"By this time tomorrow I'll have gained a peerage or Westminster Abby." It means that he'll either win the battle and thusly be awarded with a peerage/noble title, or he will have lost the battle and died in the fighting.
@@kingy002 Traditionally French ship were often named after religion, like Saints etc, Napoléon did start giving the French Navy more 'military' sounding names or more nationalist names, unsurprisingly!
The French Admiral's young son was on L'Orient with him when the ship exploded, refusing to leave his father - this inspired the famous poem Casabianca , which most know it from its first lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but he had fled;..."
There are various comic pastiches of that verse, one I remember was: "The boy stood on the burning deck, His feet all covered in blisters, He thought he had his trousers on, But, instead he had his sister's" Spike Milligan's version was; "The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but he had fled. TWIT.
Desalination is extremely slow and "costly" in energy, especially back then. It's why humans only use it as a last resort additional source of water. Also it was not really a "evenly matched naval battle"... the French had more guns and more ships but had around the same amount crew (their bigger and more ships currently had less crew due to the supply expedition).
At sea, in order to avoid repeatedly hauling in and measuring the wet line by stretching it out with one's arms, it is common practice to tie marks at intervals along the line. These marks are made of leather, calico, serge and other materials, and so shaped and attached that it is possible to "read" them by eye during the day or by feel at night. Traditionally the marks were at every second or third fathom: at 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 20 fathoms. The "leadsman" called out the depth as he read it off the line. If the depth was at a mark he would call "by the mark" followed by the number, while if it was between two marks, he would call "by the deep" followed by the estimated number; thus "by the mark five", since there is a five-fathom mark, but "by the deep six", since there is no six-fathom mark. Fractions would be called out by preceding the number with the phrases "and a half", "and a quarter", or "a quarter less"; thus 4 3/4 fathoms would be called as "a quarter less five", 3 1/2 as "and a half three", and so on. Where the depth was greater than 20 fathoms the line would commonly be marked with a single knot at 25 fathoms, two knots at 30, and so on.
The fact that this was just over 200 years ago, when people were just the same as us in mind and nature is so mind blowing. I have traced my ancestors further back than this time.
@@spruce381200 years is a long time to an American, 200 miles is a long way to a Brit. (No offence intended just a phrase I like) I think it’s mostly true
Ship of the line (1st&2nd rate) :Battleship. 74 gun ship (3rd&4th rate):Heavy Cruiser. Frigate (5&6 rates): Destroyer. A "very" simple rule of thumb to compare Age of Sail ships with WWII ships. Its a lot more complicated than this. But this will suffice for the layman watching a random video.
@@ayoa1173 As I stated. Its a simple guide for none naval types watching the odd vid with late Age of Sail ships. I chopped out the 74s, as the majority of British ships were 74's at the Nile. If I had kept them in with the Capital ships. It would have given the impression that the RN turned up with almost all Battleships. No need to give a lecture about the the little details. X frigate has all 12 pounders. Y frigate has caronnades and some 18 pounders. Then you have to explain what carranades are. Long cannons v short cannons etc. The big differences between a French rigged and a British rigged ship etc. Its just not needed for the casual viewer. Just as I left out unrated ships . A casual viewer has a sort of idea what a battleship, big cruiser, and destroyer are. Nine out of ten random people probably think USS Constitution and HMS Victory are basically the same ship with different flags.
Admiral bruises so badly hurt even lost his legs but he strapped himself to a chair on deck and stayed in command until the ship blew up. He went down with his ship a true commander. Salute 🫡🫡🫡
Fire at sea, in wooden ship waterproofed by pitch and miles of tarred rope, was the greatest single threat - as this battle proved so dramatically. And while desalination was possible, the small amounts produced was not worth the risk of the massive fires to boil the quantities needed to be practical. Hot meals and the oven were also so tightly limited and controlled.
The term Battleship in WW1 and WW2 comes from "Line of Battle ship" from the days of sail. In the main navies the majority of ships of the line were 2 deckers with between 64 and 80 guns - most British ships were 2 decker 74's. The largest ships were the 3 deckers with around 100 guns - very costly to build and man with large crews of over 800 men and thus fewer in number compared to the 2 deckers. Both 2 and 3 deckers were used in the line of battle and are synonomus with the term Battleships used in the 20th century. Frigates were the fast and seaworthy single decker ships used for scouting and messaging for the battle fleets and general commerce protection and flying the flag around the world - they would compare to the light cruiser of the 20th century.
The wind was still in the English favor nothing changed in that regard only that the French didn’t think he could sail through there because it’s so shallow and they didn’t have enough sailors as they were all on land sooo being attacked from both sides made the battle even MORE decisive in the British favor
Ships-of-the-Line were warships deemed large enough and strongly constructed enough, to sail in the line of battle, in broadsides. Such tactics had developed long, long before the Battle of the Nile. It is fair to point out that Britain often had battle fleets in line-of-battle, which were dominated by 3rd rate ships-of-the-line. In spite of how in modern parlance, saying, '3rd rate' may seem demeaning, this was by no means and insult in the late 18th/early 19th century, when regarding the Royal Navy. It's 3rd rates were the backbone of the Royal Navy. While there were roughly 9 or 10 British 1st rates (>100 gun giants) built across the majority of the entire 18th century, there were >200 3rd rates at any given point in the time of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. There were even more 4th rates and 5th rates (including 5th rate frigates) Some classes were built by the several dozen. There were also much lighter 6th rates ships-of-the-line, built primarily for speed. A lot of these could find themselves being used in active front-line service around the world, though when it came to big gun battles, the smaller ships were not really meant to be as heavily involved. A 6th rate would normally be carrying out duties more suited to it's size and classification. There were also brigs, sloops-of-war and gunboats, amongst many other smaller classes of vessels. When you got to around 4th rate size and onward you'd start to see the more heavily-armed ships which are more cut out for the big gun battles. If you're in a 3rd rate with anywhere between 64 to 74 (sometimes 80; though that used to be a 2nd rate firepower band, in the earlier 17th century; though some 2nd rates by Nelson's day could have up to 98 guns; and had already been that way since the early 18th century), then you'd have about half of those guns pointing port or starboard. That's a pretty healthy level of firepower to stand up for oneself and slog it out in the mix with the big bruisers so to speak. Then again, there are some notable moments in naval history where conventional things go out of the window. HMS _Terpsichore_ (of 32 guns; and 5th rate frigate status, of the _Amazon_-class) was plucky enough to pick a fight with the largest warship on the planet at the time, in 1797; a little while after the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797, HMS _Terpsichore_ (which had not been at the battle) encountered Santisima Trinidad (shorthand form of her name) limping back to Cadiz. HMS _Terpsichore_ was patrolling the coast for smaller quarry, and to report on enemy movements. Unexpectedly, the 136-140 gun Santisima Trinidad, a great red and black leviathan lurching in from the West, had been sighted by the little British frigate. It would be completely reasonable for HMS _Terpsichore_ to simply avoid the juggernaut Spanish ship like the plague, though she did something else, entirely; she started firing at the Spanish giant, and harassing it for miles. It was a hopeless mismatch of crew size, displacement, firepower and presence, though the British just fired away. 9 Spanish sailors were slain, and the crew was quite shocked at what the British had done. They returned fire, of course (dozens of larger guns, rippling away trying to punish the little British frigate) Indeed, HMS _Terpsichore_ kept a close eye on the direction of movement of this enormous, 4-decker Spanish 1st rate. For comparison a British 3rd rate has 2 decks. The British 5th rate frigate had more than 100 fewer guns of any size, than Santisima Trinidad. Now, realistically, both the British and the French possessed 'better ships' aka more lethal and better-built, better-operated and more usefully deployed, 1st rate ships-of-the-line. Santisima Trinidad was actually quite unfortunate, and had a very dubious career for her sheer size and firepower. She very nearly struck her colours (surrendered) during the Battle of Cape St Vincent, when a pair of British 3rd rates singled her out and began to dismantle her. L'Orient (arguably one of the greatest of the French 1st rates, as seen at the Battle of the Nile) had fewer guns than Santisima Trinidad as well, but it clearly wasn't the decisive factor) Whenever the British _did_ bring their own, very rare and crew hungry 1st rates to bear, these were terrifying powerhouses. However, as I said, the real backbone of the Royal Navy was the reliable 3rd rate. Britain had lots of 3rd rates of a bewildering array of classes (including many, captured from various opponents) and great classes were commissioned and built. Although these would be often thinly spread out, considering their true numbers in total in the overall Royal Navy, there'd be plenty of them in a lot of British fleet groups around the world. They were something of a 'Goldilocks Zone' of requirements; large enough to be very imposing and impressive, fast enough to catch almost everything, and powerful enough to defeat almost everything, when it did catch them. A pair, or a trio, of British 3rd rates, could easily work over French or Spanish 1st rates (and even more so, 2nd rates) The clue is with HMS _Terpsichore_ a mere 5th rate frigate, having the cannonballs (roundshot) to actually have a go at the then largest warship in the world. It says, well, everything you need to know about the mindset, quality, skill and bravery of the Royal Navy of Nelson; the Nelsonian Royal Navy. They were a different breed. The Spanish return fire did damage HMS _Terpsichore_ in the masts and rigging, and fearing being immobilised, the British did break off after some time following the Spanish giant. They lost sight of it as it hastened to Cadiz, and they slowed for repairs. They hadn't lost a single man. Now, sure, the British frigate was in very real danger, though she could have run away from the first sighting, and not been considered dishonoured; it was a hilarious mismatch and it wasn't her place to be picking a fight with that. But it didn't stop them reminding the Spanish why they were the best navy in the world.
