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Battle that changed course of history

Giles Tremlett

Enemies of yore remember Trafalgar heroes

Cadiz (SPAIN): The Royal Navy steamed out of the Spanish port of Cadiz on Friday to join French and Spanish vessels on the site of the battle of Trafalgar.

``As you draw close you cannot help but turn your mind to the horrors and to the slaughter,'' said Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope before the frigate HMS Chatham set out to join a wreath-laying ceremony in the Atlantic late on Friday afternoon.

HMS Chatham accompanied the Spanish aircraft carrier Principe de Asturias, which bears the name of one of the vessels on the losing side, and the French frigate Montcalm to the site where 3,300 Frenchmen and 1,020 Spaniards died.

Some 450 Royal Navy sailors, many recruited in other countries, were killed alongside Lord Nelson in the battle that handed dominance of the world's oceans to Britain.

Descendants of those who fought for France, Spain and Britain cast wreaths on the waters.

``It was a battle in which everybody fought bravely,'' said Helion de Villeneuve, a descendant of the French admiral.

Spain provided 15 of the 33 warships commanded by Pierre Villeneuve, who has been blamed for rushing to meet Nelson's fleet in an attempt to recover his honour as Napoleon prepared to sack him.

``Objectively, it was the last lesson given by that military genius Nelson ... which contrasted with the blundering of Villeneuve,'' historian Ricardo Garcia Carcel wrote in the ABC daily on Friday.

Trafalgar helped spark an eventual Spanish rebellion against Napoleon, turning them into British allies, he said.

ABC, however, could not resist reminding its readers that Britain and Spain still disagreed over who owned Gibraltar.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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