As the British advance already appeared to threaten this end of their line, the Allied fleet wore together about 9 o'clock, thus reversing their order, shifting their course northward, and opening Cadiz as a refuge. The maneuver, not completed until an hour later, left their line bowed in at the center, with a number of ships slightly to leeward, while Gravina's squadron mingled with and prolonged the rear in the new order.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, OCT. 21, 1805
Position of ships about noon, when _Royal Sovereign_ opened fire.
(From plan by Capt. T. H. Tizard, R.N., British Admiralty Report, 1913.)]
The change, though it aroused Nelson's fear lest his quarry should escape, facilitated his attack as planned, by exposing the enemy rear to Collingwood's division. As rapidly as the light airs permitted, the two British columns bore down, Nelson in the _Victory_ (100) leading the windward division of 12 ships, closely followed by the heavy _Neptune_ and _Téméraire_, while Collingwood in the freshly coppered and refitted _Royal Sovereign_ set a sharp pace for the 15 sail to leeward. Of the forty ships Nelson had once counted on, some had not come from England, and a half dozen others were inside the straits for water. While the enemy were changing course, Collingwood had signaled his division to shift into a line of bearing, an order which, though rendered almost ineffective by his failure to slow down, served to throw the column off slightly and bring it more nearly parallel to the enemy rear. (See plan.) Both commanders clung to the lead and pushed ahead as if racing into the fray, thus effectually preventing deployment and leaving trailers far behind. Nelson went so far as to try to jockey his old friend out of first place by ordering the _Mars_ to pass him, but Collingwood set his studding sails and kept his lead. Possibly it was then he made the remark that he wished Nelson would make no more signals, as they all knew what they had to do, rather than after Nelson's famous final message: "England expects that every man will do his duty."
Nelson, uncertain of Villeneuve's place in the line and anxious to prevent escape northward, steered for a gap ahead of the _Santisima Trinidad_, as if to threaten the van. But at 12:00 noon, as the first shots were fired at the _Royal Sovereign_, flags were broken from all ships, and Villeneuve's location revealed. Swinging to southward under heavy fire, the _Victory_ passed under the stern of the _Bucentaure_ and then crashed into the _Redoutable_, which had pushed close up to the flagship. The relative effectiveness of the gunnery in the two fleets is suggested by the fact that the _Victory_ while coming in under the enemy's concentrated fire had only 50 killed and wounded, whereas the raking broadside she finally poured into the _Bucentaure's_ stern is said to have swept down 400 men. Almost simultaneously with the leader, the _Téméraire_ and _Neptune_ plunged into the line, the former closing with the _Bucentaure_ and the latter with the _Santisima Trinidad_ ahead. Other ships soon thrust into the terrific artillery combat which centered around the leaders in a confused mingling of friend and foe.