The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-03

] English-speaking race. 1t is true that
| Horatio Nelson won the battles and
| that the world has never seen such
| another sea fighter as Horatio Ne.son;
| but there is no reason why another
David Farragut should not be develop
| ed in this struggle, and he will be
| even more than is needed to repeat the
| drubbings:
1t was Feb Is, 1898, that Nelson in the
Captain Joined Sir John Jervis'- fleet
off Cape ST. Vincent's, bringing the in
telligence that the Spanish were ap-
preaching with greatly superior force.
They had, indeed, one 136-gUn ship, six
112s, two S4s. eighteen 74s, ten frigates
and a brig. Against these thirty-eight
vessels, twenty seven of which were
ships Of the line, with 2,30S guns, Jer-
Wis had two 100-gun ships, two 9Ss, two
90s, eight 74s, one Ga, four frigates,
sloop and a cutter-only fifteen ships
of-the-line, with 1892 guns-barely half
the force Of the enemy. When the two
fleets came within sight of one another
the first Spaniard made some false
signals which showed the utter incapac-
ity of the officers of that navy.
While these incompetr.lts were rug
Cling and struggling into line of bat
tie Jervis came up to. them under
heavy canvas, went straight; through
their fleet, tackled and had nine OF
the Spaniards cut off from the main
body. Repulsed in their attempt to
| reioin their companions, with. one ex-
ception these vessels prudently and in
| characteristic Spanish fashion ran
away, appeared again in time to learn
| that their side was whipped and then
disappeared permanently. And the
others w.uld have been delighted to
do the same thing. They did in fact
| make the attempt to get off without
fighting, but Nelson, with the Captain
hn nrd 81 In p.it ;cI,
pitched single-handed into seven of
them, took two himself, and in an
hours fighting, one against seven, with
some assistance from the Culloden, cut
them all to pieces. The other Spanilrds
survived, but only until they met Nell
son again.
1t was not until the last day of his
| life, Oct. Il, 1905, that Nelson there
after came into conflict with any con-
| siderable number of the Spanish, hav-
| ing in the meantime inflicted upon the
French an overwhelming defeat at the
| battle of the Nile. With twenty-seven
ships of-the-line and four frigates, the
British came up with the combined
| French and Spanish array at Trafalgar,
consisting of thirty-three ships of-the-
line and seven frigates, all much heav-
| Ter in both tonnage and metal than
| their opponents. Besides, they had
| 1000 expert rifiemen on board, who
| 1nnlcted quite the heaviest damage
| done upon the British.
A little before battle was Joined, Mel
son asked Capt Blackwood what he
| would consider victory. Taking ev-
erything into account, he decided that
the capture Of fourteen of the enemy's
| ships would mean glorious success.
But Nelson declined to be contented
with fewer than twenty, and that,
| strangely enough, was exactly the
| number of French and Spanish vessels
which struck their colors during the
action. When the British sailors went
into battle, such was their confidence
| that they had only one remark upon
| the splendid spectacle afforded by their
adversaries: Wont they look well at
| Spithead?" AS it turned out, the
French were so fearful of Nelson since
| their experience with him off the Egyp-
tan coast that they did not fight as
well as the Spanish. Yet Nelson's own
ship, the Victory, "a, came alongside
the Santissima Trinidad, 1885, and in a