The "knots" on the rope are for determining the speed of the ship, so it doesn't need to go to the bottom. It is a measurement showing how many knots go past per second/minute. "Knots" is still used in the navy as the measurement for speed at sea. Taking "soundings" however is done using a rope with a weight attachd to the end to determine depth. Any drag caused by the motion/speed can be calculated using the ship's current speed and offset when making the soundings
The 'knots you' mentioned were the means of judging the ships speed through the water. One sailor throws the knotted line out ahead if the vessel whilst a second turns a sand glass, when then sand runs out the first sailor pinches the line and calls how many knots have gone. To measure depth a 'sounding-line' with a lead weight on the endm and marked in fathoms was thrown overboard to gauge the depth. It was refined do that the bottom of the lead was hollow and filled with animal fat to pick up a sample of the sea bed. The material sample and depth could be included on charts or compared to existing charts, to help refine the vessel's position.
A peerage is an aristocratic title. E.g. he gets to become a Lord, Baron, Viscount, etc. Westminster Abbey is a huge cathedral-like building in London. It's a tomb for heroes. So if he "gains it", he's died in battle.
largly down to the Royal navy's tactics of blockading people into port, so the RN's sailors gained experience in sailing ships whilst their opponents generally were stuck sitting about in harbour learning nothing of any practical use at sea.
Sounding is using a thin rope, knotted every six feet (one fathom). It has a lead weight with a concave space at the bottom. Think of a shallow bell in shape. The concave area has a soft material put into it. which pickes up what is on the seabed. So The ship knows whats below it, and the depth. Ship speed is measured using a ships log. It is a quarter circle with lines to keep it upright in the water. A knotted line (log line) is attached and then towed behind the ship. A sailor counts how many knots slip though his fingers in a given time. If six knots when through, the ship speed is six knots. The knots are spaced at a certain length from each other. This is where we get knots for nautical speed today.
It depends, for the British for the most part its untrue, most good crew were from the Isle of Wight, Southampton or Portsmouth, and so had grown up by the sea, fishing and playing in it as children. Even today almost all native British people from the south can swim, but For French or German crews it was quite different, many were recruited from inland towns and had never even been aboard a ship before they started their training. There is also the issue that even if we can swim well often you are still going to die if you have to jump. Many coast lines have harsh rocky shores that kill anyone being tossed against them, and often you're hundred of miles from any land at all, or the tide will simply sweep you out to sea. If the tide is going out and running fast no matter how good a swimmer you are in many bays its so strong there is very little chance you survive.
@@spruce381 The vast majority of Irish people do live in coastal towns and cities but yes some did not, the Royal navi did also recruit on the London docks and most Londoners could not swim, The Brits did priority there best soldiers and officers for navi service since it was and is there first line of defence so you didn't have any convicts serving as marines, unlike the British army that often gave people the choice between serving time or joining up with a regiment.
"Ship of the line" and "Battleship" are the same thing, having their shared origin in the term "ship of the line of battle". The term "cruiser" also come from this time, with a ship of the line or sometimes frigate going on Cruiser operations like raiding, patrolling etc. When steam engines and armour came in you begin to see the divergence of the "battle" ship and the "cruiser" ship as range and speed were impacted ever more heavily by armour and armament. So a ship of the line is both a battleship and a cruiser for its time, with bigger ones (1st and 2nd rate) more suited for battle and smaller ones (4th rate) more suited for cruiser work. The third rate is all rounder king and by far most common for that reason. The fourth rate was phased out over time as third rate became more common and frigates became larger and more capable.
Your desalination question is a good one. It's a problem of equipment and time. The vapour needs to be angled away and onto something cold and then the fresh liquid drops into a different container. Keeping the "something cold", well, cold, is a problem as is capturing the vapour to divert. It's very possible at the time but you would boil a lot of seawater to get not very much fresh water. And since these ships are super flammable they kept open fire in very specific parts of the ship limiting the process more. With so many to get water for, and the men needing to waste water to pump all that sea water in the first place it's very awkward.
A ship of the line is a ship that is intended to fight in the line of battle. Normally in the Royal Navy, that would be a 1st, 2nd or 3rd Rate ship. A ships Rate, is not about quality, it's about the number of guns. Ships were rated from 1st to 6th, ships with fewer guns than a 6th were unrated. The number of guns for each rate changed over time (100+ for a 1st rate at the time, I think). Nelson saying "A peerage or Westminster Abby", was him saying that he would win a grand victory and gain a noble title, or die a heroes death and be buried in Westminster Abby.
The HMS Belepheron, which was badly damaged in the Battle of the Nile went on to be anchored off the English coast and was Napoleon's prison ship before he was finally exiled.
If you captured a ship you captured everything. Doesn't matter if the ammunition is the wrong size, because it comes along with a ship full of guns of the correct calibre.
15:00 A peerage means being made a lord. Westminster Abbey is a very prominent London cathedral, famous for having practically every prominent Brit buried there. Nelson is saying he'll either win and be made a lord, or he'll die and be buried. No in-between option.
HMS Bellerophon ( known to the sailors as "Billy Ruffian ) was repaired and fought at Trafalgar. In 1815 after his defeat at Waterloo Napoleon surrendered to Frederick Lewis Maitland captain of the Billy Ruffian which was on blockade duty off the coast of France. She was broken up and sold for scrap in 1836. Some of the timber was bought by George Bellamy ex ships surgeon on Bellerphon and used to build a cottage in Plymstock near Plymouth Devon. It still stands.
Fascinating. Bellerophon was given the honour of transporting Napoleon to Plymouth after his capture. He remained on board and national newspapers were reporting his every move and what he was wearing minute to minute as he strode the deck, such was the eager public fascination with him. Bellerophon, I understand was used as a prison ship on the Thames for a time prior to be ultimately broken up. A sad end to a marvellous piece of our history.
The French admiral was an absolute mad man his face and hands messed up both legs blown off by cannon ball but refuses to leave his post and died on deck... Salute !
“L’Orient” was the biggest ship on the world at the time. The “Santisima Trinidad” had more decks and more guns but L’Orient had a bigger “body” I guess for carrying all that money and gold and supplies. She had more tonnage than any other ship in the world. When she was sank.
No retreating in ship combat if your ship is slower. Many ship battles would end in surrender or full destruction because its far to dangerous to board a ship and then check all the rooms. Its a reason the Spanish often lost to the British i think? They had large galleons filled with about 200 soldiers and often tried to disable and board enemies, while the British began using their ships mainly as mobile gun platforms.
Ok, desalination is the use of semi permeable membranes to run saltwater through such that only H & OH ions can pass through. It’s very energy intensive but better than distillation which is what you meant. And they both leave the water without any slats in. Minerals dissolved in water are salts! Often a small amount gets put back in because distilled or completely pure water actually tastes stale.
