Battle of Trafalgar scene from the film A Bequest to the Nation.

What was behind Nelson’s success was those high quality guns. Britain’s early start in the Industrial Revolution resulted in cast iron guns that seldom exploded in use. This confidence in quality cast iron enabled the gunners to load with two or three shots at a time. When fired at close range this was devastating. One of best makers was the Walker company of Rotherham. Still today you can see their logo cast onto the end of the left trunnion on the guns lined up on the dockside next to HMS Victory. Also those British guns were cast to accommodate flintlock firing. This resulted in an almost instantaneous firing. The French were still using the old method of a piece of burning match on the end of a pole. This resulted in a few seconds delay, very important when firing from a ship rocking up and down. One moment pointing at the sky and then down at the water.

My great great great grandfather was Admiral Marlow of the Red Fleet. The journals he kept are just magical. Will donate them to Greenwich

Nelson as a young officer fought in the American Revolution. He commanded; I believe a small fighting sloop. One day he chased down and captured a large fishing vessel and took it as a prize. He had it sailed to the nearest port. The next day, the owner of the fishing vessel asked for it back, it was his only means to support his family. Nelson released the vessel back to him. A family in Boston has the letter that the owner wrote detailing the incident.

A little bit of trivia. Whenever ever the English cricket team or individual player reaches a score of 111 it is called the Nelson. One eye One arm One life for England

I love these scenes showing explicit views of what "Preparing for Battle" entailed on a ship of the line. So many naval films have the Captain saying "Prepare for Battle" and then his ship just runs toward the enemy. People have very little insight into those wind driven Ships of the Line. For their time the were the equivalent of a Space Shuttle. Miles of cordage, tons of equipment all contained and designed with such precision in order to place the vessel in condition to fight. There were thousands of actions required on the part of everyone from the humblest seaman to the Captain of the ship (or the Admiral of the Fleet) that had to be done in just the right way at just the right time. The training and experience of the British crews won the Battle of Trafalgar as much as Nelson's strategy.

@45 years ago, when I was in the USN, my ship visited Portsmouth, UK and I toured the Victory. Man!! what a ship... remains one of my life's favorite moments :)

Nelson was my Harry Potter when I was 9 years old and I first saw his bloodstained uniform in the National Maritime museum at Greenwich. 71 years later I still have his bust on my desk as I type this. What a wonderful man.

"England expects that every man will do his duty" Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson

After the fiasco of the Invincible Armada, Elizabeth I wanted to take advantage of Spain's weakness to destroy its power. England, however, suffered its greatest catastrophe on the sea. The Counter Armada: this was the greatest Spanish naval victory over England that almost nobody counts. Of the 180 ships that had sailed to take Spain, 102 returned with many of their men infected by the plague suffered at sea and which they spread when they went ashore. Of the 27,667 men who had embarked, only 3,722 survived. This expedition - whose losses were double those of the Invincible Armada - made it the greatest naval catastrophe in the history of England.

It amazes me how few movies today put as much effort into authenticity as films from the 60s and 70s, movies like this and Waterloo get ignored too much imo

Films like this should be passed on to today's generation.

Trafalgar was an example of a well trained and experienced fleet fighting and defeating a fleet that had spent too much time in port. Even today, some nations still haven't learned the lessons from history!

The drummer boy crying got to me.💔

What is often overlooked is the quality of seamanship and weather knowledge by captains and crews not only on the approach to battle, but also - and more importantly - once engaged. The skill needed to fight a ship of the line in manoeuvring, gunnery and bringing targets to bear without becoming one yourself, was incredible. It’s no wonder the senior service was better fed and looked after than the Army of the time. Incidentally: I live ten miles from Lord Nelson’s birthplace. My gggggrandfather was baptised by Nelson’s father.

The bravery and steadfastness of men on both sides in the service of their countries. The folly of war and the unquestioning adherence to flawed political leaders. Great production for its day.

About 20 years ago, I visited the VICTORY in Portsmouth. Something I had wanted to see since I was a little kid. I was on the middle gun deck where the 24 pounders were located. I was on the port side, leaning on one of the guns, chatting with a retired Royal Navy CPO who was there. We were talking about the British and US Navies (I had served four years in the early to mid-eighties) and I told him I knew all of VICTORY's guns except one had been jettisoned after Trafalgar. The ones on the ship now are fiberglass replicas. I asked the Chief what had happened to the one gun left from the battle. He snickered a little and said "Yer leanin' on it, mate!" I thumped it, and sure enough, it was iron. I said that it would look great in my living room. Cool memory!

See…you don’t need expensive computer graphics to produce a great battle scene. Thank you.

My very first model ship was HMS Victory. I so badly wanted to be in the Royal Navy, but my poor eyes let me down. Never mind, I collected so much stuff, notably 1000 years of Naval history from the Vikings to present day.

There was a time before our time, It will not come again, When the best ships still were wooden ships. But the men were iron men.

Lord Nelson drilled and worked up his ships for weeks outside of Cadiz. The enemy however trained in the taverns and brothels of Cadiz. The result was a two to one shot rate and greater seamanship.