The Battle of Trafalgar: H.M.S. Victory, Temeraire and Neptune breaking the enemy line, 21st October 1805

Nelson's celebrated strategy to break the Franco-Spanish line-of-battle in two places when he brought the enemy to action was to win him the greatest victory in the long history of war at sea. It was not achieved without loss, however, and its most serious disadvantage was that his own flagship Victory and those vessels immediately astern of her were subjected to a withering fire for over half-an-hour before they were able to reply. Suffering heavy casualties as a result, it was not until about 12.30 p.m. that Victory finally struck the enemy line between Bucentaure (Villeneuve's flagship) and Redoubtable, closely followed by H.M.S. Temeraire and H.M.S. Neptune at which point the battle began in earnest.