Complex sentence: Following their earlier vote on 8 October to stay put, some captains were reluctant to leave Cadiz and as a result they failed to follow Villeneuve's orders closely and the fleet straggled out of the harbour in no particular formation.
Split into simpler sentences: Following their earlier vote on 8 October to stay put, some captains were reluctant to leave Cadiz and as a result they failed to follow Villeneuve's orders closely. As a result, the fleet straggled out of the harbour in no particular formation.