, saw a keg of 500 musket balls blasted through the stern windows of a French ship and effectively wiping out the crew manning the cannon on her gun deck.

A very able crew

It was not just the technology that was superior, the captains, officers, marines and seamen were hardened by years at sea. Whereas enemy ships had spent huge amounts of time cooped up in harbour, crewed by untrained landsmen, the British had been blockading the ports of Europe, beating back and forth in all weather, until crews were drilled to perfection.

Nelson’s last instruction to his captains was simple, “No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.” He knew that the plan would inevitably fall apart on contact with the enemy, in that situation, his captains knew the minimum of what was expected of them.

The risks

There was one great drawback to Nelson’s plan. While his ships were making straight for the great sickle shaped enemy fleet of 33 battleships the French and Spanish would be able to blast his columns with their full broadsides while the British fleet would effectively be unable to fire back.

He gambled on the fact that his enemy crews were ill-trained, and their gunnery poor.

However, the leading ship of either of Nelson’s column would certainly take a pounding. That is why Nelson insisted that his ship, HMS Victory would lead one column, and his second in command, Rear Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, aboard HMS Royal Sovereign would lead the other.

Conspicuous exposure to enemy fire was always a hallmark of Nelson’s leadership. Before Trafalgar he had been wounded several times, and had lost an arm and an eye. At Trafalgar he declined the opportunity to switch his flag to a ship further removed from the heat of battle and he paid for this with his life.

The Battle of Trafalgar

On 21 October 1805 Nelson’s 27 battleships glided on a gentle breeze towards the 33 strong French and Spanish fleet. Victory and Royal Sovereign did indeed take a pounding as they closed with the French and for a terrifying few minutes they found themselves isolated as they ploughed into the enemy lines.

Victory suffered terribly and Nelson was mortally wounded.

La Bucentaure at Trafalgar in a painting by Auguste Mayer.

Image Credit: Auguste Mayer / Commons

However, within minutes giant British battleships were arriving one after the other and the enemy was terribly outgunned and their crews slaughtered.

Most of the enemy ships who escaped this onslaught fled rather than reinforce their beleaguered comrades. No fewer than 22 enemy French and Spanish were captured, not a single one of Nelson’s ships was lost.

Nelson died, below the waterline on the orlop deck, at the very moment of victory. But so great was the victory, and so dominant did it leave the Royal Navy, that he left behind a country that did not depend on a single leader of genius to retain its command of the oceans.

The navy was a huge engine of the industrial revolution, the navy defended and then suppressed the trade in enslaved humans from West Africa to the Caribbean and the battles won and lost by the navy shaped the course of wars and the fate of nations.

Millions of men and women served aboard naval vessels and merchant navy ships, meaning that the language, slang and customs of sailors entered the English language. I have picked out some of my favourite phrases that we still commonly use today, but have their roots aboard the ships of Admiral Horatio Nelson’s navy.

1. Knowing the ropes

A ship of HMS Victory’s size had an astonishing 30 miles of rope aboard. More than 20 sails were hauled up and down, reefed and controlled by rope. Ropes held up the mast, ropes secured the cannon, ropes winched barrels out of the ship’s hold.

Often a third of the ship’s crew were inexperienced new recruits who had to be shown the ropes – which to pull, which to release and when. When a sailor knew the ropes he was made an ‘able seaman’ and given a pay rise.

2. The bitter end

A ship dropped an anchor to hold it fast to the seabed and stop it drifting off. The anchor was connected to the ship by a long, thick rope known as a cable. At the very end of the anchor cable were smaller ribbon-like ties which were tied to the ship, to fastening points in the deck called bitts.

So if they let down the entire length of anchor cable, they would reach the bitter end.

3. Clean slate

Every 24-hour period at sea was divided into a strict rota system which ensured that half the crew were on duty at any one time. Nelson’s crews were divided into 2 watches, who took it in turns to keep the ship safe and sailing in the right direction.

The officers in charge of a watch would write down any important information, such as their course and the wind direction, with chalk on a slate. At the change of the watch, the slate was wiped clean ready for the next shift.

They began with a clean slate.

4. Taken aback

Nelson’s ships had big, mostly square sails, which hung from wooden spars mounted at various points up the mast. They were pretty efficient if the wind was blowing from behind.

