| Naval history of Great Britain - Vol. IV
by
William James |
| 1805 |
Battle of Trafalgar |
51 |
knocked off her quarter. The boat then turned bottom upwards ; and Lieutenant Clement held fast by the boat's fall until one of his two companions, a black man, Macnamara by name, swam to the Tonnant, and returned with a rope that lead out of the ship's stern port. By this means a brave young officer, who had been in two or three of the general actions of the preceding war, was saved to his country.
Among the damages sustained by the Tonnant in the hull, was a bad wound in the rudder, a portion of the head of which was shot away ; and a great part of her starboard quarter piece, with the rails and gallery, was carried away by the Alg�siras when the vessels got foul. The loss on board the Tonnant amounted to one midshipman (William Brown), 16 seamen, and nine marines killed, her captain (severely), boatswain (Richard Little), the captain's clerk (William Allen), one master's mate (Henry Ready), 30 seamen, and 16 marines wounded. The Alg�siras had upwards of 200 men killed and wounded, including several officers, and among the mortally wounded, the brave and highly respected Rear-admiral Magon, who had previously been wounded in two places, but would not quit the deck.
After having captured the Alg�siras and disengaged herself from her prize, the Tonnant fired several shot at the squadron of M. Dumanoir passing to windward ; but, having no boat left, could not send again to take possession of the San-Juan. That Spanish ship, however, was shortly afterwards engaged and secured by the Dreadnought.
In consequence of the novel mode of attack adopted by the commander-in-chief, each British ship, as she bore up in line ahead, was obliged to follow in the wake of her leader until close upon the enemy's line : her commander, then, acting up to Lord Nelson's instructions, as contained in the memorandum at a previous page, that no captain could do very wrong who placed his ship alongside that of an enemy, attached himself to the first Frenchman or Spaniard that crossed his path. Most of the captains had also received, on the morning of the action Lord Nelson's verbal directions, transmitted through the captains of the frigates, that they were to break the enemy's line where-ever they conveniently could. This, in effect, discretionary power was particularly beneficial towards the height of the battle, when the enemy's ships, by an irregular movement from the rear to the centre, and, in some instances, from the centre and van to the rear, were every instant shifting their positions, and giving to their line, if line it could be called, a new face.
It was not until full 15 minutes after the Tonnant had cut the line, that her second astern, the Bellerophon, owing to her distance from the former and the lightness of the wind, was enabled to do the same. This she accomplished by passing under the stern of the Monarca, as the latter, with colours rehoisted, was dropping away from the Tonnant. In luffing up
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