Nelson arriving at St. John's Harbour, Antigua, 12 June 1805 in the pursuance of Villeneuve shewing the Victory and the Brig Curieux with dispatches for England

By the time the two opposing battle fleets met off Cape Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, Nelson had spent the greater part of the same year chasing Admiral Villeneuve's fleet across the Atlantic and back again. Nelson was already in the Mediterranean when Villeneuve slipped through the blockading squadron off Toulon in March closely followed by the Spanish squadron which broke out of Cadiz. Joining together, the combined Franco-Spanish fleet then made for the West Indies with Nelson in hot pursuit but, once there, headed back to Europe before Nelson could catch up with it. Several more months of 'cat-and-mouse' followed before Nelson was able to bring the enemy to action and finally force Napoleon to abandon his plans for the invasion of England.