The HMS Temeraire was a second class ship of the line with 98 cannons. She was in the naval service of the British Royal Navy and belonged to the Neptune class . She excelled in the Battle of Trafalgar.
At the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, the British fought against the Spanish-French Armada under Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson . The Temeraire sailed second on the leeward line, just behind the HMS Victory , Nelson's flagship. At that time, Captain Eliab Harvey was in command of the Temeraire . During the battle, the Victory was under heavy pressure from the enemy, so the British ships Temeraire and HMS Neptune had to come to the rescue. By joining forces, the three British could triplane the two opposing flagships - the Spanish 136-gun ship Santissima Trinidad and French, 80 guns carrying Bucentaure - fight down and bring the latter to sink. In the end, the outnumbered British fleet won, but Nelson died of a battle wound.
Further use
She still drove various missions, u. a. to the West Indies and around Spain, and came in 1812 a. a. as a training ship in the naval base Sheerness . In 1838 the Temeraire was able to fire her cannons there again: the salute on June 28th to celebrate Queen Victoria's coronation . She was then prepared for dismantling and towed across the Thames to Southwark in September without masts. This is the scene that Turner exaggerated in his familiar picture .
In the novel series The Fire Riders of His Majesty by the author Naomi Novik, the main character, a dragon, is named after Temeraire.
On the new £ 20 bill, the painting will be shown along with Turner's famous self-portrait.
literature
James Joseph Colledge and Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy. The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present. Fully Revised and Updated, Casemate Publishers, Havertown u. a. 2009, ISBN 978-1935149071 (Orig .: 1969).
