The _Royal Sovereign’s_ captain at Trafalgar, Collingwood’s flag-captain, was, like his Admiral, a gallant Northumbrian, Edward Rotherham, the son of a Hexham doctor. Of him that day the following story is told. As the battle was about to open, it was pointed out to Captain Rotherham that the unusually big cocked hat that he wore would probably render him a special target for the marksmen in the enemy’s tops. “Let me alone,” was all Rotherham’s reply, “Let me alone. I’ve always fought in a cocked hat and I always will!” * * * * * As pre-arranged by Nelson, the British lee column at Trafalgar, fifteen ships strong, began the action before the weather column, by leading down and breaking the enemy’s line near its centre. The manœuvre was begun a few minutes before noon, when, at Collingwood’s order, the _Sovereign_, with every sail set and every reef shaken out, dashed forward by herself, sailing “like a frigate,” ahead of the whole British fleet. Taking on herself the fire of the enemy’s line, centre and rear, as she advanced, she swept resistlessly under the stern of the Spanish flagship _Santa Anna_, a gigantic 112-gun three-decker, nearly a mile in front of Collingwood’s second astern, the _Belleisle_—“the most remarkable incident of the battle, a feat unparalleled in naval history,” as it has been called. “See,” exclaimed Nelson with delight to Captain Hardy, as he watched the _Sovereign’s_ advance; “see how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into action!” Just at the moment, as it happened, on the _Royal Sovereign’s_ quarter-deck, Collingwood himself was saying to his captain, “Rotherham, what would not Nelson give to be here!” We know from what a French officer at Trafalgar wrote, that the confident daring of the _Sovereign’s_ single-handed advance “positively appalled Villeneuve!”[18] * * * * * King George the Third, in effigy, led his own fleet that day. The _Royal Sovereign’s_ figure-head was an immense full-length carving of the King, represented in the battle-day panoply of a Roman Emperor, his sword at his side and a sceptre in hand, his red war cloak (_paludamentum_) on his shoulders, with two attendant winged figures, Fortune and Fame, blowing trumpets on either side. * * * * *