HMS Victory had around an acre of canvas catching the wind and pushing the huge ship forward. If the wind changed, however, the breeze might catch the sails on the wrong side, taking them aback. The sails were now pushing the ship backwards. Chaos ensued.

HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship vessel, docked in Portsmouth.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

5. Slush fund

The ship’s cook was usually an old veteran, perhaps one who had lost a limb or two over years of hard service in the Royal Navy.

Cooking was one of the easier jobs onboard, and it was a good way of looking after a loyal sailor who could no longer scramble aloft to handle the sails or manhandle the heavy guns.

There were perks to cooking onboard. Slush, the fatty waste grease created by cooking salt meat, could be sold at port to candle makers. This business left the crew with a ‘slush fund’ to be spent however they pleased.

6. Groggy

Grog was watered down rum. It was served to the sailors, particularly in the Caribbean where rum was plentiful and did not spoil when stored in barrels for long periods of time.

Sailors would hoard their daily rum ration so they could drink days’ worth in one go and get drunk. Alternatively, sailors were experts in smuggling booze aboard. One witness compared a naval ship to a gin shop.

The morning after a big session the crew might well be groggy.

7. Pipe down

Communication to the nearly 1,000 people aboard a ship like HMS Victory was via drums, bells and the infamous boatswain’s pipe or whistle which gave an unmistakable high-pitched shrill. These signals were known as pipes, and at 8 pm the crew was piped down – told to gather their hammocks and go below decks to sleep.

8. Bamboozle

An acceptable ruse of war was flying a false flag, pretending you were from a different nation. British ships could hoist a French or Spanish flag to trick the enemy. If they did that they were said to bamboozle the enemy.

John Paul Jones, one of the founders of the American navy, flew a British flag and even wore a British uniform in late 1780 when a hostile British ship approached.

9. Scupper

When waves crashed over the decks in heavy seas, the decks might be awash with water. To drain this water back into the sea there were holes or drains left at regular intervals in the ship’s superstructure called scuppers.

Anything that drained through these holes – seawater, rum or even blood spilled in battle – may have been described as being ‘scuppered’ overboard.

10. Deliver a broadside

The guns on Nelson’s ships were pointed through windows or gun ports along the sides of the ship. This meant the cannonballs travelled at 90 degrees to the ship’s direction of travel.

Cannons on the HMS Victory, Portsmouth, UK.

Image Credit: David Muscroft / Shutterstock

Firing all the guns along on side of the ship was referred to as a broadside: it was a gigantic explosion of dozens of heavy guns all at the same time, sending tons of iron cannonballs tearing into an enemy ship.

11. Close to the wind

Sailing ships harness wind power to move through the water, angling their sails to catch the wind as efficiently as possible. Even today, sailing boats cannot sail directly into the wind, and Nelson’s big ships certainly couldn’t. Instead, they sailed as ‘close to the wind’ as they could, meaning they minimised the angle between their course and the direction the wind was coming from.

This type of sailing puts great pressure on the ships, rigging and sails. And if they sailed too close to the wind, their sails would flap violently, the rigging might get damaged, the ships would slow down and the crew might well lose control of the ship.

The monument bearing his name, Nelson’s Column, stands in London’s Trafalgar Square and dominates the centre of the British capital. Here are 20 facts about him.

1. Horatio Nelson was born in 1758 in Norfolk

He was the son of Edmund, a clergyman, and Catherine, who died when he was nine years old.

2. At 14, Nelson took part in an expedition to the Arctic

During the expedition, he defended a small boat from a walrus attack.

Horatio Nelson in 1781. Credit: National Maritime Museum / Commons

3. Nelson met his mistress Emma Hamilton in 1793

After meeting in Naples, the pair began an affair despite both being married. By the time they returned to England with Hamilton’s husband, Sir William Hamilton, in 1800, Emma was pregnant with Nelson’s child.

4. Nelson had been married for 10 years when he met Emma

Nelson separated from his wife, Frances Nisbet, following his return from Naples in 1800 but she received half of his income during his lifetime and a generous pension after his death.

A portrait of Emma Hamilton by the English painter George Romney.

5. Nelson lost the sight in his right eye during the siege of Calvi in 1794

Contrary to some depictions, however, evidence suggests that he did not wear an eyepatch.

