Then came the incident that specially concerned the _Temeraire_. A little time after the _Neptune_ had resumed her station the _Temeraire_ was herself hailed from the _Victory_ and ordered to pass the flagship and lead the line. Captain Blackwood of the _Euryalus_, who with the other frigate captains was on board the flagship, in his anxiety for Nelson's personal safety that day, on having his first suggestion that Nelson should direct the battle from on board the _Euryalus_ set aside by the admiral, next suggested that the _Temeraire_ should be allowed to lead the _Victory_ into battle, to help in drawing off some of the enemy's fire. The enemy's fire, urged Blackwood, would be certain to fall with exceptional severity on the leader of the line, particularly when the leading ship was so easily recognisable a vessel as the British flagship. Nelson assented--or seemed to assent. 'Oh yes,' the admiral answered, with a significant smile and giving a look towards Captain Hardy, 'let her go ahead--if she _can_!' Blackwood went aft and himself hailed the _Temeraire_ to move up, and she was also signalled to do so. The hail was heard. Blackwood had a voice about which a number of good stories used to be told in the Navy. 'It could,' one of his officers once said, 'carry half a mile.' At once the _Temeraire_ made every effort to press forward. She was, as the sailors said, 'flying light' that day; having been away from port for some time she was carrying less dead-weight than usual, most of her sea-stores and heavy casks of beef and water having been used up. Fast sailer as the _Victory_ was--she was admittedly the fastest three-decker in all the Royal Navy--the _Temeraire_ before long began to close on the flagship and overlap her, by degrees working up closer to the _Victory_, and finally racing her side by side, almost abreast. It was a grand moment for Captain Harvey and his gallant _Temeraires_. But the goal was not yet won. Nelson's mood had yet to be taken into account, and Nelson was in no humour to see his flagship passed. No ship in the world should give the _Victory_ a lead on the day of battle. As the _Temeraire_ sheered alongside, the admiral stepped up briskly to the _Victory's_ poop and from there hailed across in a curt tone to the quarter-deck of the _Temeraire_. Speaking with a strong nasal twang, in his Norfolk accent, as we are told, he called over: 'I'll thank you, Captain Harvey, to keep your proper station, which is _astarn_ of the _Victory_!' The _Temeraire_ had to drop back, exactly as the _Neptune_ had previously had to do, and content herself with following in the _Victory's_ wake. She closed up astern and kept so near that her jib-boom, in Captain Harvey's own words, 'almost touched the stern of the _Victory_.'[98]