Battle of Trafalgar
According to the Second Doctor, the Battle of Trafalgar was the most important English victory by sea in the Napoleonic Wars. On 21 October 1805, the Royal Navy, led by Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson and Lord Admiral Collingwood, defeated a French and Spanish fleet, led by Villeneuve. However, Nelson was killed in the fighting. (PROSE: H.M.S. Tardis [+]Loading...["H.M.S. Tardis (short story)"], World Game [+]Loading...["World Game (novel)"]) The battle took place off Cape Trafalgar. (PROSE: H.M.S. Tardis [+]Loading...["H.M.S. Tardis (short story)"])
Combatants[[edit] | [edit source]]
Ships[[edit] | [edit source]]
The English Admirals, Nelson and Collingwood, lead their fleets from their flagships the HMS Victory and Royal Sovereign, respectively. (PROSE: H.M.S. Tardis [+]Loading...["H.M.S. Tardis (short story)"]) Another English ship was the HMS Temeraire. (AUDIO: The Ghosts of Gralstead [+]Loading...["The Ghosts of Gralstead (audio story)"])
Villeneuve commanded from the Bucentaure. Another French ship was the Redoubtable. (PROSE: H.M.S. Tardis [+]Loading...["H.M.S. Tardis (short story)"])
Sailors[[edit] | [edit source]]
As a young man, Professor Cedric Scrivener's butler Hill served aboard the HMS Temeraire during the battle. (AUDIO: The Ghosts of Gralstead [+]Loading...["The Ghosts of Gralstead (audio story)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Prelude[[edit] | [edit source]]
Prior to the battle, the Player known as the Countess attempted to ensure Napoleon's victory by helping Fulton develop a prototype submarine, known as the Nautilus. With the machine limited in its ability to move underwater with the technologies at hand, the Countess had attempted to enhance its power by providing Fulton with an omega drive, but the Second Doctor was able to sabotage the drive and convince Fulton and Napoleon to abandon the plan. (PROSE: World Game [+]Loading...["World Game (novel)"])
Earlier in his life, the Second Doctor, along with Ben and Polly, arrived on Lord Nelson's flagship, the Victory, shortly before the battle. They were initially arrested, but were freed by Nelson after he learned that Ben was a sailor and heard the Doctor pass himself off as an astrologer. After Nelson stated that "England expects that every man will do his duty", Ben advised the admiral to broadcast the phrase as a signal on the masts of every ship in the fleet, which he did. (PROSE: H.M.S. Tardis [+]Loading...["H.M.S. Tardis (short story)"]) According to another account, it was Panda who advised Horatio Nelson to put up the message. (PROSE: Project: Wildthyme [+]Loading...["Project Wildthyme (short story)","Project: Wildthyme"])
The battle[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond visited a different ship during the battle. It was fleeing from what they believed to be a Kraken. It was actually a 21st century aircraft carrier brought back in time by an infestation of Time Roaches. The Doctor sent it back into the Time Vortex, causing the carrier to return to its own time. (COMIC: Rough Waters [+]Loading...["Rough Waters (comic story)"])
After hunting the Flying Dutchman through time, the Twelfth Doctor, Prince George, and Thorpe finally boarded it at the battle of Trafalgar. They materialised on a French ship and were shot at by a French soldier. They jumped off the ship and landed on the Dutchman. While they were on the Dutchman it left 1805. After the Doctor took control of the ship, he took it back to the battle and retrieved his TARDIS. (COMIC: Ghosts of the Seas [+]Loading...["Ghosts of the Seas (comic story)"])
During the battle, the Doctor tried to change history by preventing Nelson's death, but was unsuccessful. The three were captured again when, under instruction from the Doctor, Ben picked up a musket and attempted to shoot the man who would assassinate Nelson. In the confusion of battle, they were able to retreat to the TARDIS, where they saw Nelson fall into Thomas Hardy's arms (PROSE: H.M.S. Tardis [+]Loading...["H.M.S. Tardis (short story)"]) after he was shot down by a sniper after the battle. (PROSE: World Game [+]Loading...["World Game (novel)"]) As the Fourth Doctor recalled, in his dying words, Nelson addressed the Doctor, Hardy and a Sea Devil. (AUDIO: Gallery of Ghouls [+]Loading...["Gallery of Ghouls (audio story)"])
Aftermath[[edit] | [edit source]]
Following the battle, Napoleon finally abandoned his plans to invade England and turned his attention towards the Russians and the Austrians, marching his armies east and defeating them at Austerlitz. He invaded Spain and Portugal, defeated the Prussians and entered Berlin in a string of victories which lasted for years. (PROSE: World Game [+]Loading...["World Game (novel)"])
References[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Fourth Doctor mentioned that he had breakfast with Nelson the day before the battle. (PROSE: Eye of Heaven [+]Loading...["Eye of Heaven (novel)"])
Sometime before his eighth incarnation, the Doctor told Iris Wildthyme that he was instrumental at Trafalgar. (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress [+]Loading...["The Scarlet Empress (novel)"]) The Doctor later told Izzy Sinclair that he used a sextant to calculate the position of Napoleon's fleet at Trafalgar. (COMIC: Fire and Brimstone [+]Loading...["Fire and Brimstone (comic story)"]) The Fourth Doctor claimed to have "whipped up" an advantageous storm which helped lead England to victory. The Doctor recalled being specifically thanked for his key role in the battle by Nelson himself as he lay dying, with the Admiral's final words constituting a request that the Doctor kiss him. (AUDIO: Gallery of Ghouls [+]Loading...["Gallery of Ghouls (audio story)"])
The Tenth Doctor mentioned to Rose Tyler that he could take her to witness the battle. (TV: Tooth and Claw [+]Loading...["Tooth and Claw (TV story)"])
The First Doctor's companion Vicki Pallister, a native of the 25th century, was unfamiliar with history of the battle and that of Trafalgar Square. On a visit to London in November 1605, she expressed an interest in visiting the square. When the Doctor told her that the Battle of Trafalgar would not occur for another 200 years, she assumed that he meant that a battle had been fought in Trafalgar Square in 1805. (PROSE: The Plotters [+]Loading...["The Plotters (novel)"])
