Harbron attempts to disprove many beliefs about the ineptness of the commanders and the poor quality of equipment attributed to the Spanish at Trafalgar. While the author describes the history of Spanish ship building and design, the case that would prove the ships were well led is not made.

An explosive chronicle of history's greatest sea battle, from the co-author of the forthcoming Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History (March 2018) In the tradition of Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, Nelson's Trafalgar presents the definitive blow-by-blow account of the world's most famous naval battle, when the British Royal Navy under Lord Horatio Nelson dealt a decisive blow to the forces of Napoleon. The Battle of Trafalgar comes boldly to life in this definitive work that re-creates those five momentous, earsplitting hours with unrivaled detail and intensity.

Presents the battle of Trafalgar in it's historical scope and context. Quotes extensively from journals and sources and brings to life the whole story of the British-French conflict, at sea and on land, at the dawn of the nineteenth century.

The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, remains one of the defining moments in naval history. The decisive nature of the engagement, the death of Nelson and the outpouring of national grief in the aftermath have inspired a wealth of literature on the battle and many narratives have retold this famous action. However, until now no work has attempted to provide an in-depth history of each of the British, French and Spanish vessels that were at the engagement. Dividing the fleets into the relevant classes by their rating, this landmark book proceeds to provide a service history of each individual vessel, including specifications tables, list of commanders, casualty lists and refit histories. Each class of vessel is illustrated by original plans drawn specially by the author alongside contemporary and modern images of the ships. Vital contextual information is included, on design and construction, styles, relative merits between the British and Combined fleets, trends and developments in armament and fighting techniques, and a comparison of the pound-for-pound effectiveness of the rival fleets. This book is a complete, standard-setting guide to the essence of the greatest naval battle, the ships at Trafalgar.

An account of the most famous sea fight in history.

The Battle of Trafalgar was fought on October 21, 1805, off Cape Trafalgar on the Spanish coast, between the combined fleets of Spain and France and the Royal Navy. The last great sea action of the period, it established British naval supremacy and ended the threat of French invasion. The Trafalgar Companion not only chronicles the campaign and the battle itself in unprecedented detail, but it also charts Admiral Lord Nelson’s life and career as well as his death at the height of the battle. Providing a wealth of background details on contemporary naval life, seamanship, gunnery, tactics, and much else, the narrative is supplemented by informative sidebars, 200 color illustrations, and stage-by-stage battle diagrams.

“Strikingly original. . . . Nicolson brings to life superbly the horror, devastation, and gore of Trafalgar.” —The Economist Adam Nicolson takes the great naval battle of Trafalgar, fought between the British and Franco-Spanish fleets, and uses it to examine our idea of heroism and the heroic. A story rich with modern resonance, Seize the Fire reveals the economic impact of the battle as a victorious Great Britain emerged as a global commercial empire. In October 1805 Lord Horatio Nelson, the most brilliant sea commander who ever lived, led the British Royal Navy to a devastating victory over the Franco-Spanish fleets at the great battle of Trafalgar. It was the foundation of Britain's nineteenth-century world-dominating empire. Seize the Fire is not only a close and revealing portrait of a legendary hero in his final action but also a vivid account of the brutal realities of battle; it asks the questions: Why did the winners win? What was it about the British, their commanders and their men, their beliefs and their ambitions, that took them to such overwhelming victory? His masterful history is a portrait of a moment, a close and passionately engaged depiction of a frame of mind at a turning point in world history.