"From the circumstance of having been longer than that time at sea, do we attribute our getting healthy.

It has stamped with me the extent of their nautical abilities: long may they remain in their present state." The last sentence reveals his intuitive appreciation of the fact that the Spain of that day could in no true sense be the ally of Great Britain; for, at the moment he penned the wish, the impotence or defection of their allies would leave the British fleet actually inferior to the enemy in those waters.

He never forgot these impressions, nor the bungling efforts of the Spaniards to form a line of battle.

Up to the end of his life the prospect of a Spanish war involved no military anxieties, but only the prospect of more prize money.
Among the various rumors of that troubled time, there came one that the French were fitting their ships with forges to bring their shot to a red heat, and so set fire to the enemy's vessel in which they might lodge.

Nelson was promptly ready with a counter and quite adequate tactical move.