I often think about how in the age of sail, with the length of time it took to bring the enemy to battle, How men must have struggled with their nerves just wishing the battle to start and be over with. Normally you would have had hours in which to think and ponder - it must have been extremely difficult
32:12 - Always fascinating to see which captured ships the Royal Navy adopted with the original French name intact and which ones they felt they had to rename (sometimes because of tricky pronunciation or an existing British ship with the same name, but often for ideological reasons if it had been named after some enemy hero or Jacobin principle). It seems that of those taken at Aboukir Bay, Peuple Souverain and Franklin were considered objectionable names to have a HMS put in front of them; have to admit I'm a bit surprised about the second one, but obviously the Royal Navy in 1798 wasn't ready to forgive and forget just yet!
The two vessels that went to the aid of 'Culloden' were not ships of the line. They would not be included 'in the 'line of battle', because they did not have the number of guns or weight of shot, the thickness of timbers, or the crew numbers, to stand against a third rate or higher without being dismembered in minutes. Sloops, frigates, etc. had other roles, in fleet actions. Look what happened to the French frigate (36) when it engaged a third rate (74).
When they took soundings (finding how deep the water was), a sailor would "heave the lead", a lead weight with grease on the bottom attached to a line thrown ahead. The sailor would pull in the slack caused by the ship moving until the line was directly below, when the sailor would read the markings to get the depth. The grease was used to pick up sediment from the sea floor. Sometimes two sailors would be employed, taking turns in heaving the lead.
He meant death of glory , buried in Westminster Abbey or a Knighthood . The inshore course looked similar to what the first group would have taken to come alongside the French line as long as no-one ran aground and it was decisive as they were almost unopposed . It was a good animation .
Drachinifel is without doubt one of the most comprehensive experts on anything Naval, the man a mad man however doing 6 hrs Q and A's on anything from Nelson to what they served for lunch in the USS Iowa on Christmas day in 1944 or what are the dynamics of water in a swell and a 50,000 ship
Highly recommended a tour of HMS Victory on TH-cam. I know Secret Vault from the UK will take you on a tour. Then you will have an understanding like no other when it comes to being in the English navy in those times. Literally breathtaking. Bless
A ship-of the-line by this time was a third-rate ship (74 guns) upwards to a first-rate. The exception here was the Leander, which may have been regarded as a 'third-rate' in an earlier era.
You have to think that is 2/3 of an already diminished crew due to most of them being on land in Egypt so I'd imagine 2/3 left was not particularly many.
Fascinating video amd reaction. Annimation was fantastic. Ironically, I'm spending a week in France, with a few days in Paris. Visited the Musee des Invalides, an historic military hospital, but now the French Army museum, and mausoleum of the man himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. Really cool place to visit. Highly recommended.
Ship Of The Line has a very specific meaning. You would have learnt it in the first of this series, that I also saw. I would chastise you, but now it comes to it, I am not 100% sure myself! I think it means a ship with over 100 cannon. I am from Norfolk, England. On the road signs on entering Norfolk, it says, “Norfolk:Nelson’s county”. We are still very proud of our Horatio…
Taking soundings. What you are describing is measuring the speed of the ship. It was done by dropping a rope in the sea and over a set time, the person holding the rope would count the number of knots that went through his hands. Hence speed on the sea being measured in Knots. The knots were tied specifically at a predetermined distance apart… Soundings were designed to see how deep the sea was. I am unaware of how that was done at this time in history. It had to involve rope and a weight, but don’t know the details, sorry.
A ship of the line or "line of battle ship" which later was shortened to battleship formed the line of battle in these times which normally saw the two fleets sailing alongside pounding each other . The smallest classed as such I believe was 64 guns but 74 was far more common .
lol sorry to bing your comments mate just want to say I really enjoyed your vid I love the way you think and the questions you ask. It’s refreshing to see a young guy thinking the way you do on the internet
Nelson in command of the seas, and Wellington on the land. Never was Britain so blessed to have such masters of war against Napoleon. Ninety years of European peace followed Waterloo.
A sounding line or lead line is a length of thin rope with a plummet, generally of lead, at its end. Regardless of the actual composition of the plummet, it is still called a "lead". Leads were swung, or cast, by a leadsman, usually standing in the chains of a ship, up against the shrouds. Measuring the depth of water by lead and line dates back to ancient civilization. It continues in widespread use today in recreational boating and as an alternative to electronic echo sounding devices. Greek and Roman navigators are known to have used sounding leads, some of which have been uncovered by archaeologists. Sounding by lead and line continued throughout the medieval and early modern periods and is still commonly used today. The Bible describes lead and line sounding in Acts, whilst the Bayeux Tapestry documents the use of a sounding lead during William the Conqueror's 1066 landing in England. Lead and line sounding operates alongside sounding poles, and/or echo sounding devices particularly when navigating in shallower waters and on rivers
Yes “ship of THE LINE” remember the cape st Vincent video. In this age it was considered “crucial to maintain the LINE of battle”. Hence why Nelson was so good he used some tactics developed during the American revolutionary wars and Breaking the lines. Hence SHIP OF the LINE. THE main battleships.
Only in Navy. Up until mid Napoleonic Era, The Brits were infact behind in "skill" when compared to the French and Prussians. It wasn't until the Wellington Era that skill played a bigger factor than Money in leadership, lessons being learned from the Navy. Titles and medal were being earned rather than exchanged for cash.
@@babalonkie Give it a rest, Britain never got a huge empire at that time from lacking behind in "skill" Britain destroyed France in the Seven years war, as that was the most crushing war for France territory wise in their history and they won that not just from Naval battles, all the while Britain and Prussia were being out outnumbered massively. No country could hope to invade Britain at that time, not while the Royal Navy was top dog.
@@ChrisCrossClash Navy Yes... Britain's Army not so much... it was below par of several other nations (whilst still being ahead of many others). Britain's Win/Loss ratio in land battles was nowhere near as successful as it's Navy. "Britain never got a huge empire at that time from lacking behind in "skill"" No... 9/10 times it got it by Bringing guns to countries that never had them...
@@babalonkieand earlier the Dutch were excellent. Only from 1770s on, with Indian money, did the Navy excel. Also Industrial Revolution. Ship need to fire more quickly and accurately than the opposition.
Britain was the most dominant sea faring nation in the history of the Human Race. at one point they were stronger and had more ships than the next 8 largest navies
Forgot about the battle at Medway, where the entire British navy was blown to smithereens in their own harbour by the Dutch? The capture of the British flagship HMS Royal Charles was a major humilliation for the British, forcing them to stop the then ongoing war against the Dutch immediatly. It took the British approximatly a century to rebuild their navy to the level before the battle at Medway. From that moment on, the British were indeed the most dominating sea faring nation. But unlike you are saying, that was not always the case.
@fredklein9005 one defeat doesnt chnage the fact the riyal navy was the unquestioned naval super power for 2 centuries. No military is ever completely undefeated. Pkus the ducth got bent over and absolutely fucked in ww2, and had to get real soldiers from Britain, Usa and Poland to come and free them. So the duth can pipe down.
@@williamjohnson5229 You mean by real soldiers those defeated, panicking British 'soldiers' who didn't know how fast they had to desert their French Allies at Duinkerke? The raid at the Medway wasn't the only Dutch victory over the British navy during the Anglo-Dutch wars. The British forces didn't play a decisive role in the liberation of the Netherlands. Only had to roll their tanks over Hell's highway and their route got cut by the Germans many times in the process. The real liberation in the south of the Netherlands was done by the Americans durin operation Market Garden in 1944. In 1945, half a year after the British fuck-up at Arnhem, the Canadians succesfully liberated the Netherlands. It's obvious you have a selective view of history.
@@fredklein9005 better than the ducth who got steam rolled and spent the rest of the war conquered. And they didn't desert their French allies. Everyone knew France was lost at that point. The fence fought a heroic rear guard to allow the British to retreat in order to come back. The French trusted the British not to give up and we didn't. Nobody said it was medway was the only defeat, but that or other defeats doesn't change the fact the Royal Navy was the unquestioned naval power for two centuries and was one of if not the most dominat naval powers in history. Naval achievements like the building of HMS Dreadnought which redefined naval warfare. Talking smack about the 8000 British airborne soldiers who died in one of the most heroic stands of the war is laughable, when the only reason they had to attempt to capture those bridges was because Dutch "men" had surrendered years before. For you tontry and claim Britain wasn't the dominant naval force for a long period of history shows it is you who is looking at it selectively.
