Hello everybody welcome to Down Snow's History. It's the 21st of October. That is of course

Trafalgar Day. It's the anniversary of one of the greatest sea battles in history. A name

imprinted on the naval history not just at Britain but the world. Trafalgar is still

so resonant today. Pubs and public spaces are still named after it, around Britain and

its former empire. It was a battle of annihilation. It became like Hannibal's victory at Canny

in obsession with subsequent naval strategists and thinkers and authors, not just British

but American and Japanese as well. I think for the public it's the one naval battle that

we keep in our memory. Keeper on Bay, sadly, Jutland, Graveline, the Saints, even the battle

of Nile are now pretty much forgotten. But Trafalgar endures. Trafalgar endures, not just because

of its association with famous place names but because I think it was such a crushing

victory that has neatly come to symbolise the start of a period of British naval domination

of the world's oceans. I would argue that period domination began somewhat earlier but

in the public mind I think that Trafalgar is in many ways a starting point. And of course

you've got the heroic death of one of the most famous Britons who has ever lived. Vice-Admiral

Lord Horatio Nelson, mortally wounded on the court decommissioned victory, the court

dec-which survives on a ship which survives this day as you may have had mentioned on this

podcast once or twice, then taken below and die a few hours later. So let's talk about

what happened that terrible day in 1885. This everybody I'm afraid is another one of my story

telling podcasts where I do the talking. I'm very lucky to have tips from Andrew Baines,

a brilliant creator, H.M.S. victory, a man I interviewed a couple of years ago for the

rest of the story. So we're using a few of his tips and then I'll tell the rest of the

story. I'm going to tell you what happened. I'm trying to tell you what mattered as well.

...