to E. by N., was for a considerable time all that was necessary.
Collingwood later made a signal to his division to alter course
one point to port, which brought them back to the earlier course,
which by the _Victory's_ compass had been ENE. The eight ships
of what has been referred to as the 'advance squadron' were
distributed between the two main British divisions, six being
assigned to Collingwood's and two to Nelson's. They did not all
join their divisions at the same time, some--probably owing to
the distance at which they had been employed from the rest of
the fleet and the feebleness of the breeze--not till several
hours after the combined fleet had been sighted.
Collingwood preserved in his division a line-of-bearing apparently
until the very moment when the individual ships pushed on to make
the actual attack. The enemy's fleet is usually represented as
forming a curve. It would probably be more correct to call it a
very obtuse re-entering angle. This must have been largely due to
Gravina's 'squadron of observation' keeping away in succession,
to get into the wake of the rest of the line, which was forming
towards the north. About the centre of the combined fleet there
was a gap of a mile. Ahead and astern of this the ships were not
all in each other's wake. Many were to leeward of their stations,
thus giving the enemy's formation the appearance of a double line,
or rather of a string of groups of ships.
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