207 years today

[Calisson]

21 octobre 1805

207 years since the French frigate Le Redoutable, commanded by captain Jean Jacques Étienne Lucas, got rid of the French Navy's worst enemy in history: admiral Nelson.
We never faced anyone like him since.

French sailors commemorate!

[Tyrannus deathbringer]

"The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).

The battle was the most decisive British naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve off the south-west coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost.

The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the previous century and was achieved in part through Nelson's departure from the prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy, which involved engaging an enemy fleet in a single line of battle parallel to the enemy to facilitate signalling in battle and disengagement, and to maximise fields of fire and target areas. Nelson instead divided his smaller force into two columns directed perpendicularly against the larger enemy fleet, with decisive results.

Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming one of Britain's greatest war heroes. The commander of the joint French and Spanish forces, Admiral Villeneuve, was captured along with his ship Bucentaure. Spanish Admiral Federico Gravina escaped with the remnant of the fleet and succumbed months later to wounds sustained during the battle.

Following the battle, the Royal Navy was never again seriously challenged by the French fleet in a large-scale engagement. Napoleon had already abandoned his plans of invasion before the battle and they were never revived."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar

[Nightcall]

Shut your jibber-jabber and have some of this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Cn-btAkeI&feature=related

Ah, Calisson, the Admiral may have been mortally wounded, but the day was won, establishing Britannia as Ruler of the Waves (or so the song goes). Shame all we can muster these days are record breaking attempts to cross "La Manche" in bathtubs...

[Drainial]

Rule Britannia, but let the French have their consolation while we’re are busy taping the admiral.

[Malus99]

stirring up trouble again Calisson? Le Redoutable didn't survive the engagement, I must point out :p

[Calisson]

That was just a good excuse to get a glass of brandy, the Admiral's last drink.
Funny thing, the corpse seemed to drink a lot of brandy during his trip in a barrel. They had to keep refilling the barrel - and change the guards.
Yo-ho-ho!

[Drainial]

And a bottle of rum/brandy/whatever british sailors can get their hands on.

[Malus99]

That was just a good excuse to get a glass of brandy, the Admiral's last drink.
Funny thing, the corpse seemed to drink a lot of brandy during his trip in a barrel. They had to keep refilling the barrel - and change the guards.
Yo-ho-ho!

corpse brandy? Delightful!

[Cathel]

I must say that it was quite a sacrifice (22 ships) to get rid of one admiral, they really must have feared him.
Since the alcohol (rum or brandy) was used to make the stored water drinkable (grog) anyway for a long time I guess a bit of a taste of admiral would not have been a problem
So splice the mainbrace in remembrance of the admiral.

[Gnosis]

Poor Villeneuve, by the way. He was belittled by the furious Napoleon so much upon his return to France after Trafalgar, he committed suicide.