The navel battles during the 1st but the 2ndWW's were on an even more extreme level. UK against Germany. Remember HMS Hood. Went to sink the Bismarck. But got hit. Terrible loss of life in just a moment. Germanys navel fleet? Beyond phenomenal. May all of those who succumbed to all righteous wars RIP. The battles with America in the Pacific against Japan. A major moment in navel history we should all wish will never happen again on the world stage. Awful loss of life of so many young men in such horrific ways. We are so lucky to live in times with this amount of quality viewing when it comes to history on tap. And on another note. And I'm not lying or putting the US down. But there was a film with Harvey Kietel playing apart where they capture a German u-boat in the Mediterranean during the 2nd world war.So important where one of the first captured enigma machines was taken and won the west their side of the second world war against Germany. Im afraid to say thats a hollywood lie. We had german lines tapped anyway in Berlin. But it was a moment of UK's history. Notthing to do with state's. Love your enthusiastim for enlightenment. And I'm sure your UK veiwing will grow. Not everyone has seen everything. So it's a pleasure to watch along. Even though I do know most of this history myself. That's cool as I missed out on seeing this myself. A great watch. Goodluck with your channel. Bless and Takecare from across that pond y'all!
Idk why the french didnt use the army to get supplies like food or water instead of sailors but for a weakened french fleet they fought hard they did more damage on the british fleet then the spanish did at cape st vincent and that was when the spanish outnumbered and outgunned the british 2 to 1 but yeah rest in peace thanks to british rescue crews 70 sailors were Rescued from the french flagship out of a crew of 1,078 men
@@Acridblue999they put up more of a fight then the spanish did at st vincent they inflicted more damage and casualties and that was when the french fleet was immobile under manned and about even ships the spanish had twice as many guns and ships at St vincent but didn't do much damage or casualties
Order a Book called "The Billy Ruffian by Cordingly. A biography of a shipof the line HMS BEDLLEROPHON. It will tell you much about Napoleon and his voyage back to England asking for Political Asylum from his most generous and most constant Enemy.. It all took place near the end of the ship's life in 1815. It was not thought strong enough to take him to St Helena.
A peerage is a member of the nobility, and its hereditary title so it will pass down to your children. the difference between a lord and a Sir, once you have a peerage, you are then in line for actual royal positions like Barron etc
Regarding munition size, I havnt googled or educated myself in the matter but I wouldn't be surprised if these ships had facilities to melt down lead and produce its own ordinance. I'm sure there's someone out there who could put me right.
@@TonySpike little known fact he had been watching a lot of 'allo allo' at the time and had acquired a very slight bad french accent. The History books don't tend to concentrate on this aspect,but honest guv it's true.
You should look up Cpt Thomas Corquren (assuming I’ve spelt that correct) he was 24th Earl Dundonal , a sea captain that fought successfully I the war against Napoleon and his family with the loss of one man. The books on Hornblower and Jack Aubrey were based on his life.
'Title and Parliament' - there are TWO houses of parliament - the commons and the peerage. This is very roughly the same system as the senate and congress. The Peerage, being awarded by the politicians or (at this time) hereditary, can review bills made by the lower house, and send them back with recommendations for amendment. However the Commons made up of elected MP's has the final say. Nelson's peerage therefore gave him a seat in the upper house.
The word travel comes from the french word (to) trevail. The French got the word the word travail from an English word. Trevalium. A trevalium is the name of a medieval English weapon of torture. Meaning. You are going on a journey. But your not moving a muscle. French language done beautiful things to the English language about a thousand years ago. But it goes to show you how wondrous English is. Ask the internet in the early days how many words in the English language? 2.5 million and counting down to a around a million. Now they have it back down to most European languages only had or have around 150,000 words. England. Britian. Has actually brought so many things to world it's dumbfounding. The last nation to have the biggest land mass empire the world will ever see. Such a little group of islands it's phenomenal. Bless.
"Ship of the Line" is short for "Ship of the line of battle." As he said, the 18th century equivalent of a battleship. The influence of luck and chance: If not for a big storm in the reign of Elizabeth I, Spain's armada would have conquered England's, and Philip II would have won and restored England back to the Catholic Faith, passibly deposing Elizabeth (a Tudor) and restoring a Plantagenet with better dynastic right to the throne. "Westminster Abby " = a tomb in the national cathedral because he gets killed in action. Calculating knots (sea miles) per hour -- one swings a weighted rope with a float at the stem (front of ship) while another times how much time it takes the ship to sail past the float, which is then pulled up. Mathematics give a calculation of the speed of the ship = knots per hour. Ammunition size: there was a standard size, due to manufacturing limitations. but there were several sizes used called by cannon ball size : 2-pounders, 6 pounders, 12 pounders, etc. They were limited by the weight one sailor could lift to shove down the barrel of the cannon.
There’s tons of French generals at this time and test Napoleon was one of the biggest and best known but … how could they know this guy would become emperor…and also so what if not him someone else may have … there was so much stuff going on during the French Revolution.. many coups and coup attempts soo him “escaping” isn’t a big deal as you think. Only in hindsight it’s fun to think about.
I've been on HMS Victory many times, it never gets boring.
"By this time tomorrow I'll have gained a peerage or Westminster Abby." It means that he'll either win the battle and thusly be awarded with a peerage/noble title, or he will have lost the battle and died in the fighting.
God, I will never tire of Royal Navy ship names
They have amazing names then and now.
We do have a habit of naming ships big intimidating words begining with the letters V and I
Is that simply because we don't know the meaning of the French ones? They could be equally distinguished.
@@kingy002 Traditionally French ship were often named after religion, like Saints etc, Napoléon did start giving the French Navy more 'military' sounding names or more nationalist names, unsurprisingly!
It's a damn shame we never had a ship named Thunder Child.
Either he is awarded an honour , becomes a Lord or Westminster Abbey, he dies.
Yes; in other words, he sees no middle ground between triumph and catastrophe.
Yes he would be buried in westminster abbey
The French Admiral's young son was on L'Orient with him when the ship exploded, refusing to leave his father -
this inspired the famous poem Casabianca , which most know it from its first lines,
"The boy stood on the burning deck,
Whence all but he had fled;..."
There are various comic pastiches of that verse, one I remember was:
"The boy stood on the burning deck,
His feet all covered in blisters,
He thought he had his trousers on,
But, instead he had his sister's"
Spike Milligan's version was;
"The boy stood on the burning deck,
Whence all but he had fled.
TWIT.
It was the son of the VICE admiral who took over after Brues died. His name was Luc Julien Casabianca
Either get Knighted or be buried at Westminster Abbey.
He was already knighted hence the peerage but otherwise yes...though he was eventually buried in St Paul's Cathedral after Trafalgar.
The 3D graphics here are absolutely astonishing. Work this great isn’t easy.
Desalination is extremely slow and "costly" in energy, especially back then. It's why humans only use it as a last resort additional source of water.
Also it was not really a "evenly matched naval battle"... the French had more guns and more ships but had around the same amount crew (their bigger and more ships currently had less crew due to the supply expedition).
At sea, in order to avoid repeatedly hauling in and measuring the wet line by stretching it out with one's arms, it is common practice to tie marks at intervals along the line. These marks are made of leather, calico, serge and other materials, and so shaped and attached that it is possible to "read" them by eye during the day or by feel at night. Traditionally the marks were at every second or third fathom: at 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 20 fathoms. The "leadsman" called out the depth as he read it off the line. If the depth was at a mark he would call "by the mark" followed by the number, while if it was between two marks, he would call "by the deep" followed by the estimated number; thus "by the mark five", since there is a five-fathom mark, but "by the deep six", since there is no six-fathom mark. Fractions would be called out by preceding the number with the phrases "and a half", "and a quarter", or "a quarter less"; thus 4 3/4 fathoms would be called as "a quarter less five", 3 1/2 as "and a half three", and so on. Where the depth was greater than 20 fathoms the line would commonly be marked with a single knot at 25 fathoms, two knots at 30, and so on.
The fact that this was just over 200 years ago, when people were just the same as us in mind and nature is so mind blowing. I have traced my ancestors further back than this time.
200 years isn’t that long, read a letter in the guardian, 1980s, from a man whose grandfather was born around that time - rare, but true.
@@spruce381200 years is a long time to an American, 200 miles is a long way to a Brit. (No offence intended just a phrase I like) I think it’s mostly true
@@joshuacauser No offence taken mate.
I can trace apart of my family for over a thousand years. But being humans we are linked at somepoint down the line! Peace!