6. He was shot in the arm during the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797

The musket ball severed an artery and his arm was amputated immediately – without anaesthetic.

7. In August 1798, Nelson defeated the French fleet at Aboukir Bay at the mouth of the Nile in Egypt

Following the achievement, King George III made him Baron Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe (his birthplace).

8. The decoration on his hat was called a chelengk

It was given to Nelson by the sultan of Turkey in recognition of the former’s defeat of the French fleet at the Nile. The central diamond sat in a clockwork mount that rotated.

The chelengk on Nelson’s hat is clearly visible in this portrait. The Ottoman military decoration was stolen in a raid on the National Maritime Museum in the 1950s.

9. Nelson and Hamilton “married” in 1805

The day before Nelson sailed for Trafalgar, he and Hamilton took Holy Communion together and exchanged rings.

10. Nelson referred to his battle plan at Trafalgar as the “Nelson Touch”

The tactic is better known as “crossing the T”. Rather than forming up in a single line of battle and engaging broadside, Nelson formed two columns with the intention of slicing through the Franco-Spanish line. In the resulting melee, Nelson believed the superiority of British gunnery would win the day.

11. He called his captains a “band of brothers”

It was a reference to Shakespeare’s Henry V play. Prior to the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson thoroughly briefed his captains about his plan, ensuring they understood every detail. But he also encouraged them to use their own initiative and to react to the battle as it developed rather than be hampered by rigid orders.

Nelson’s signal, “England expects that every man will do his duty”. Credit: Tkgd2007 / Commons

12. As the British fleet closed in on the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar, Nelson flew his famous signal, “England expects that every man will do his duty”

The signal used the Popham flag code, developed by Rear Admiral Sir Home Popham and adopted by the Royal Navy as standard in 1803.

13. Nelson received a fatal wound at Trafalgar

At around 1.15pm, as he walked the quarterdeck of the HMS Victory, Nelson was hit in the shoulder by a bullet from a musket, which punctured his lung and fractured his spine. He died several hours later.

14. His last words were, “Thank God I have done my duty”

Three accounts of Nelson’s death all state that these were his final words. By the time of his death, the outcome of the Battle of Trafalgar was clear – the Royal Navy had proved victorious.

Painter Denis Dighton’s imagining of Nelson being shot on the quarterdeck of the Victory. Credit: National Maritime Museum / Commons

15. The Battle of Trafalgar was followed by a terrible storm that lasted seven days

Fifteen of the Franco-Spanish ships taken as prizes by the British fleet either sank or were abandoned in the storm, including the French flagship, the Bucentaure.

16. Nelson’s body was preserved in brandy

The day after the battle, Nelson’s body was placed in a barrel filled with brandy. His body did not arrive back in England until the December of that year. Nelson was interred in a coffin made from the mainmast of the French flagship L’Orient, sunk by Nelson at the Battle of the Nile.

17. Emma Hamilton ended her life destitute

Despite Nelson changing his will to request that Hamilton be provided for, she and her daughter Horatia received no financial support after his death. She became an alcoholic and accrued huge debts that led to her spending time in debtors’ prison.

Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, built between 1840 and 1843. Credit: Elliott Brown / Commons

18. 100,000 people attended Nelson’s lying in state

He lay in state in Greenwich for three days in January 1806. His funeral took place on 9 January.

19. His sarcophagus was originally designed for Cardinal Wolsey

Wolsey fell out of favour with Henry VIII who took possession of the then unfinished sarcophagus, intending to use it himself.

20. The British Navy toasts the “immortal memory” of Nelson on Trafalgar Day

The first recorded instance of the toast dates back to 1811.

The last time any invaders’ foot ever touched British soil – if you discount the odd parachuted secret agent during World War Two – was 22 February 1797, when 1,400 drunken, ill-disciplined louts from the French Legion Noire descended upon Fishguard in northern Pembrokeshire.

The “Last Invasion” is now a largely forgotten episode but at the time this farcical enterprise terrified the British people who immediately ran for the hills – literally. As they went they buried their valuables in their gardens.

The fleeing populace stopped to call in at their local bank and demand their money – paid out in gold and silver – which then joined their necklaces and pocket watches in the earth.

