Nelson's Battles in 3D: The Nile

An Epic History / Drchinifel collaboration. In 1792, the French Revolution sparked a  European conflict that would last a generation. .

. . a struggle for mastery  of Europe, and the world.

…a contest fought on land, and sea. In this war of shifting alliances, the most  enduring rivalry was between France and Britain. Britain could not challenge France on land. 

But at sea, it was a different matter. Britain’s Royal Navy was as dominant on the  waves, as Napoleon was to prove on land. And in an age when Britain had many skilled  naval commanders, one stood out above the rest… Horatio Nelson.

Bold, inspiring, and brilliant… For the British,  he’d become a national hero, and legend. These are the stories of his greatest battles. 1798.

The sixth year of the French  Revolutionary Wars… and France is winning. General Bonaparte’s brilliant victories in  Italy have forced Austria to sue for peace. Spain, once France’s enemy, is now an ally.

Britain is the only major power still  at war with the French Republic. British naval power makes a  cross-Channel invasion impossible. So the French government decides to strike at  Britain indirectly – by sending an expedition, led by General Bonaparte, to conquer Egypt.

If the French succeed, and destroy  British influence and trade in the region, they will strike a powerful blow  against their last major enemy. The previous year, the British defeated a  Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent.

But the Royal Navy currently has no  major forces in the Mediterranean. Therefore, the French believe they  can sail to Egypt in relative safety. When the British learn that a large  French fleet is assembling at Toulon, they send Rear-Admiral Nelson, with  3 ships-of-the-line, to investigate.

But he is driven south by gales, just as  the French – with 13 ships-of-the-line, several frigates and hundreds  of transports - set sail. Bonaparte has given the British the slip. Nelson is reinforced with 11 ships of the line… And learning that the French have  stopped at, and captured Malta, he correctly deduces that  Egypt is their destination.

He sets off at full speed to intercept. The British warships are much faster  than the French invasion force. But they overtake their quarry on  a foggy night – and though the two fleets pass within a few miles of each  other, neither side spots the other.

Unaware of their near miss,  the British race on to Egypt. Arriving at Alexandria, Nelson sees no sign of  the French, and heads north, to continue the hunt. He misses Bonaparte’s fleet.

. by 24 hours. The French land safely in Egypt, and march inland, en route to a famous victory  at the Battle of the Pyramids.

The French fleet remains  at anchor, in Aboukir Bay. More than a month later,  word finally reaches Nelson, in Sicily, that the French fleet is in Egypt. Racing back to Alexandria with his squadron, he arrives on 1st August.

He quickly locates  the French fleet, and prepares to attack. The French fleet is commanded by Admiral  Francois-Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers. He is an experienced commander, who saw action at the Battle of the Chesapeake  during the American Revolution.

He’s now a rare thing in the navy of the  French Republic: a 45-year-old aristocrat, who’s neither fled abroad nor been guillotined. Recently promoted to Vice Admiral, he  has a reputation for personal courage, mixed with strategic caution. Admiral Brueys has one objective  – to preserve his fleet.

Bonaparte’s army relies on his ships for  communications and supplies from France. What’s more, when Nelson arrives,  almost a third of his crews are ashore, foraging for water and supplies. Admiral Brueys concludes he  must fight a defensive battle.

His fleet – 13 ships of the line, and 4  frigates - will remain anchored in Aboukir Bay, in line, and just under a mile from shore. His own flagship, the first-rate,  120-gun L’Orient, is in the centre. Shoals and shallow water protect their  western flank… meaning the French, with their reduced crews, only  have to man the guns on one side.

Brueys issues orders for each French  ship to secure itself to its neighbours, fore and aft, with heavy cables. The fleet is to form an unbreakable wall  of ships, ready to resist any attack. Brueys well knows the reputation of his  enemy, Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson.

The previous year, Nelson had been feted for his  heroic role at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. But five months later, he’d lost his right arm following a failed attack  on the Spanish at Tenerife.

He’d spent the rest of the year convalescing  ashore, and therefore missed the British victory over the Dutch at Camperdown that  October – something he found so frustrating, he declared he’d happily have given his  other arm for the chance to take part. Having found the enemy fleet, Nelson  is determined to engage and destroy it. And he has sound strategic reasons  for a high-risk attack on the French.

If Nelson can destroy their fleet,  the French army in Egypt will be stranded – far from home, amid a  hostile climate and population. It will mean the failure  of Bonaparte’s expedition, without a single Redcoat stepping ashore. Nelson has 13 third-rate ships of the line, plus the 50-gun Leander.