@@norfolkronin6307 big up grandad Genghis
20:45 that little smirk as the animation slowly moves inbetween the fleets sounding off ship name vs ship name 😏
Ship of the line (1st&2nd rate) :Battleship. 74 gun ship (3rd&4th rate):Heavy Cruiser. Frigate (5&6 rates): Destroyer. A "very" simple rule of thumb to compare Age of Sail ships with WWII ships. Its a lot more complicated than this. But this will suffice for the layman watching a random video.
Third rates are ships of the line. And frigates can be 4th-6th rate.
@@ayoa1173 As I stated. Its a simple guide for none naval types watching the odd vid with late Age of Sail ships.
I chopped out the 74s, as the majority of British ships were 74's at the Nile. If I had kept them in with the Capital ships. It would have given the impression that the RN turned up with almost all Battleships.
No need to give a lecture about the the little details. X frigate has all 12 pounders. Y frigate has caronnades and some 18 pounders. Then you have to explain what carranades are. Long cannons v short cannons etc. The big differences between a French rigged and a British rigged ship etc.
Its just not needed for the casual viewer.
Just as I left out unrated ships . A casual viewer has a sort of idea what a battleship, big cruiser, and destroyer are. Nine out of ten random people probably think USS Constitution and HMS Victory are basically the same ship with different flags.
Admiral bruises so badly hurt even lost his legs but he strapped himself to a chair on deck and stayed in command until the ship blew up. He went down with his ship a true commander. Salute 🫡🫡🫡
Fire at sea, in wooden ship waterproofed by pitch and miles of tarred rope, was the greatest single threat - as this battle proved so dramatically. And while desalination was possible, the small amounts produced was not worth the risk of the massive fires to boil the quantities needed to be practical. Hot meals and the oven were also so tightly limited and controlled.
"Before this time tomorrow I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey" basically translates as "Glory or Death"
The term Battleship in WW1 and WW2 comes from "Line of Battle ship" from the days of sail. In the main navies the majority of ships of the line were 2 deckers with between 64 and 80 guns - most British ships were 2 decker 74's. The largest ships were the 3 deckers with around 100 guns - very costly to build and man with large crews of over 800 men and thus fewer in number compared to the 2 deckers. Both 2 and 3 deckers were used in the line of battle and are synonomus with the term Battleships used in the 20th century. Frigates were the fast and seaworthy single decker ships used for scouting and messaging for the battle fleets and general commerce protection and flying the flag around the world - they would compare to the light cruiser of the 20th century.
The wind was still in the English favor nothing changed in that regard only that the French didn’t think he could sail through there because it’s so shallow and they didn’t have enough sailors as they were all on land sooo being attacked from both sides made the battle even MORE decisive in the British favor
Ships-of-the-Line were warships deemed large enough and strongly constructed enough, to sail in the line of battle, in broadsides. Such tactics had developed long, long before the Battle of the Nile. It is fair to point out that Britain often had battle fleets in line-of-battle, which were dominated by 3rd rate ships-of-the-line. In spite of how in modern parlance, saying, '3rd rate' may seem demeaning, this was by no means and insult in the late 18th/early 19th century, when regarding the Royal Navy.
It's 3rd rates were the backbone of the Royal Navy. While there were roughly 9 or 10 British 1st rates (>100 gun giants) built across the majority of the entire 18th century, there were >200 3rd rates at any given point in the time of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. There were even more 4th rates and 5th rates (including 5th rate frigates) Some classes were built by the several dozen. There were also much lighter 6th rates ships-of-the-line, built primarily for speed.
A lot of these could find themselves being used in active front-line service around the world, though when it came to big gun battles, the smaller ships were not really meant to be as heavily involved. A 6th rate would normally be carrying out duties more suited to it's size and classification. There were also brigs, sloops-of-war and gunboats, amongst many other smaller classes of vessels.
When you got to around 4th rate size and onward you'd start to see the more heavily-armed ships which are more cut out for the big gun battles. If you're in a 3rd rate with anywhere between 64 to 74 (sometimes 80; though that used to be a 2nd rate firepower band, in the earlier 17th century; though some 2nd rates by Nelson's day could have up to 98 guns; and had already been that way since the early 18th century), then you'd have about half of those guns pointing port or starboard. That's a pretty healthy level of firepower to stand up for oneself and slog it out in the mix with the big bruisers so to speak.
Then again, there are some notable moments in naval history where conventional things go out of the window. HMS _Terpsichore_ (of 32 guns; and 5th rate frigate status, of the _Amazon_-class) was plucky enough to pick a fight with the largest warship on the planet at the time, in 1797; a little while after the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797, HMS _Terpsichore_ (which had not been at the battle) encountered Santisima Trinidad (shorthand form of her name) limping back to Cadiz.
HMS _Terpsichore_ was patrolling the coast for smaller quarry, and to report on enemy movements. Unexpectedly, the 136-140 gun Santisima Trinidad, a great red and black leviathan lurching in from the West, had been sighted by the little British frigate. It would be completely reasonable for HMS _Terpsichore_ to simply avoid the juggernaut Spanish ship like the plague, though she did something else, entirely; she started firing at the Spanish giant, and harassing it for miles.
It was a hopeless mismatch of crew size, displacement, firepower and presence, though the British just fired away. 9 Spanish sailors were slain, and the crew was quite shocked at what the British had done. They returned fire, of course (dozens of larger guns, rippling away trying to punish the little British frigate) Indeed, HMS _Terpsichore_ kept a close eye on the direction of movement of this enormous, 4-decker Spanish 1st rate. For comparison a British 3rd rate has 2 decks. The British 5th rate frigate had more than 100 fewer guns of any size, than Santisima Trinidad.
Now, realistically, both the British and the French possessed 'better ships' aka more lethal and better-built, better-operated and more usefully deployed, 1st rate ships-of-the-line. Santisima Trinidad was actually quite unfortunate, and had a very dubious career for her sheer size and firepower. She very nearly struck her colours (surrendered) during the Battle of Cape St Vincent, when a pair of British 3rd rates singled her out and began to dismantle her. L'Orient (arguably one of the greatest of the French 1st rates, as seen at the Battle of the Nile) had fewer guns than Santisima Trinidad as well, but it clearly wasn't the decisive factor) Whenever the British _did_ bring their own, very rare and crew hungry 1st rates to bear, these were terrifying powerhouses. However, as I said, the real backbone of the Royal Navy was the reliable 3rd rate.
Britain had lots of 3rd rates of a bewildering array of classes (including many, captured from various opponents) and great classes were commissioned and built. Although these would be often thinly spread out, considering their true numbers in total in the overall Royal Navy, there'd be plenty of them in a lot of British fleet groups around the world. They were something of a 'Goldilocks Zone' of requirements; large enough to be very imposing and impressive, fast enough to catch almost everything, and powerful enough to defeat almost everything, when it did catch them. A pair, or a trio, of British 3rd rates, could easily work over French or Spanish 1st rates (and even more so, 2nd rates)
The clue is with HMS _Terpsichore_ a mere 5th rate frigate, having the cannonballs (roundshot) to actually have a go at the then largest warship in the world. It says, well, everything you need to know about the mindset, quality, skill and bravery of the Royal Navy of Nelson; the Nelsonian Royal Navy. They were a different breed. The Spanish return fire did damage HMS _Terpsichore_ in the masts and rigging, and fearing being immobilised, the British did break off after some time following the Spanish giant. They lost sight of it as it hastened to Cadiz, and they slowed for repairs. They hadn't lost a single man. Now, sure, the British frigate was in very real danger, though she could have run away from the first sighting, and not been considered dishonoured; it was a hilarious mismatch and it wasn't her place to be picking a fight with that. But it didn't stop them reminding the Spanish why they were the best navy in the world.
Tenerife is a Spanish island of the Canary Islands chain off the coast of Morocco. Popular holiday spot for Brits
The "knots" on the rope are for determining the speed of the ship, so it doesn't need to go to the bottom. It is a measurement showing how many knots go past per second/minute. "Knots" is still used in the navy as the measurement for speed at sea. Taking "soundings" however is done using a rope with a weight attachd to the end to determine depth. Any drag caused by the motion/speed can be calculated using the ship's current speed and offset when making the soundings
Yh Epic History is going nuts with their collab on these 3D Nelson Battles. The butterfly effect is fine margins indeed, it's all about timing.