It was pure unadulterated panic and it caused such a near-fatal run on the country’s financial institutions that the Bank of England nearly ran out of money!

A diversionary mission

Delineated from actual survey by Thomas Propert, Land Surv’yr. Created on 11 February 1798 (Credit: National Library of Wales).

The “invasion,” which lasted just three days, was intended as diversionary raid to draw the attention of the Royal Navy away from the real target – southern Ireland. The chances of any of the invaders surviving such a forlorn enterprise were few and far between.

It stood to reason that no-one was ever going to risk top quality troops on such an expedition, hence the decision to open the jails and offer the convicts a choice – fight or carry on kicking your heels in prison. Most of them took the option to fight.

The original Irish adventure foundered in the face of a severe gale in December 1796. Even so, the Directory – the ruling council of Revolutionary France – decided to launch the diversionary raid anyway. It was two months late but, what the heck!

A series of farcical events

The newly released ruffians of the Legion Noire were causing serious problems in the taverns and on the streets of Brest and the idea of sending them to cause more trouble in Britain had a decided appeal. In that it certainly worked.

The Legion Noire was created on the orders of General Lazare Hoche, 1801 (Credit: Jean-Louis Laneuville, Musée de la Révolution française).

The original intention was to send the Legion Noire to Bristol. They were supposed to sack and burn the city but wind and tide were against them and so they turned around and headed for Fishguard instead.

Wales was then considered, by the French at least, a hot bed of revolution and that was where the convicts were now aiming. As one wit later put it:

The British send their convicts to New South Wales, the French send theirs to old south Wales.

The Legion, under the command of an Irish-American called William Tate landed on the Pencaer Peninsula outside Fishguard on the night of 22 February 1797. They could have come ashore in Fishguard Bay but had been frightened away when a cannon shot from the local fort caused them to heel around and head back along the coast.

What the French did not know was that the shot had been a blank – the first in a long line of equally as farcical events.

Docking at Pembrokeshire

Despite the setback the convict-soldiers successfully landed across the rocks of Pencaer and then proceeded to consume the wild life and farm animals of the area.

A Portuguese coaster with a cargo of wine had come ashore only a few weeks before and had been looted by the locals. The convicts promptly set about consuming this as well.

French troops surrendering to British Forces at Goodwick Sands, following the invasion of Fishguard, 1797 (Credit: John Bluck, National Library of Wales).

For two days the Legion Noire rolled in drunken ecstasy around northern Pembrokeshire. Tate and his officers could not control them and several were either captured by the local Fencibles or tipped unceremoniously by the locals into deep wells or over the cliffs.

It could not go on and Tate surrendered to Lord Cawdor, leader of the makeshift force of sailors, farmers and a few members of the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry who marched to oppose the invasion.

Portrait of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1778 (Credit: Public domain).

Legends inevitably grew up around the affair.

The Welsh women in their red shawls and tall black hats were, it was said, deliberately marched around the headland to convince the drunken Frenchmen that they were soldiers. Not true but it makes a great story.

The legacy of the “Last Invasion”

The invasion had been a farce, from beginning to end, but several important results did emerge.

The government quickly realised that Britain’s only real means of defence lay in her navy. As a result the ships of Lord Nelson and the other admirals were soon reinforced with new and immensely powerful vessels, creating a British Fleet that would decisively defeat the French and Spanish at Trafalgar and go on to “rule the waves” for over a hundred years.

The Battle of Trafalgar by J. M. W. Turner, c. 1806 (Credit: Tate Britain).

Dockyards were needed to build the ships and several new yards were created at home and abroad. One of them was in Pembrokeshire where the new dockyard and town of Pembroke Dock became the pride of the Royal Navy.

The Bank of England’s response

Perhaps most importantly the Bank of England came perilously close to running out of the gold and silver it so cherished and was forced to suspend cash payments.

It had happened before, during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 but this time the suspension was considerably longer lasting.

The Bank issued promissory notes for £1 and £2; in effect a government sponsored IOU. The £1 note remained in use until the 1980s when it was finally superseded by the £1 coin.

The one pound note remained in use until the 1980s.

The Bank of England did not resume cash payments for 20 years after 1797 but the paper notes soon became an indispensable part of British life.

