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Admiral Yi Sun-sin and Admiral Nelson, who are often compared to each other.
We are posting an excerpt from the prologue of <전투함과 항해자의 해군사>, published by our headquarters. <나일해전>
The Battle of the Nile, a naval battle between the British and French navies at the mouth of the Nile River, is a good comparative case with the numerous naval battles conducted by Admiral Yi Sun-sin in the southern seas, as it was a naval battle conducted in shallow coastal waters. Enjoy a moment of leisure on a cold winter day.
The Battle of the Nile begins!
Today’s navy and naval battles can be said to be quite sophisticated, to the point where it is impossible to operate equipment or fight without a sufficient understanding of technology. If we look at the naval battle environment where technology and science have taken a dominant position, it might be natural to easily judge that the navy and naval battles of the past were crude and simple compared to today.
But was everything about the battle method and the principles involved in naval battles really simple just because the era was old? The Battle of the Nile, which took place in 1798 during the French Revolutionary War, could be said to be a battle that shows that the answer is <결코 그렇지 않다>.
Battle route of the Battle of the Nile.
16:00 on August 1, 1798, off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt
Around 4 p.m. on August 1, 1798, when the long summer day was nearing sunset, 14 British ships of the line under the command of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson were cautiously making their way through the shallow coast of Aboukir Bay, located north of Alexandria. And before their eyes was the sight of the French fleet, which they had been chasing for the past three months, consisting of 13 ships of the line and 4 frigates, anchored.
The situation seemed to be greatly advantageous for the British. The French had all their anchors down and were not even set up for sailing, so they were not in a situation to set sail immediately. Moreover, a considerable number of the crew of the French fleet was not on board but on land carrying supplies. Against such an opponent, it seemed as if Nelson’s ships of the line could easily win against the unprepared enemies.
◆ Constraints in front of the British fleet
However, the situation the British fleet was facing at the time was not that simple. First of all, the French fleet was under the protection of coastal guns installed on the ground. Also, Francois-Paul Brueys D’Aigalliers, the commander of the French fleet, was not foolish enough to overlook the risk of being attacked while the fleet was anchored.
Therefore, he took measures to anchor the ships in a line within a mile, anchoring the front part of the line (the vanguard) close to the land. He then positioned the strongest ships of the line at the rear of the line. He calculated that attacks would naturally be concentrated on the central and rear areas facing the sea, as it would not be easy to attack the vicinity of the vanguard, which was close to the land and shallow. He judged that positioning large, powerful ships at that point would be sufficient to cope.
In fact, at the time, although the number of ships in the British and French fleets was similar, there was a significant difference in the size of the ships. According to the standards of the time, which determined the class of a ship of the line by the number of cannons it carried, the British fleet consisted of 74-gun ships, except for one small 50-gun ship out of 14. On the other hand, only 9 out of 13 ships of the line in the French fleet were 74-gun ships. Three of the remaining four were 80-gun ships, and in particular, L’Orient, the flagship of Brueys, was a large ship carrying 118 guns.
Furthermore, the terrain of the battlefield and the time were not very favorable to the British side. The area where the French fleet’s vanguard was located at the time is said to have been a shallow shoal with a depth of only about 12m or less. It was dangerous for a ship of the line to maneuver in such a location, as it could easily run aground, and this was why Brueys was confident in the safety of the vanguard.
Also, by the time the British fleet completed its penetration, the sun had completely set. The subsequent battle would naturally be a night battle, and in such a situation, there was a high risk of misidentification and confusion among the British ships.
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