The British ship that ran aground before getting to the battle was supposedly captained by Albert trotter😂😂🇬🇧
😂🤣👍🏻
Different war mate 😂
Del said Albert had been sunk so many times, he should have joined the submarine corps in the first place.
🤣🤣🤣😂
you have remember all French Ships had a 3ed of the craw ashore not on Broad at the time of the battle
The 'knots you' mentioned were the means of judging the ships speed through the water. One sailor throws the knotted line out ahead if the vessel whilst a second turns a sand glass, when then sand runs out the first sailor pinches the line and calls how many knots have gone.
To measure depth a 'sounding-line' with a lead weight on the endm and marked in fathoms was thrown overboard to gauge the depth. It was refined do that the bottom of the lead was hollow and filled with animal fat to pick up a sample of the sea bed. The material sample and depth could be included on charts or compared to existing charts, to help refine the vessel's position.
The rope that was used to guage water depth had a heavy lead weight on the end. This prevented any false depth reading due to diagonal ropes.
17:50 the wind favour doesn’t change because of the Goliath captain’s decision.
A peerage is an aristocratic title. E.g. he gets to become a Lord, Baron, Viscount, etc.
Westminster Abbey is a huge cathedral-like building in London. It's a tomb for heroes. So if he "gains it", he's died in battle.
National heroes were buried in Westminster Abbey back then!
Love your channel, Connor.
British sailors were more disciplined and could load and fire faster.
largly down to the Royal navy's tactics of blockading people into port, so the RN's sailors gained experience in sailing ships whilst their opponents generally were stuck sitting about in harbour learning nothing of any practical use at sea.
Sounding is using a thin rope, knotted every six feet (one fathom). It has a lead weight with a concave space at the bottom. Think of a shallow bell in shape. The concave area has a soft material put into it. which pickes up what is on the seabed. So The ship knows whats below it, and the depth.
Ship speed is measured using a ships log. It is a quarter circle with lines to keep it upright in the water. A knotted line (log line) is attached and then towed behind the ship. A sailor counts how many knots slip though his fingers in a given time. If six knots when through, the ship speed is six knots. The knots are spaced at a certain length from each other. This is where we get knots for nautical speed today.
I remember reading somewhere that a lot of sailors couldn't even swim at the time
It depends, for the British for the most part its untrue, most good crew were from the Isle of Wight, Southampton or Portsmouth, and so had grown up by the sea, fishing and playing in it as children. Even today almost all native British people from the south can swim, but For French or German crews it was quite different, many were recruited from inland towns and had never even been aboard a ship before they started their training.
There is also the issue that even if we can swim well often you are still going to die if you have to jump. Many coast lines have harsh rocky shores that kill anyone being tossed against them, and often you're hundred of miles from any land at all, or the tide will simply sweep you out to sea. If the tide is going out and running fast no matter how good a swimmer you are in many bays its so strong there is very little chance you survive.
@@alistairbolden6340 good to know, thank you
@@alistairbolden6340 lots couldn’t - lascars, pressed men, Irish - loads.
@@spruce381 The vast majority of Irish people do live in coastal towns and cities but yes some did not, the Royal navi did also recruit on the London docks and most Londoners could not swim, The Brits did priority there best soldiers and officers for navi service since it was and is there first line of defence so you didn't have any convicts serving as marines, unlike the British army that often gave people the choice between serving time or joining up with a regiment.
So you wanted the French to win,still they help you to beat us i suppose.
I could imagine Napoleon reaction to hear of all the treasury onboard L’Orient is lost to the bottom of Nile bay.
Likely resulted in a "Not tonight Josephine" moment.
told you for years now.. chill. your analysis is good. stress less.
"Ship of the line" and "Battleship" are the same thing, having their shared origin in the term "ship of the line of battle".
The term "cruiser" also come from this time, with a ship of the line or sometimes frigate going on Cruiser operations like raiding, patrolling etc. When steam engines and armour came in you begin to see the divergence of the "battle" ship and the "cruiser" ship as range and speed were impacted ever more heavily by armour and armament.
So a ship of the line is both a battleship and a cruiser for its time, with bigger ones (1st and 2nd rate) more suited for battle and smaller ones (4th rate) more suited for cruiser work. The third rate is all rounder king and by far most common for that reason.
The fourth rate was phased out over time as third rate became more common and frigates became larger and more capable.
Yes you should definitely bring back that "If you're not ready to learn then you're in the wrong class" line. It is spectacularly good.
Or maybe with the wrong teacher.
Its a pity he seems unable to retain anything he learns
Your desalination question is a good one. It's a problem of equipment and time. The vapour needs to be angled away and onto something cold and then the fresh liquid drops into a different container. Keeping the "something cold", well, cold, is a problem as is capturing the vapour to divert.
It's very possible at the time but you would boil a lot of seawater to get not very much fresh water. And since these ships are super flammable they kept open fire in very specific parts of the ship limiting the process more.
With so many to get water for, and the men needing to waste water to pump all that sea water in the first place it's very awkward.
A ship of the line is a ship that is intended to fight in the line of battle. Normally in the Royal Navy, that would be a 1st, 2nd or 3rd Rate ship. A ships Rate, is not about quality, it's about the number of guns. Ships were rated from 1st to 6th, ships with fewer guns than a 6th were unrated. The number of guns for each rate changed over time (100+ for a 1st rate at the time, I think).
Nelson saying "A peerage or Westminster Abby", was him saying that he would win a grand victory and gain a noble title, or die a heroes death and be buried in Westminster Abby.
The HMS Belepheron, which was badly damaged in the Battle of the Nile went on to be anchored off the English coast and was Napoleon's prison ship before he was finally exiled.
and the English sailors called her 'Billy Ruffian'.
@@stuartfraser9723 indeed it was. I only thought of that after I posted. Thanks for the reply.
If you captured a ship you captured everything. Doesn't matter if the ammunition is the wrong size, because it comes along with a ship full of guns of the correct calibre.
15:00 A peerage means being made a lord. Westminster Abbey is a very prominent London cathedral, famous for having practically every prominent Brit buried there. Nelson is saying he'll either win and be made a lord, or he'll die and be buried. No in-between option.
HMS Bellerophon ( known to the sailors as "Billy Ruffian ) was repaired and fought at Trafalgar. In 1815 after his defeat at Waterloo Napoleon surrendered to Frederick Lewis Maitland captain of the Billy Ruffian which was on blockade duty off the coast of France. She was broken up and sold for scrap in 1836. Some of the timber was bought by George Bellamy ex ships surgeon on Bellerphon and used to build a cottage in Plymstock near Plymouth Devon. It still stands.
Fascinating. Bellerophon was given the honour of transporting Napoleon to Plymouth after his capture. He remained on board and national newspapers were reporting his every move and what he was wearing minute to minute as he strode the deck, such was the eager public fascination with him. Bellerophon, I understand was used as a prison ship on the Thames for a time prior to be ultimately broken up. A sad end to a marvellous piece of our history.
@@robofclanlennox Yes, the ship became a great attraction while off Plymouth with people hoping to catch a glimpse of Napoleon.
Connor, another first class reaction. Top-job! 👍👍
The French admiral was an absolute mad man his face and hands messed up both legs blown off by cannon ball but refuses to leave his post and died on deck... Salute !
Because he couldn't leave 😂 had no legs.
“L’Orient” was the biggest ship on the world at the time. The “Santisima Trinidad” had more decks and more guns but L’Orient had a bigger “body” I guess for carrying all that money and gold and supplies. She had more tonnage than any other ship in the world. When she was sank.
15:11 'a peerage' (he'll have been made a lord); 'Westminster Abbey' (where dead heroes get buried).
No retreating in ship combat if your ship is slower. Many ship battles would end in surrender or full destruction because its far to dangerous to board a ship and then check all the rooms. Its a reason the Spanish often lost to the British i think? They had large galleons filled with about 200 soldiers and often tried to disable and board enemies, while the British began using their ships mainly as mobile gun platforms.
Ok, desalination is the use of semi permeable membranes to run saltwater through such that only H & OH ions can pass through.
It’s very energy intensive but better than distillation which is what you meant. And they both leave the water without any slats in. Minerals dissolved in water are salts! Often a small amount gets put back in because distilled or completely pure water actually tastes stale.
