Notwithstanding the attempts made to induce Lord Nelson to allow the _Temeraire_ to lead his line into action, the _Victory_ carrying all sail, kept her station. Ahead of her was Villeneuve's flag-ship, the _Bucentaur_, with the _Santissima Trinidad_ as his second before her; while ahead of the _Royal Sovereign_, the leader of the lee column, was the _Santa Anna_, the flag-ship of the Spanish vice-admiral. The sea was smooth, the wind very light; the sun shone brightly on the fresh-painted sides of the long line of French and Spanish ships, when the _Fougueux_, astern of the _Santa Anna_, opened her fire on the _Royal Sovereign_, which, at about ten minutes past noon, delivered her larboard broadside, with guns double-shotted, at the _Santa Anna_, and with such precision as to disable 14 of her guns, and to kill or wound 400 of her crew; while with her starboard broadside she raked the _Fougueux_. Just then Collingwood exclaimed to his captain, "Rotherham, what would Nelson give to be here;" and at the same moment Nelson was observing, "See how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into action." The wind now falling to almost a calm, the _Victory_ and the ships in her wake advanced so slowly that seven or eight of the rearmost ships of the French van having opened fire upon the _Victory_ before she had fired a single gun, 50 of her men were killed or wounded, and her main-topmast with her studdensail-boom shot away, and every sail, especially on the foremast, had become like a sieve. At about four minutes after twelve she opened with both her broadsides. Captain Hardy now informed Nelson that it was impossible to break the enemy's line without running on board one of their ships. "Take your choice--go on board which you please," was the answer.