A Select Committee was called to examine the affairs of the Bank of England, their report showing that demands on the Bank’s resources on 25 February 1797 were £13,770,390. To meet these demands the Bank had funds of £17,597,280.

It had been a tight run thing and if the run on the Bank had continued the funds would have been soon eroded.

The drunken Frenchmen, lying in their prison hulks across Britain, did not know how close they had come to success.

Phil Carradice is a well-known writer and historian with over 60 books to his credit. A poet, story teller and broadcaster, he is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio and TV, presents the BBC Wales History programme “The Past Master”. His most recent book, Britain’s Last Invasion, was published by Pen and Sword in January 2020.

Here are five reasons for her success:

1. HMS Victory was decked out with the most powerful weaponry

At the Battle of Trafalgar, Victory carried 104 guns of different calibres. The most effective were the 68-pounder carronades, which were short, smoothbore cannons, and state-of-the-art in the early 19th century.

With poor aim and range but a capacity to unleash huge power, their function was to fire at close distances and trigger devastation right through the heart of a ship’s hull.

One of the gun decks on HMS Victory.

Each gun would have an operational team of 12 men. Young boys, called powder monkeys, would run to the magazines on the lower decks to restock gunpowder filled cartridges.

Unlike those in the Franco-Spanish fleets, Nelson’s cannons were triggered by gunlocks, a safety mechanism to make it much quicker and safer to reload and fire.

Nelson’s strategy at Trafalgar allowed these carronades to be used to their full ability, releasing a shattering treble-shotted broadside into Bucentaure, the French ship.

One infamous shot from a carronade on HMS Victory saw a keg of 500 musket balls blasted straight into the gunport of a French ship, effectively wiping out the entire crew manning the cannon.

HMS Victory’s starboard flank.

Victory used three types of shot: the round solid shot used to pummel a ship’s hull, the dismantling shots aimed to tear down masts and rigging, and the anti-personnel or grape shots aimed to maim crew members with a showering of smalls iron balls.

2. Everything on Victory was the biggest and best 

The four masts held 27 miles of rigging and 37 sails made from four acres of canvas. Dundee weavers would have spent around 1,200 hours just to stitch the top sail together. An additional 23 sails were on board as spares, making it the fastest and most manoeuvrable ship of its day – effective in any situation.

Unsurprisingly, this required enormous amounts of labour-intensive manpower. To put all 37 sails up, after hearing the order, 120 men would leave their stations to climb the rigging ladders and heave on lines, taking just six minutes. It was not uncommon for sailors to fall to their deaths from wet ropes and gusts of wind.

Victory carried seven anchors. The largest and heaviest weighed 4 tons and was used for holding the ship in deep water. It was always rigged on the starboard due to prevailing winds of the northern hemisphere. Around 144 men were needed to raise this anchor, the cable of which was made of hemp and became tremendously heavy in water.

3. The Royal Navy were the most experienced sailors in the world

The Royal Navy crew of captains, officers, marines and seamen were some of the best in the world, hardened by years at sea and drilled to perfection.

Such a slick operation was a product of blockading ports of Europe, fighting battles all across the world, maintaining order across the growing empire, regulating trade routes and withstanding every form of tide and weather. In contrast, many enemy ships had spent time cooped up in harbour and relied on crews of inexperienced landsmen.

Victory’s 20-year-old 2nd Marine Lieutenant, Lewis Roatley, wrote about operating the guns:

‘A man should witness a battle in a three-decker from the middle deck, for it beggars all description: it bewilders the senses of sight and hearing.’

In light of this chaos, it seems unsurprising that experienced British sailors would have the upper hand against unseasoned landsmen.

4. Victory was built with the strongest wood in England

When HMS Victory was built, she was a state-of-the-art beacon of British technology – the modern-day fighter jet or spacecraft. When she was commissioned in 1763, Britain fought in the final stages of the Seven Years War, and huge swathes of money were pumped into the Royal Navy to make it the most effective in the world.

Designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir Thomas Slade, her keel was to be 259 ft long and carry a crew of about 850.

The Stern of HMS Victory. Image source: Ballista / CC BY-SA 3.0

About 6,000 trees were used in construction. These were mainly oaks from Kent, with some from the New Forest and Germany.

