THE BATTLE OF THE NILE - 
ANALYSIS

The Battle of the Nile remains as the most complete demonstration of what was later called "The Nelson Touch".

Each captain handled his ship with skill and determination during a night action in unknown waters, confident in the support of his peerless commander.

Prior to this battle, victory at sea was usually determined by the capture or loss of a few ships, but here only four French vessels managed to escape from a force of thirteen battleships and four frigates.

The Nelsonic ideal of annihilation, set to dominate British naval thinking for a century to follow, had been established.

However, the Nile should not been seen as an easy victory or without cost, as the casualty list opposite shows.

The list is headed by those ships that engaged on the seaward side of the line. The French centre, its gun crews reinforced by men taken from the frigates took a heavy toll, and the gunnery of the Spartiate and Tonnant was particularly remarked by the British.

French losses were estimated by various sources to total between 2000 and 5000 men killed, wounded or captured, at one point the British were reported to be holding 3000 men prisoner.

Three of the captured ships would serve long careers in the Royal Navy. Tonnant and Spartiate would fight at Trafalgar, while the Franklin (renamed Canopus) was still beating all comers in sailing trials into the 1840s and her lines were copied as the basis for an entire class of ships.

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