By nightfall of Oct. 21, 1805, the battle off Trafalgar was all but over. Admiral Lord Nelson, who paid for the victory with his life, had become forever the great captain of the seagoing British Empire. But to one commander in the shattered French fleet, there seemed at least a chance of honorable escape. Accompanied by three French ships of the line, Rear Admiral Dumanoir le Pelley sheeted home his sails and set off in his flagship, the 74-gun Duguay-Trouin, for the safety of a French Atlantic port. Badly scarred by gunfire from Nelson's...
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