And perfectly pure water is very bad for your health especially your kidney
I often think about how in the age of sail, with the length of time it took to bring the enemy to battle, How men must have struggled with their nerves just wishing the battle to start and be over with. Normally you would have had hours in which to think and ponder - it must have been extremely difficult
32:12 - Always fascinating to see which captured ships the Royal Navy adopted with the original French name intact and which ones they felt they had to rename (sometimes because of tricky pronunciation or an existing British ship with the same name, but often for ideological reasons if it had been named after some enemy hero or Jacobin principle). It seems that of those taken at Aboukir Bay, Peuple Souverain and Franklin were considered objectionable names to have a HMS put in front of them; have to admit I'm a bit surprised about the second one, but obviously the Royal Navy in 1798 wasn't ready to forgive and forget just yet!
What an amazing video. Thanks Connor.
Yes, a ship of the line is a main battleship, usually of 72/74 guns.
Good find Connor, this is a fab one.
Lol, calling napoleon a giant 🤣
We did capture him and put him on an island he escaped and went on the rampage again.Napoleon did. If I am not mistaken.
HMS Victory, despite being in dry dock for hundreds of years is still classed as a ship of the line.
The rope had lead at the end, it would pick up sand etc..the phrase 'swinging the lead' comes from this, i.e. not doing too much!
Ship of the line means a ship with over 74 guns
Knots on the rope was for speed and a lead weight was used
If you haven't seen it. I highly recommend you watch Master and commander, far side of the world. If you like this stuff you'll love that film 100%
The two vessels that went to the aid of 'Culloden' were not ships of the line. They would not be included 'in the 'line of battle', because they did not have the number of guns or weight of shot, the thickness of timbers, or the crew numbers, to stand against a third rate or higher without being dismembered in minutes. Sloops, frigates, etc. had other roles, in fleet actions. Look what happened to the French frigate (36) when it engaged a third rate (74).
When they took soundings (finding how deep the water was), a sailor would "heave the lead", a lead weight with grease on the bottom attached to a line thrown ahead. The sailor would pull in the slack caused by the ship moving until the line was directly below, when the sailor would read the markings to get the depth. The grease was used to pick up sediment from the sea floor. Sometimes two sailors would be employed, taking turns in heaving the lead.
He meant death of glory , buried in Westminster Abbey or a Knighthood . The inshore course looked similar to what the first group would have taken to come alongside the French line as long as no-one ran aground and it was decisive as they were almost unopposed . It was a good animation .
Drachinifel is without doubt one of the most comprehensive experts on anything Naval, the man a mad man however doing 6 hrs Q and A's on anything from Nelson to what they served for lunch in the USS Iowa on Christmas day in 1944 or what are the dynamics of water in a swell and a 50,000 ship
There were different tactics in Sea Warfare, often it was better to unmast the enemy ship and then there wouldn't be that many casualities
Highly recommended a tour of HMS Victory on TH-cam. I know Secret Vault from the UK will take you on a tour. Then you will have an understanding like no other when it comes to being in the English navy in those times. Literally breathtaking. Bless
A ship-of the-line by this time was a third-rate ship (74 guns) upwards to a first-rate. The exception here was the Leander, which may have been regarded as a 'third-rate' in an earlier era.
You have to think that is 2/3 of an already diminished crew due to most of them being on land in Egypt so I'd imagine 2/3 left was not particularly many.
Its a series. Definetely must watch is part 1, battle of cape st. vincent, i think they uploaded a month ago
Fascinating video amd reaction. Annimation was fantastic. Ironically, I'm spending a week in France, with a few days in Paris. Visited the Musee des Invalides, an historic military hospital, but now the French Army museum, and mausoleum of the man himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. Really cool place to visit. Highly recommended.
Those ships were something else , great video Connor 😊
Ship Of The Line has a very specific meaning. You would have learnt it in the first of this series, that I also saw. I would chastise you, but now it comes to it, I am not 100% sure myself! I think it means a ship with over 100 cannon.
I am from Norfolk, England. On the road signs on entering Norfolk, it says, “Norfolk:Nelson’s county”. We are still very proud of our Horatio…
I’m pretty sure the first video said over 100 guns meant it was a 1st rate Ship of The Line not that it defined what it was
Taking soundings. What you are describing is measuring the speed of the ship. It was done by dropping a rope in the sea and over a set time, the person holding the rope would count the number of knots that went through his hands. Hence speed on the sea being measured in Knots. The knots were tied specifically at a predetermined distance apart…
Soundings were designed to see how deep the sea was. I am unaware of how that was done at this time in history. It had to involve rope and a weight, but don’t know the details, sorry.
A ship of the line or "line of battle ship" which later was shortened to battleship formed the line of battle in these times which normally saw the two fleets sailing alongside pounding each other . The smallest classed as such I believe was 64 guns but 74 was far more common .
lol sorry to bing your comments mate just want to say I really enjoyed your vid I love the way you think and the questions you ask. It’s refreshing to see a young guy thinking the way you do on the internet
Did you know Nelson’s coffin is made of the French flagships L’orient mainmast! It was given to him as a present
Ship of the line = Biggest, lots and lots of canons. HMS Victory had 104 of them.
there was a concept for a British ship with 170 guns
Also check this out Nelson’s flag ship had more guns of a bigger size then entire British army at Waterloo
Nelson in command of the seas, and Wellington on the land. Never was Britain so blessed to have such masters of war against Napoleon. Ninety years of European peace followed Waterloo.
A sounding line or lead line is a length of thin rope with a plummet, generally of lead, at its end. Regardless of the actual composition of the plummet, it is still called a "lead". Leads were swung, or cast, by a leadsman, usually standing in the chains of a ship, up against the shrouds.
Measuring the depth of water by lead and line dates back to ancient civilization. It continues in widespread use today in recreational boating and as an alternative to electronic echo sounding devices. Greek and Roman navigators are known to have used sounding leads, some of which have been uncovered by archaeologists. Sounding by lead and line continued throughout the medieval and early modern periods and is still commonly used today. The Bible describes lead and line sounding in Acts, whilst the Bayeux Tapestry documents the use of a sounding lead during William the Conqueror's 1066 landing in England. Lead and line sounding operates alongside sounding poles, and/or echo sounding devices particularly when navigating in shallower waters and on rivers
Yes “ship of THE LINE” remember the cape st Vincent video. In this age it was considered “crucial to maintain the LINE of battle”. Hence why Nelson was so good he used some tactics developed during the American revolutionary wars and Breaking the lines. Hence SHIP OF the LINE. THE main battleships.
It is easy to feel sorry for the hapless French Navy from 1750-1815. The Brits were OP!
Only in Navy. Up until mid Napoleonic Era, The Brits were infact behind in "skill" when compared to the French and Prussians. It wasn't until the Wellington Era that skill played a bigger factor than Money in leadership, lessons being learned from the Navy. Titles and medal were being earned rather than exchanged for cash.
@@babalonkie Give it a rest, Britain never got a huge empire at that time from lacking behind in "skill" Britain destroyed France in the Seven years war, as that was the most crushing war for France territory wise in their history and they won that not just from Naval battles, all the while Britain and Prussia were being out outnumbered massively. No country could hope to invade Britain at that time, not while the Royal Navy was top dog.
@@ChrisCrossClash Navy Yes... Britain's Army not so much... it was below par of several other nations (whilst still being ahead of many others). Britain's Win/Loss ratio in land battles was nowhere near as successful as it's Navy.
"Britain never got a huge empire at that time from lacking behind in "skill""
No... 9/10 times it got it by Bringing guns to countries that never had them...
@@babalonkieand earlier the Dutch were excellent. Only from 1770s on, with Indian money, did the Navy excel. Also Industrial Revolution.
Ship need to fire more quickly and accurately than the opposition.
@@babalonkie They beat the and kicked out the French in Canada USA and India.
Britain was the most dominant sea faring nation in the history of the Human Race. at one point they were stronger and had more ships than the next 8 largest navies
Forgot about the battle at Medway, where the entire British navy was blown to smithereens in their own harbour by the Dutch? The capture of the British flagship HMS Royal Charles was a major humilliation for the British, forcing them to stop the then ongoing war against the Dutch immediatly. It took the British approximatly a century to rebuild their navy to the level before the battle at Medway. From that moment on, the British were indeed the most dominating sea faring nation. But unlike you are saying, that was not always the case.
