When Sir John Jervis hoisted his flag on board the _Victory_ it marked an epoch not merely in our career of conquest, but also in the history of the navy as a navy. Jervis, though then over sixty years of age, was hale and hearty, and if sometimes stern and severe as a disciplinarian, should long be remembered as one who honestly and constantly strove to raise the character of the service to its highest condition of efficiency, and he was brave as a lion. As the Spanish fleet loomed through the morning fog, off Cape St. Vincent, it was found that Cordova’s force consisted of twenty-nine large men-of-war, exclusive of a dozen 34-gun frigates, seventy transports, and other vessels. Jervis was walking the quarter-deck as the successive reports were brought to him. “There are eighteen sail of the line, Sir John.” “Very well, sir.” “There are twenty sail, Sir John.” “Very well, sir.” “There are twenty-seven sail of the line, Sir John; nearly double our own.” “Enough, sir, no more of that, sir; if there are fifty I’ll go through them.” “That’s right, Sir John,” said Halliwell, his flag-captain, “and a jolly good licking we’ll give them.” The grand fleet of Spain included six ships of 112 guns each, and the flag-ship _Santissima Trinidada_, a four-decker, carrying 130. There were, besides, twenty-two vessels of eighty and seventy-four guns. To this large force Jervis could only oppose fifteen vessels of the line, only two of which carried 100 guns, three of ninety-eight guns, one of ninety, and the remainder, with one exception, seventy-four each. Owing to gross mismanagement on the part of the Spaniards, their vessels were scattered about in all directions, and six(5) of them were separated wholly from the main body, neither could they rejoin it. The English vessels advanced in two lines, compactly and steadily, and as they neared the Spaniards, were signalled from the _Victory_ to tack in succession. Nelson, on the _Captain_, was in the rear of the line, and he perceived that the Spaniards were bearing up before the wind, either with the intention of trying to join their separated ships, or perhaps to avoid an engagement altogether. By disobeying the admiral’s signal, he managed to run clear athwart the bows of the Spanish ships, and was soon engaged with the great _Santissima Trinidada_, four other of the larger vessels, and two smaller ones. Trowbridge, in the _Culloden_, immediately came to the support, and for nearly an hour the unequal contest continued, till the _Blenheim_ passed between them and the enemy, and gave them a little respite, pouring in her fire upon the Spaniards. One of the Spanish seventy-fours struck, and Nelson thought that the _Salvador_, of 112 guns, struck also. “Collingwood,” wrote Nelson, “disdaining the parade of taking possession of beaten enemies, most gallantly pushed up, with every sail set, to save his old friend and messmate, who was, to appearance, in a critical