In executing this bold manoeuvre, the Commodore found himself alongside of the Spanish Admiral, the Santissima Trinidada, of 130 guns. Notwithstanding this immense disparity, that brave officer did not shrink from the contest; though the Spaniard vas also warmly supported by her two seconds a-head and a-stern, both of whom were 3-deckers. While he sustained, however, this unequal conflict, his friends were eagerly pressing to his assistance; the enemy’s attention, therefore, was soon directed to the Culloden, and the Blenheim; and the able support afforded by these vessels to Commodore Nelson, and the approach of Rear-Admiral Parker with four others ships, determined the Spanish Commander to relinquish his design of rejoining his ships to leeward, and to throw out the signal for his main body to haul their wind, and make sail on the larboard tack.
The advantage was now evidently on the side of the British; and while the advanced division warmly pressed the centre and rear of the enemy, Sir John meditated with the ships near him a co-operation, which might effectually compel some of them to surrender. In the confusion of their retreat, several of the Spanish vessels had doubled on each other. It was therefore Admiral Jervis’s plan, to reach the weathermost of those ships, then to bear up, and take them all in succession. The casual position of the rear vessels in his own division, however, prevented the execution of this design. He therefore ordered the leading ship, the Excellent, to bear up, while with the Victory, he passed to leeward of the enemy’s rear. Captain Collingwood, in obedience to the Admiral’s orders, passed between the two sternmost ships of the enemy; and gave one of them, the San Ysidro, so effectual a broadside, that having been much injured before, she was obliged to submit. The Excellent then passed on to the relief of the Captain, which was engaged with a 3-decker, carrying a flag; but before she could arrive, this vessel became entangled with her second, a 2-decker. In this state they were both boarded by the Captain; and the smaller of them, the San Nicolas, was in a short time in the possession of her opponent. The three-decker, the San Josef, followed the fate of her second, and became immedi-
