This list also includes men who were killed during battle, and their share of prize money would have been paid to their families. The official documents say that 57 were killed on the Victory, which is the greatest number of fatalities on any of the ships in the British fleet.
So where did they come from? Many visitors to HMS Victory are surprised to learn that the crew was made up of at least 22 different nationalities at Trafalgar. At the time it was very common for the Royal Navy to enlist and to press men from ports all around the world, and there was no need to be British to fight on a British warship.
The table below lists the different nationalities represented among the crew, which shows the great diversity on board just this one ship of the fleet! It is important that we recognise the HMS Victory not just as a piece of English history, but as an artefact of the history of the Royal Navy, and all the men who served on her.
English | Maltese | Brazilian |
Irish | Dutch | Norwegian |
Scottish | German | Indian |
Welsh | West Indian | Danish |
American | Jamaican | Manx |
Italian | Swiss | Canadian |
French | African | (48 listed as unknown!) |
Swedish | Portuguese |