The Battles of Horatio Lord Nelson Quiz

Answer: Camperdown

At both Cape St Vincent and Copenhagen he ignored orders and got away with it because he saved the day. The Battle of Camperdown was fought in 1797 between Britain and the Batavian Republic (The Netherlands).

Answer: France and Spain

Nelson commanded 28 ships of the line against 33 French and Spanish ships. After 5 hours of fighting 21 enemy ships had been captured and one ship destroyed.

Answer: She exploded after catching fire and burning for some time.

L'Orient was a 120 gun monster. The story goes that the French had left cans of paint lying around on the poop deck when they were surprised by Nelson's readiness to engage. This paint caught fire and eventually the fire spread to her magazine and she exploded with the loss of more than 1,000 men.

Answer: Admiral John Jarvis

Admiral John Jarvis was made 1st Earl of St Vincent as a result of this battle. If Nelson hadn't ignored standard practice and left the line of battle to prevent the Spanish regrouping things might have been very different.

Answer: Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Emboldened by victory at Cape St Vincent and depressed at the prospect of having to blockade the Spanish fleet for an indefinite period Jarvis sent Nelson off to carry out an amphibious assault on Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands. Rumours of Spanish treasure ships there may have encouraged him further. Strong currents, unusually stiff resistance from the Spanish and lack of artillery lead to a severe defeat for the British landing party. Nelson was wounded in the right arm by musket fire and the arm was later amputated.

Answer: Cease action and withdraw.

Parker was anchored at the far end of the Danish line from Nelson and did not have a very good view of what was going on. He thought that the Danes were getting the upper hand and flew signals for Nelson to withdraw. The signal was ambiguous enough to allow Nelson to ignore it if he saw fit.

The story goes that Nelson turned to his flag captain Foley and said "You know, Foley, I only have one eye - I have the right to be blind sometimes" and put his telescope to his blind eye.

Answer: They had accompanied troop ships carrying Napoleon's invasion force.

Napoleon had landed his troops and commenced the invasion of Egypt. In the meantime Brueys anchored on Aboukir Bay awaiting further orders. Nelson had been frantically scouring the Mediterranean looking for Brueys and came upon him on 1st August 1798 late in the afternoon.
The French were anchored in the bay and assumed that Nelson would not enter the bay and engage in battle until the next morning. They thought they would have time to draw their ships closer together, fix springs to their anchor cables (to allow for manouvering at anchor) and generally get their ships in fighting order.
Nelson completely surprised them by not even stopping to form a line of battle. He sailed straight into the bay and went for them. Leading elements of the British fleet were able to get landward of the French enabling them to engage the French on both sides. The rest is history.

Answer: San Jose and San Nicolas

San Jose luffed away from HMS Excellent and ran foul of the San Nicolas on the port side. HMS Captain with Nelson on board was drifting on the starboard side of San Nicolas with her wheel shot away and most of her rigging hanging over the side. Nelson decided to board and quickly overcame all resistance. Seeing San Jose on the other side of his prize he basically kept going and took her too.

Some references name the San Jose as the San Josef but this is deemed to stem from an early Anglicisation of the Spanish name.

Answer: Nicaragua

This action is considered as being part of the Ameican War of Independence. During this action Nelson took sick (probably malaria) and was invalided home. He was to be dogged by this illness for the rest of his life.

Answer: In a barrel of brandy.

Nelson's body was pickled in brandy for the long trip home. Immediately after the battle a huge storm blew up and scattered the remains of all three fleets. Most ships were in no condition to sail in calm seas nevermind a storm. HMS Victory made her way to Gibraltar and then to England where the news of nelson's death had lead to a period of sustained national mourning.