Certain parts of the ship needed to be made from a single piece of oak to take great pressure, such as the 30-foot-high ‘stern post’. For this, enormous mature oak trees were acquired. Parts of the decks, keel and yard arms were made of fir, spruce and elm.

After the keel and frame were constructed, shipwrights would usually cover the ship in canvas for several months to allow more seasoning of the wood, thereby strengthening it.

Soon after work on HMS Victory started, the Seven Years War ended and her construction stalled. This allowed her wooden frame to remained covered for three years and gain immense strength and sturdiness.

5. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing

When the shipbuilders sought to launch the new vessel, it became apparent that the gates out of the yard were 9 inches too narrow. The master shipwright, John Allin, ordered every available shipwright to hew away enough of the gate to allow the ship to pass.

After this first hurdle, other embarrassments emerged. She had a distinct lean to the starboard, which was rectified by increasing the ballast to settle her upright, and she sat so low in the water that her gun ports were just 1.4m below the waterline.

This second problem could not be rectified, and her sailing instructions were changed to note the lower gun ports were unusable in rough weather, potentially limiting her firepower immensely. As it turned out, she never fought a battle in rough seas, so these limitations never materialised.

By the turn of the 19th century, after leading fleets in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars, it seemed Victory had served her term.

She was considered too old for service, and left anchored off Chatham Dockyard in Kent. In December 1796, her fate was to house French and Spanish prisoners of war as a hospital ship.

However, after HMS Impregnable ran aground off Chichester, the Admiralty were short of a three-decked ship of the line. Victory was destined to be reconditioned and modernised at the cost of £70,933.

Extra gun ports were added, magazines lined with copper and she was painted black and yellow, giving rise to the pattern of ‘Nelson Chequer’. In 1803, as sharp and speedy as any new ship, the most glorious period of Victory’s history began, as Nelson sailed her to command the Mediterranean fleet.

Denis Dighton’s imagining of Nelson being shot on the quarterdeck.

The victory halted Napoleon’s grand ambitions of conquering Britain, and ensured that a French fleet could never establish control over the seas. Britain became the dominant naval power for most of the rest of the 19th century.

1. The British fleet was outnumbered

While the British had 27 ships, the French and Spanish had a combined total of 33 ships.

The Battle of Trafalgar, as seen from the starboard mizzen shrouds of the Victory by J. M. W. Turner.

2. Before the battle, Nelson sent the famous signal: ‘England expects every man to do his duty’

3. Nelson famously sailed in the face of naval doctrine

Normally opposing fleets would form two lines and engage in a clash of broadsides until one fleet withdrew.

Instead, Nelson split his fleet in two, placing half of it under the command of his deputy, Admiral Collingwood, and sailed straight at the French and Spanish lines, aiming to cleave them in half, and avoid engaging the numerically superior fleet in a battle of attrition.

Tactical map showing Nelson’s strategy to split the French and Spanish lines.

4. Nelson’s flagship was HMS Victory

It had 104 guns, and was constructed from 6,000 oaks and elms. It required 26 miles of rope and rigging for the three masts, and was crewed by 821 men.

5. The first British ship to engage the enemy was Admiral Collingwood’s flagship, the Royal Sovereign

As the ship engaged the Spanish Santa Anna, Collingwood supposedly remained composed, eating an apple and pacing about. This was despite suffering severe bruising in the leg from a flying splinter of wood as well as being hurt in the back by a cannonball.

Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood (26 September 1748 – 7 March 1810) was an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Horatio Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars, and frequently as Nelson’s successor in commands.

6. Nelson was fatally wounded as his ship was engaged with the French ship the Redoutable

He was standing on deck, as was the tradition for officers in this age of naval combat, and was hit in the spine by a French sharpshooter. He realised he would die quickly, and was taken below deck so as not to demotivate the men. Nelson’s final words, according to contemporary accounts, were:

Take care of my dear Lady Hamilton, Hardy, take care of poor Lady Hamilton.

He paused then said very faintly,

Kiss me, Hardy.

This, Hardy did, on the cheek. Nelson then said,

Now I am satisfied. Thank God I have done my duty.

Painter Denis Dighton’s imagining of Nelson being shot on the quarterdeck of Victory.

