HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [299 



this bold manoeuvre, the Commodore found himself alongside 

 of the Spanish Admiral, the Santissidma Trinidada, of 136 guns, 

 which is said to be the largest ship at present in existence. Not- 

 withstanding this immense disparity (the Captain being only a 

 seventy-four), this brave officer did not shrink from the contest; 

 though the Spaniard was also warmly supported by her two seconds 

 a-head and a-stern, which were each of them three-deckers. While 

 he sustained, however, this unequal conflict, his friends were eagerly 

 pressing to his assistance ; the enemy's attention, therefore, was 

 soon directed to the Culloden, Captain Trowbridge ; and the Blen- 

 heim, Captain Frederick ; and the able support afforded by these 

 vessels to Commodore Nelson, and the approach of Rear- Admiral 

 Parker, with four others of the British line, determined the Spanish 

 Commander to relinquish his design of rejoining his ships to lee- 

 ward, and to make the signal for his main body to haul their wind, 

 and make sail on the larboard tack. The advantage was now evi- 

 dently on the side of the British, and while the advanced division 

 warmly pressed the centre and rear of the enemy, the Admiral medi- 

 tated with his division a co-operation which might effectually com- 

 pel some of them to surrender. In the confusion of their retreat, seve- 

 ral of the Spanish ships had doubled on each other. It was therefore 

 Admiral Jervis's plan to reach the weathermost of those ships, then 

 to bear up and take them all in succession, with the seven ships com- 

 posing his division. The casual position of the rear ships in his own 

 division, however, prevented the executing this design. He there- 

 fore ordered the leading ship, the Excellent, Captain Collingwood, 

 to bear up, while with his own ship, the Victory, he passed to lee- 

 ward of the rearmost ships of the enemy. Captain Collingwood, in 

 obedience to the Admiral's orders, passed between the two rearmost 

 ships of the enemy, and gave one of them, the San Isidro, so effec- 

 tual a broadside, that having been much injured before, she was 

 obliged to submit. The Excellent then passed on to the relief of 

 the Captain, which was engaged with a three-decker, carrying a, 

 flag ; but before she could arrive, the vessel became entangled with 

 the second, a two-decker. In this state they were both boarded by 

 the Captain, and the smaller of them, the San Nicholas, was in a 

 short time in the possession of her opponents. The three-decker, 

 the San Joseph, followed the fate of her second, and became imme- 

 diately a prize to Commodore Nelson, who headed the party which 

 boarded her from the San Nicholas. In the mean time Admiral 

 Jervis ordered the Victory to be placed on the lee quarter of the 



