Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The Battle Of Trafalgar (Chaney)

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (R4x48) 4C Set Clive Chaney Southsea 50

1- 8 1s followed by 2s+3s+4s (who dance up sides to start) dance down (3 bars), cast up back to place (3 bars) and all join hands on sides and set
9-16 1M followed by 2M dances between 1L and 2L, down behind 2L, across set and back up Men's side to place while 3M+4M dance similar round 3L and 4L, all Men set
17-24 Ladies advance towards partner and set to partner (no hands); pull back RSh and dance out to place, join hands and set
25-28 1s cast (2s cross up LH) while 4s cast up (3s cross down RH), 1s+4s (middle couples) dance ½ RH across while 2s+3s (end couples) set
29-32 2s+4s also 1s+3s dance ½ LH across, all 4 couples join hands on sides and set. 4213
33-40 Men advance towards partner and set to partner (no hands); Men dance RSh round partner and back to place
41-48 4s+2s also 1s+3s dance the Knot. 2413

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)


Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams

Dance Information

Also see the dance The Battle Of Trafalgar (Rose) by Keith Rose.

The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August-December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).

As part of an overall French plan to combine all French and allied fleets to take control of the English Channel and thus enable Napoleon's Grande Armée to invade England, French and Spanish fleets under French Admiral Villeneuve sailed from the port of Cádiz in the south of Spain on 18 October 1805. They encountered the British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson, recently assembled to meet this threat, in the Atlantic Ocean along the southwest coast of Spain, off Cape Trafalgar, near the town of Los Caños de Meca. Villeneuve was uncertain about engaging the British, and the Franco-Spanish fleet failed to organise fully. In contrast, Nelson was decisive, directing the British fleet into two columns sailing straight into the enemy to pierce its wavering lines.

In a particularly fierce battle, 27 British ships of the line fought 33 French and Spanish ships of the line. The lead ships of the British columns were heavily battered, with Nelson's flagship HMS Victory nearly disabled, but the greater experience and training of the Royal Navy overcame greater numbers. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost 22 ships while the British lost none. Nelson himself was shot by a French musketeer, and died shortly before the battle ended. Villeneuve was captured along with his flagship Bucentaure. He attended Nelson's funeral while a captive on parole in Britain. Admiral Federico Gravina, the senior Spanish flag officer, escaped capture with the remnant of the fleet. He died of his wounds five months later.

The victory confirmed the naval supremacy Britain had established during the course of the eighteenth century, and was achieved in part through Nelson's departure from prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy. Conventional battle practice at the time was for opposing fleets to engage each other in single parallel lines, in order to facilitate signalling and disengagement and to maximise fields of fire and target areas. Nelson instead arranged his ships into columns sailing directly towards and into the enemy fleets' line.

The Battle Of Trafalgar - Information Video

The Battle Of Trafalgar
"The Battle Of Trafalgar" J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), Oil On Canvas, c. 1822-1824


Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Battle Of Trafalgar article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Art UK [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'The Battle Of Trafalgar (Chaney)' page