Artist: KEN HAMMOND
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Profile: Ken has made his name specializing in historical and contemporary marinescapes. Greatly influenced by the Dutch Masters and the Norwich School of Painters, his fine original paintings grace many homes within the UK and abroad.
Trafalgar was the greatest battle of the age of fighting sail and marked a key turning point in Napoleon's campaign to secure European domination. Napoleon's armies may have been all-conquering but the British had mastery of the seas. On October 21st 1805, the combined fleet of 33 French and Spanish ships, under the command of the French Admiral Villeneuve, was confronted by a fleet of 27 ships of the Royal Navy, led by Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson on board the Victory, off Cape Trafalgar, on the Spanish coast.
Rather than fight broadside-to-broadside in two long lines, Nelson's unusual plan was to attack the French and Spanish line in two columns from the west and hope to break straight through the centre, effectively dividing the fleet and bringing the British into close action with the enemy, where their experience and superior gunnery would prevail.
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Victory at Portsmouth, 1805 |