he line led by the "Victory" would come in a little ahead of the
enemy's centre, and the "Royal Sovereign" to the rearward of it. But the
courses of the two fleets did not intersect at right angles. Many of the
current plans of the battle, and, strange to say, the great model at the
Royal United Service Institution (though constructed while many Trafalgar
captains were still living), are misleading in representing the British
advance as a perpendicular attack in closely formed line ahead.

In the heavy swell and the light wind the allied fleet had succeeded in
forming only an irregular line when it went about. There were wide gaps,
some of them covered by ships lying in a second line; and the fleet was not
in a straight line from van to rear, but the van formed an obtuse angle
with the rearward ships, the flat apex towards Cadiz, so that some of
Nelson's officers thought the enemy had adopted a crescent-formed array. At
the moment of contact Collingwood's division was advancing on a course that
formed an acute angle of between forty and fifty degrees with the line and
course of the French rear. The result would be that the ships that followed
the "Royal Sovereign" were brought opposite ship after ship of the French
line and could fall upon them almost simultaneously by a slight alteration
of the course. But the French van line lay at a greater angle to the
windward attack, and here the British advance was much nearer the
perpendicular.

Nelson had in his memorandum forbidden any time being wasted in forming a
regular battle-line. The ships were to attack in the order and formation in
which they sailed. If the enemy was to leeward (as was the case now), the
leeward line, led by Collingwood, was to fall upon his rearward ships.
Meanwhile, the windward line, led by the "Victory," would cut through the
enemy just in advance of the centre, and take care that the attack on the
rear was not interfered with. Collingwood was given a free hand as to how
he did his work. Nelson reminded the captains that in the smoke and
confusion of battle set plans were likely to go to pieces, and signals to
be unseen, and he left a wide discretion to every one, noting that no
captain could do wrong if he laid his ship alongside of the nearest of the
enemy. The actual battle was very unlike the diagram in the memorandum,
which showed the British fleet steering a course parallel to the enemy up
to the actual attack, and some of the captains though