. and a  small sloop, for running messages. Facing 13 French ships-of-the-line,  and four frigates, the two forces are evenly matched… though the French  flagship L’Orient, with 120 guns, is far and away the most powerful warship present.

Nelson decides on a night attack,  that will exploit Brueys’s caution. He will advance along the seaward  side of the French line, and when his vanguard reaches the French flagship,  L’Orient, his ships will drop anchor. His entire fleet will take on half the  French fleet – with northerly winds preventing the remaining French  ships from joining the battle.

Nelson’s plan is bold and simple.  But it will not go as intended. The British fleet begins its final approach  at 6pm, under full sail, in line astern.

The 74-gun HMS Goliath is in the lead. She is followed by HMS Zealous, and HMS Audacious. The wind is from the north-west, the seas calm.

The British do not have reliable maps of the bay,  meaning there is a real risk of running aground. So HMS Goliath has to take careful soundings  as she goes, checking the sea’s depth. When Goliath rounds the entrance to Aboukir  Bay, marked by shoals and a small island… the British begin their turn south, to sail  with the wind, towards the French line.

The French have been observing the  British approach. And at 6. 20pm, as Goliath comes within range, they open fire.

Nelson has always encouraged his  officers to use their initiative. So when Captain Foley, commanding  HMS Goliath, sees there is a gap between the French ships and the shoals…  he makes a snap decision, to sail down it. Goliath’s course will be followed by  Zealous, Audacious, Orion and Theseus.

Nelson’s flagship, HMS Vanguard, will now lead the rest of the fleet down  the seaward side of the French line. Captain Foley’s bold decision exploits a  disastrous oversight by Admiral Brueys. He has assumed that the shoals make it impossible  for him to be attacked from the landward side.

Now, not only will his vanguard be ‘doubled’ –  attacked on both sides… but French guns on the landward side are not even ready for action.  There are barely enough sailors to man them. As Goliath passes across the bow of Guerrier, she fires a raking broadside into her – roundshot  smashing its way down the length of the ship.

Each following British ship blasts  Guerrier in the same fashion. HMS Orion takes a wider track to avoid the  melee developing at the head of the French line. This will bring her past the French  frigate Sérieuse, in the shallows.

According to convention, ships-of-the-line did not  normally fire on frigates during fleet actions. But when the captain of Sérieuse fires  on Orion, he waives this protection. Orion holds her fire until she passes the French  frigate, then returns fire at point blank range.

Her heavy broadside smashes  the French frigate to pieces. The British landward column drops anchor,  to take on the French vanguard. .

. . While the seaward column, led  by Nelson aboard HMS Vanguard, arrives to hit the French from the other side.

Each ship’s captain singles out a  target, and drops anchor alongside: Vanguard alongside Spartiate… Minotaur against Aquilon… Defence against Peuple Souverain. Five French ships are now under attack from eight  British ships, most of them from both sides. HMS Bellerophon, and Majestic now join the battle They head for the centre of the French line.

Bellerophon aims for Franklin, but overshoots, and comes alongside Admiral Brueys’  formidable flagship, L’Orient. HMS Majestic also misjudges her approach, becoming entangled with Tonnant, and  fighting two French ships simultaneously. By 7pm, the light is fading.

Two miles north, the last  British ship, HMS Culloden, cannot make out the edge of  the shoals, and runs aground. HMS Leander, and the sloop, Mutine, divert, to try to tow Culloden clear.  But it will prove a futile task.

Culloden’s fate shows just how small the room  for error has been during the British approach. The French vanguard has now been  under heavy attack for 30 minutes. Conquerant has been completely  dismasted.

Her captain is dying. A third of her crew are casualties. She is first to strike her colours.

But it’s not all one-way traffic. HMS Bellerophon is heavily outgunned  in her contest with L’Orient. 200 men, a third of her crew,  have been killed or wouded, and she’s lost her main and mizzen  masts.

Her captain gives the order to cut the anchor cable, so the ship  will drift out of the firing line. Around half past eight, two British stragglers, HMS Swiftsure, and Alexander,  join the battle late. In the smoke and gloom, they  pass the drifting hulk of Bellerophon… and nearly fire on her by mistake.

Swiftsure and Alexander break the  enemy line either side of L’Orient, pouring raking fire into the French flagship. Aboard Vanguard, Nelson’s been hit  in the forehead by a splinter. His face streaming blood, he thinks it’s the end.

“I am killed,“ he announces,  “Remember me to my wife. ” But he’s soon stitched up by the  ship’s surgeon, and back in command. The wounds of French commander Admiral  Brueys, aboard L’Orient, are far more serious.

