Battle of Trafalgar According to the Second Doctor , the Battle of Trafalgar was the most important English victory by sea in the Napoleonic Wars . On 21 October 1805 , the Royal Navy , led by Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson , defeated a French and Spanish fleet . However , Nelson was killed in the fighting . ( PROSE : " World Game " ) History . Prior to the battle , the Player known as the Countess attempted to ensure Napoleon ' s victory by helping Fulton develop a prototype submarine , known as the " Nautilus " . With the machine limited in its ability to move underwater with the technologies at hand , the Countess had attempted to enhance its power by providing Fulton with an omega drive , but the Second Doctor was able to sabotage the drive and convince Fulton and Napoleon to abandon the plan ( PROSE : " World Game " ) . Just before the battle , Panda advised Horatio Nelson to put the message " England expects that every man will do his duty " on the masts of his ship . ( PROSE : " Project : Wildthyme " ) The battle . As a young man , Professor Cedric Scrivener ' s butler Hill served aboard the HMS " Temeraire " during the battle . ( AUDIO : " The Ghosts of Gralstead " ) The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond visited a different ship during the battle . It was fleeing from what they believed to be a Kraken . It was actually a 21st century aircraft carrier brought back in time by an infestation of Time Roach es . The Doctor sent it back into the Time Vortex , causing the carrier to return to its own time . ( COMIC : " Rough Waters " ) After hunting the Flying Dutchman through time , the Twelfth Doctor , Prince George , and Thorpe finally boarded it at the battle of Trafalgar . They materialised on a French ship and were shot at by a French soldier . They jumped off the ship and landed on the Dutchman . While they were on the Dutchman it left 1805 . After the Doctor took control of the ship , he took it back to the battle and retrieved his TARDIS . ( COMIC : " Ghosts of the Seas " ) After the English won the battle , Nelson was shot down by a sniper . ( PROSE : " World Game " ) The Second Doctor , Ben Jackson and Polly Wright visited Nelson ' s ship during the battle . The Doctor tried to change history by preventing Nelson ' s death , but was unsuccessful . ( PROSE : " H . M . S . TARDIS " ) References . The Fourth Doctor mentioned that he had breakfast with Nelson the day before the battle . ( PROSE : " Eye of Heaven " ) Sometime before his eighth incarnation , the Doctor told Iris Wildthyme that he was instrumental at Trafalgar . ( PROSE : " The Scarlet Empress " ) The Doctor later told Izzy Sinclair that he used a sextant to calculate the position of Napoleon ' s fleet at Trafalgar . ( COMIC : " Fire and Brimstone " ) The Tenth Doctor mentioned to Rose Tyler that he could take her to witness the battle . ( TV : " Tooth and Claw " ) The First Doctor ' s companion Vicki Pallister , a native of the 25th century , was unfamiliar with history of the battle and that of Trafalgar Square . On a visit to London in November 1605 , she expressed an interest in visiting the square . When the Doctor told her that the Battle of Trafalgar would not occur for another 200 years , she assumed that he meant that a battle had been fought in Trafalgar Square in 1805 . ( PROSE : " The Plotters " )