7. The total firepower of both armies at Waterloo amounted to 7.3% of the firepower at Trafalgar

8. The Spanish expressed their sorrow when they heard of Nelson’s death

This was reported from an exchange of prisoners:

“The English Officers, who have returned from Cadiz, state that the account of Lord Nelson’s death was received there with extreme sorrow and regret by the Spaniards, and that some of them were even observed to shed tears on the occasion.

They said, ‘though he had been the ruin of their Navy, yet they could not help lamenting his fall, as being the most generous Enemy, and the greatest Commander of the age!’”

9. After Trafalgar, many of the men were not allowed to either go home or spend much time on shore

This was because the British had to maintain a blockade of Cadiz and other ports. Admiral Collingwood was continuously on board his ship for nearly five years as he commanded a fleet involved in the blockade.

The Battle of Trafalgar by Clarkson Stanfield.

10. Collingwood’s only consolation was his pet dog, Bounce, who was ailing, much like Collingwood himself

Collingwood wrote to his children that he had written a song for his dog:

Tell the children that Bounce is very well and very fat, yet he seems not to be content, and sighs so piteously these long evenings, that I am obliged to sing him to sleep, and have sent them the song:

Sigh no more, Bouncey, sigh no more,
Dogs were deceivers never;
Though ne’er you put one foot on shore,
True to your master ever.
Then sigh not so, but let us go,
Where dinner’s daily ready,
Converting all the sounds of woe
To heigh phiddy diddy.

Bounce fell overboard and drowned in August 1809, and Collingwood became seriously ill around this time. He wrote to the Admiralty for permission to return home, which was finally granted, but as he was on his way to England, he died at sea in March 1810.

He was sixty-two, and he hadn’t seen his wife or his children since before Trafalgar.

11. Originally, Trafalgar Square was the site of the Royal Stables

When it was rebuilt in the the 1830s, Trafalgar Square was supposed to be named after William IV, but the architect George Ledwell Taylor proposed naming it for Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar. Nelson’s column was erected in 1843.

Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square. It was built between 1840 and 1843 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson’s death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

12. Sir Edwin Landseer was supplied with a dead lion from the London Zoo as a model for the lions at its base

Some of its corpse had begun to rot, which is said to be why its paws resemble those of a cat.

In the UK at least, the battle’s fame is second only to Waterloo among the many clashes of the Napoleonic Wars. Even if the details are sketchy, this celebrated British naval victory, and the fate of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, is familiar to most Brits. But was Trafalgar as significant a battle as its fame suggests?

An unorthodox and gutsy plan

Trafalgar was fought off the western mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar, where a Franco-Spanish fleet of 33 ships, commanded by Vice Admiral Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve and Admiral Don Federico Gravina, clashed with 27 ships of the line commanded by Nelson. The British squadron prevailed in spectacular fashion, downing 22 Franco-Spanish ships without the loss of a single vessel.

Villeneuve was captured along with his ship while Gravina escaped but died two months later from injuries sustained in the battle.

This strikingly decisive victory – the most comprehensive of the Napoleonic Wars – owed much to Nelson’s tactical ingenuity.

By breaking from the convention of forming a single line of battle and instead dividing his smaller fleet into two columns directed perpendicularly against the enemy fleet, Nelson was able to force a number of individual ship-to-ship actions. He was confident that his men would prevail in such close-quarter combat.

Nelson’s heroism

Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1799 portrait by Lemuel Francis Abbott.

The admiral’s plan was bold and his leadership exemplary. Having led the first column of attack from the deck of his ship, HMS Victory, and successfully taken the enemy flagship out of action, Nelson was struck by musket fire and mortally wounded.

Nelson’s was a heroic death that only served to seal his legend. Though his death was a great loss to the British Navy, it galvanised British spirits at a time when the threat of French domination in Europe was a matter of growing national concern.

Trafalgar proved Britain’s naval superiority beyond doubt

The emphatic nature of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar was important. It has been said that, while other British admirals may have also prevailed in the battle, Nelson did so in such a style that he effectively sealed Britain’s reputation as the world’s leading naval power for more than a century.

Napoleon’s maritime ambitions were crippled at Trafalgar and his plans to invade Britain were made to look more misguided in their ambition than ever before.