The Trafalgar Way - Subsequent Dispatches

Subsequent Dispatches

The second dispatch. By 28 October Collingwood had transferred his flag to Euryalus and was able to send a second dispatch containing this information from some of the ships. Lieutenant Robert Benjamin Young, commanding the cutter Entreprenante (the smallest vessel present at the Battle of Trafalgar) took this dispatch to Faro on the Portuguese Algarve where it was handed to the British consul who delivered it to the British Embassy in Lisbon. From there it sailed on the 4th November aboard the next routine packet vessel, the Lord Walsingham which reached Falmouth on 13 November.

The mails she carried were taken by special carriage over the route followed by Lapenotiere and reached the Admiralty in London on Friday 15th. The casualty lists appeared in The Times on Monday 18th, thus ending the eleven days of anxiety for the families of the men of the Royal Sovereign, Mars, Dreadnought, Bellerophon, Minotaur, Ajax, Defiance, Leviathan, Defence and Revenge.

The third dispatch. By 4 November, order was being restored to the damaged British ships and Collingwood had shifted his flag from the frigate Euryalus to the Queen, a ship of the line of the Mediterranean squadron that had rejoined Collingwood after the battle. Considerable progress was also being made with the task of repatriating the Spanish prisoners to Spain. He was now able to dispatch the Euryalus to England with his third dispatch, and she sailed from off Cape Trafalgar on 7th with the captured French Commander in Chief, Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve, on board. On Sunday 24 November, it was reported from Falmouth that “ The hon. Capt. Blackwood landed here this evening, from his majesty's ship Euryalus, which he left off the Lizard this morning, and came up in his 8-oared cutter; he went off express for London immediately”.

Blackwood followed in the steps of Lapenotiere, reaching London late on 26th, and The Times of Thursday 28th carried Collingwood’s assessment of the condition and whereabouts of the ships of the defeated French and Spanish fleets, the prize list. The same dispatch also contained further casualty lists which now included first details from the Victory, Britannia, Temeraire, Prince, Neptune, Agamemnon, Spartiate, Africa, Bellisle, Colossus, Achille, Polyphemus and Swiftsure. The prize list reported that during the battle four French ships had “hauled to the Southward and escaped”, and their whereabouts were still unknown to Collingwood as he wrote his third dispatch.

More dispatches. The Admiralty, however, was not concerned because it had already received very satisfactory reports of the whereabouts of the escaped French ships from another messenger who rode into London from the West Country. On Saturday 9 November, the frigate Aeolus had sailed into Plymouth with the news that they had been taken as prizes by Captain Sir Richard Strachan off Cape Ortegal on Monday 4th.

The captain of the Aeolus, Lord Fitzroy, “set off with dispatches at 10 A.M. for the Admiralty, (the horses decorated with laurels) in a post-chaise and four”. The following day Captain Baker of the Phoenix arrived in Plymouth and took another chaise to London with further details of the Ortegal action, including the British casualty lists. The details carried by these officers were published in London on 11 and 12 November.

Although both Lord Fitzroy and Captain Baker travelled from Plymouth, they joined The Trafalgar Way at Exeter and followed it to London.

Collingwood’s fourth dispatch. The final news from Trafalgar contained the casualty list from the Tonnant which was published in London on 4 December. It had not reached Collingwood until 9 November, when the Queen anchored off Cape Spartel after the departure of the Euryalus. The dispatch containing this report was sent to Lisbon and from there by the routine packet Townshend arriving at Falmouth on Friday 29 November. The mails she carried were taken up the same well-worn route to the Admiralty.