e _Santa Anna_,
Collingwood, as Nelson had ordered all his captains, cut his
studding-sails loose, and they fell, a cloud of white canvas, into the
water. Then as the broadside of the _Royal Sovereign_ fairly covered the
stern of the _Santa Anna_, Collingwood spoke. He poured with deadly aim
and suddenness, and at pistol-shot distance, his whole broadside into the
Spaniard's stern. The tempest of shot swept the unhappy _Santa Anna_
from end to end, and practically destroyed that vessel. Some 400 of its
crew are said to have been killed or wounded by that single discharge!
At the same moment Collingwood discharged his other broadside at the
_Neptune_, though with less effect; then swinging round broadside to
broadside on the Spanish ship, he swept its decks again and again with
his guns. The first broadside had practically done the Spaniard's
business; but its captain, a gallant man, still returned what fire he
could. All the enemy's ships within reach of Collingwood had meanwhile
opened on him a dreadful fire; no fewer than five line-of-battle ships
were emptying their guns upon the _Royal Sovereign_ at one time, and it
seemed marvellous that the British ship was not shattered to mere
splinters by the fire poured from so many quarters upon her. It was like
being in the heart of a volcano. Frequently, it is said, the British saw
the flying cannon-balls meet in mid-air. The seamen fell fast, the sails
were torn, the bulwarks shattered, the decks ran red with blood. It was
at that precise moment, however, that Collingwood said to his captain,
"What would not Nelson give to be here!" While at the same instant
Nelson was saying to Hardy, "See how that noble fellow Collingwood takes
his ship into action!"

The other ships of Collingwood's column were by this time slowly drifting
into the fight. At a quarter past twelve the _Belleisle_, the next ship,
ranged under the stern of the unfortunate _Santa Anna_, and fired her
larboard guns, double shotted, into that ship, with the result that her
three masts fell over the side. She then steered for the _Indomptable_,
an 80-gun ship, and sustained at the same moment the fire of two Spanish
seventy-fours. Ship after ship of Collingwood's column came steadily up,
and the roar of the battle deepened as in quick-following crashes each
new line-of-battle ship broke into the thunder of broadsides.

Nelson, leading the weather column, steered a trifle to the northward, as
the