At approximately 1:00 pm on the 21st October, Victory (center right) broke through the enemy line. Her double shotted guns immediately disabled Vice Admiral Villeneuve's Bucentaure (extreme right). Victory was then engaged by the smaller Redoutable (center). Meanwhile Temeraire came up on Redoutable's disengaged side to assist Victory.
Redoutable's Captain Lucas had realised that in a 74 gun ship he had little chance of winning an artillery battle, thus he had trained his men in grenade throwing and sharpshooting. Fighting from the upper deck and fighting tops he almost cleared Victory's decks and it was a musket balll from one of his sharpshooters which killed Nelson. Seizing his advantage, Lucas organised a boarding party and came very close to succeeding but crew of the Victory cam up from the lower decks and repelled the enemy. At the same time, Temeraire had poured devastating fire into Redoutable. Lucas was wounded, his ship dismasted and set on fire. He surrendered to Temeraire at 2.20pm.
The second British line also broke through the enemy's line. Collingwood's Royal Sovereign 100 guns (left of the glow showing the firefight) engaged the Spanish 112 St. Ana for nearly two hours, both vessels being greatly damaged, before the St. Ana struck her colours. By 4.00 pm a British victory was assured.