Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758-1805). British admiral. He joined his first ship at 12 and was a captain by the age of 20. He fought against the French at Genoa in 1795 and subsequently destroyed Napoleon’s fleet at Aboukir Bay in Egypt (1798). In 1793 he met the wife of the British ambassador in Rome, Lady Emma Hamilton, who bore him a daughter in 1801. Nelson’s naval service was continually interrupted by ill health. He lost the sight of his right eye in battle and his right arm was amputated after he was shot through the elbow. At the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) he ignored a signal ordering him to break off the action by putting his telescope to his blind eye and claiming not to see the signal. A superior Danish fleet was destroyed as a result. In 1805 he fought in the Victory against the French fleet of Admiral Villeneuve at the Battle of Trafalgar. Although the French were defeated, Nelson was mortally wounded by a sharpshooter at the height of the battle. The destruction of the French fleet at Trafalgar was a decisive factor in Britain’s eventual victory in the Napoleonic Wars.