Horribly injured in the face and  hands, he’s then hit by a cannon ball that removes his legs. He still refuses  to leave his post on deck, and dies there. As darkness falls, Guerrier, and Spartiate, which have been under heavy fire for more  than 2 hours, both strike their colours.

Around the same time, HMS Leander, having given  up her attempt to tow HMS Culloden free, breaks the French line between Peuple  Souverain and Franklin. . raking both.

The battle is turning decisively  in the Royal Navy’s favour. Aquilon fights hard, turning herself to rake  the British flagship, HMS Vanguard. But in turn, she is raked by HMS Minotaur, and  hauls down her colours at 9.

25. Peuple Souverain tries to escape by cutting her  anchor cable and drifting down the French line. L’Orient mistakes her for  the enemy, and opens fire.

Minutes later, the flicker of flames is seen  through the lower deck gunports of L’Orient. The fire spreads, deck by deck, until the massive  French flagship is ablaze from stem to stern. Every onlooker knows that deep within  L’Orient’s hold, lies her grand magazine, containing 30 to 40 tons of gunpowder.

All ships in the vicinity take emergency measures. Gun ports are closed, and ship’s sides, decks and  sails are soaked with water from the elm pumps, in anticipation of the explosion to come. French ships Tonnant, Heureux and  Mercure cut their anchor cables, hoping to drift to a safe distance.

Around 10pm, the fire reaches  L’Orient’s grand magazine The warship is obliterated  in a colossal explosion, killing everyone left on board, and many  who’d jumped overboard to save themselves. More than 90% of the ship’s crew  are killed – around 1,000 men. The sheer force of the  explosion spares nearby ships, as flaming wreckage is blasted up, and over them.

Stunned, both sides stop firing,  to gaze in horror at the spectacle. British ships lower boats  to rescue the few survivors. After a ten-minute lull, firing resumes.

But after the appalling destruction of their  flagship, the French are running out of fight. Swiftsure and Defence turn their guns on  Franklin, and soon force her surrender. Tonnant, having cut her cables  and unable to manoeuvre, drifts helplessly into the French rearguard.

These three ships, unable to sail  into the wind to join the action, have looked on impotently as the carnage unfolds. Dawn on 2nd August revealed a terrible  scene of death and destruction. Jon Nicol of the Goliath was a witness.

"I went on deck to view the state of the fleets, and an awful sight it was. The whole  bay was covered with dead bodies, mangled, wounded and scorched, not a bit  of clothes on them except their trousers. " The entire French vanguard had  been captured or destroyed.

Heureux and Mercure have run aground, in their panicked attempt to  escape the explosion of L’Orient. The four surviving French ships-of-the-line  will now attempt to fight their way clear. Two run aground.

Only the Generaux, Guillaume Tell and  two frigates escape the devastation. The captain of the Guillaume  Tell, Pierre Villeneuve, will face sharp criticism for failing  to play a greater part in the battle. Seven years later, as fleet commander,  he will face Nelson again.

. at Trafalgar. British losses are 218 killed, 678 wounded.

Three ships are badly damaged –  Bellerophon, Majestic and Culloden. French losses are around 1,700 killed, and more  than 3,000 taken prisoner, many of them wounded. Two ships-of-the-line and  two frigates have been sunk.

Nine have been captured. Of these, three  are damaged beyond repair and burned. The remaining six enter  service with the Royal Navy.

To cap it all, most of the French treasury, that General Bonaparte was relying on to fund his  Egyptian campaign, had been lost with L’Orient. Nelson’s brilliant victory at  the Nile had major consequences. The balance of naval power in the Mediterranean  shifted dramatically in Britain’s favour.

General Bonaparte’s expeditionary force in  Egypt was cut-off, and though its commander slipped back to France the following year,  his army was forced to surrender in 1801. The French garrison of Malta also surrendered,  the island becoming a British protectorate. French defeat encouraged her enemies to form  a new, Second Coalition - and renew the war.

Nelson was the hero of the hour –  feted in royal courts from London, to St. Petersburg, and Constantinople. He received jewels, medals, ceremonial swords and his long-coveted  peerage - Baron Nelson of the Nile.

The Nile was one of the most decisive  and crushing naval battles in history. Some historians argue, it was the  most significant Nelson ever fought. But the battle with which Nelson’s  name was to be forever linked, would be fought seven years  later… off Cape Trafalgar.

Have you ever wanted to hear more from the ordinary soldiers and  sailors of the Napoleonic wars? What did combat look like from the front rank of  the Grande Armée - or Wellington’s army in Spain? What was it like to charge  into the breach at Badajoz, or face Spanish partisans in the guerrilla war?

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