@fredklein9005 one defeat doesnt chnage the fact the riyal navy was the unquestioned naval super power for 2 centuries. No military is ever completely undefeated. Pkus the ducth got bent over and absolutely fucked in ww2, and had to get real soldiers from Britain, Usa and Poland to come and free them. So the duth can pipe down.
@@williamjohnson5229 You mean by real soldiers those defeated, panicking British 'soldiers' who didn't know how fast they had to desert their French Allies at Duinkerke?
The raid at the Medway wasn't the only Dutch victory over the British navy during the Anglo-Dutch wars.
The British forces didn't play a decisive role in the liberation of the Netherlands. Only had to roll their tanks over Hell's highway and their route got cut by the Germans many times in the process. The real liberation in the south of the Netherlands was done by the Americans durin operation Market Garden in 1944. In 1945, half a year after the British fuck-up at Arnhem, the Canadians succesfully liberated the Netherlands.
It's obvious you have a selective view of history.
@@fredklein9005 better than the ducth who got steam rolled and spent the rest of the war conquered. And they didn't desert their French allies. Everyone knew France was lost at that point. The fence fought a heroic rear guard to allow the British to retreat in order to come back. The French trusted the British not to give up and we didn't. Nobody said it was medway was the only defeat, but that or other defeats doesn't change the fact the Royal Navy was the unquestioned naval power for two centuries and was one of if not the most dominat naval powers in history. Naval achievements like the building of HMS Dreadnought which redefined naval warfare.
Talking smack about the 8000 British airborne soldiers who died in one of the most heroic stands of the war is laughable, when the only reason they had to attempt to capture those bridges was because Dutch "men" had surrendered years before. For you tontry and claim Britain wasn't the dominant naval force for a long period of history shows it is you who is looking at it selectively.
Westminster Abbey is cathedral where Britain's heroes are buried.
Nelson: "i'm the best"
The french corsaire Surcouffe taking out a royal navy ship full of 250 british soldier with only 17 men : "Oui"
Desalination needs a huge amount of fuel which is in short supply at sea. Plus fire and wooden warships are not a good idea.
Voices of the past is absolutely phenomenal
The navel battles during the 1st but the 2ndWW's were on an even more extreme level. UK against Germany. Remember HMS Hood. Went to sink the Bismarck. But got hit. Terrible loss of life in just a moment. Germanys navel fleet? Beyond phenomenal. May all of those who succumbed to all righteous wars RIP. The battles with America in the Pacific against Japan. A major moment in navel history we should all wish will never happen again on the world stage. Awful loss of life of so many young men in such horrific ways. We are so lucky to live in times with this amount of quality viewing when it comes to history on tap. And on another note. And I'm not lying or putting the US down. But there was a film with Harvey Kietel playing apart where they capture a German u-boat in the Mediterranean during the 2nd world war.So important where one of the first captured enigma machines was taken and won the west their side of the second world war against Germany. Im afraid to say thats a hollywood lie. We had german lines tapped anyway in Berlin. But it was a moment of UK's history. Notthing to do with state's. Love your enthusiastim for enlightenment. And I'm sure your UK veiwing will grow. Not everyone has seen everything. So it's a pleasure to watch along. Even though I do know most of this history myself. That's cool as I missed out on seeing this myself. A great watch. Goodluck with your channel. Bless and Takecare from across that pond y'all!
Idk why the french didnt use the army to get supplies like food or water instead of sailors but for a weakened french fleet they fought hard they did more damage on the british fleet then the spanish did at cape st vincent and that was when the spanish outnumbered and outgunned the british 2 to 1 but yeah rest in peace thanks to british rescue crews 70 sailors were Rescued from the french flagship out of a crew of 1,078 men
Well I woudnt say the French fleet losing 11 ships against zero ships is doing a lot of damage to the British fleet.
@@Acridblue999they put up more of a fight then the spanish did at st vincent they inflicted more damage and casualties and that was when the french fleet was immobile under manned and about even ships the spanish had twice as many guns and ships at St vincent but didn't do much damage or casualties
Order a Book called "The Billy Ruffian by Cordingly. A biography of a shipof the line HMS BEDLLEROPHON. It will tell you much about Napoleon and his voyage back to England asking for Political Asylum from his most generous and most constant Enemy.. It all took place near the end of the ship's life in 1815. It was not thought strong enough to take him to St Helena.
A peerage is a member of the nobility, and its hereditary title so it will pass down to your children. the difference between a lord and a Sir, once you have a peerage, you are then in line for actual royal positions like Barron etc
Regarding munition size, I havnt googled or educated myself in the matter but I wouldn't be surprised if these ships had facilities to melt down lead and produce its own ordinance. I'm sure there's someone out there who could put me right.
Gained a Peerage or Westminster Abbey ... be lauded and given a title OR a burial place in Westminster Abbey.
Distillation is one way to de-salinate yes that is absolutely correct.
Nelson : arrh i am Killed, ze frenchies have got me
Nelson : oh wait i have IRL plot armour, i'm fine
I dont think Nelson spoke with a french accent 😂
@@TonySpike little known fact he had been watching a lot of 'allo allo' at the time and had acquired a very slight bad french accent. The History books don't tend to concentrate on this aspect,but honest guv it's true.
You should look up Cpt Thomas Corquren (assuming I’ve spelt that correct) he was 24th Earl Dundonal , a sea captain that fought successfully I the war against Napoleon and his family with the loss of one man. The books on Hornblower and Jack Aubrey were based on his life.
Cochrane, and he was the 10 Earl of Dundonald.
@@ayoa1173 thank you for the corrections
Westminster Abbey would mean Nelson would have been killed which is exactly where he was entombed after Trafalgar .
Nelson is buried in St Pauls Cathedral although there is a memorial in Westminster Abbey.
@@avpmobi Your right I took a photo of it in St Pauls just got the two mixed up.
'Title and Parliament' - there are TWO houses of parliament - the commons and the peerage. This is very roughly the same system as the senate and congress. The Peerage, being awarded by the politicians or (at this time) hereditary, can review bills made by the lower house, and send them back with recommendations for amendment. However the Commons made up of elected MP's has the final say. Nelson's peerage therefore gave him a seat in the upper house.
The word travel comes from the french word (to) trevail. The French got the word the word travail from an English word. Trevalium. A trevalium is
the name of a medieval English weapon of torture. Meaning. You are going on a journey. But your not moving a muscle. French language done beautiful things to the English language about a thousand years ago. But it goes to show you how wondrous English is. Ask the internet in the early days how many words in the English language? 2.5 million and counting down to a around a million. Now they have it back down to most European languages only had or have around 150,000 words. England. Britian. Has actually brought so many things to world it's dumbfounding. The last nation to have the biggest land mass empire the world will ever see. Such a little group of islands it's phenomenal. Bless.
"Ship of the Line" is short for "Ship of the line of battle." As he said, the 18th century equivalent of a battleship.
The influence of luck and chance: If not for a big storm in the reign of Elizabeth I, Spain's armada would have conquered England's, and Philip II would have won and restored England back to the Catholic Faith, passibly deposing Elizabeth (a Tudor) and restoring a Plantagenet with better dynastic right to the throne.
"Westminster Abby " = a tomb in the national cathedral because he gets killed in action.
Calculating knots (sea miles) per hour -- one swings a weighted rope with a float at the stem (front of ship) while another times how much time it takes the ship to sail past the float, which is then pulled up. Mathematics give a calculation of the speed of the ship = knots per hour.
Ammunition size: there was a standard size, due to manufacturing limitations. but there were several sizes used called by cannon ball size : 2-pounders, 6 pounders, 12 pounders, etc. They were limited by the weight one sailor could lift to shove down the barrel of the cannon.
Or for the peninsula war, you could just watch Sharpe lol
Yes i recently watched them they are on youtube, but i remember watching them on my 14" colour TV when they where first broadcast.
Bastard
@stue2298 - some of us read the exellent books as Bernard Cornwell published them
As did I!
Good video it went by so quick I wanted more
As part of this series, you need to see the story of HMS Pickle.
There’s tons of French generals at this time and test Napoleon was one of the biggest and best known but … how could they know this guy would become emperor…and also so what if not him someone else may have … there was so much stuff going on during the French Revolution.. many coups and coup attempts soo him “escaping” isn’t a big deal as you think. Only in hindsight it’s fun to think about.