Horatio Nelson

Horatio Nelson was born on September 29, 1758, in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England. Entering the Royal Navy at the age of twelve, Nelson displayed extraordinary tactical audacity, personal bravery, and an intuitive mastery of seamanship during service in the West Indies, the Mediterranean, and the Arctic. Over the course of the French Revolutionary Wars, he repeatedly placed himself in the vanguard of battle, losing the sight in his right eye at Calvi in 1794 and his right arm at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797.

Nelson revolutionized naval combat by discarding traditional linear line-of-battle tactics in favor of aggressive, close-quarters melee, breaking through enemy lines to envelop and annihilate opposing flagships. His stunning victory at the Battle of the Nile (1798) stranded Napoleon's army in Egypt, followed by victory at Copenhagen (1801), where he famously placed his telescope to his blind eye to ignore orders of withdrawal.

On October 21, 1805, off Cape Trafalgar, Nelson led twenty-seven British ships of the line against thirty-three allied French and Spanish vessels. Signaling from HMS Victory his famous rallying command—'England expects that every man will do his duty'—Nelson shattered the Franco-Spanish fleet, capturing or destroying twenty-two enemy warships without losing a single British vessel. Struck down on his quarterdeck by a French sniper's bullet, Nelson lived just long enough to learn of his total victory, uttering his immortal final words: 'Thank God, I have done my duty.' October 21 is celebrated globally as Trafalgar Day.