Foreign warships mass off England for fleet review

Warships gathered off the English coast yesterday for the world's biggest review of navies to be held on Tuesday in front of Queen Elizabeth.

By tonight a total of 156 ships and warships from 40 navies will be massed in front of the naval base at Portsmouth to commemorate British naval hero Horatio Nelson's victory over a combined French and Spanish fleet on October 21, 1805.

"It is the biggest ever international naval assembly in terms of the number of fleets involved. There are ships from more than 40 countries and navy heads from more than 50 navies," a spokeswoman for Trafalgar 200 said.

France, the United States, Spain and Italy have sent aircraft carrier battle groups to join a Royal Navy carrier group at Spithead, with navies from Australia to Russia also sending warships and merchant ships.

The Battle of Trafalgar off the Spanish coast spelled the start of the end for Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest of Europe and gave Britain command of the seas for a century. But Nelson, aged just 47, was killed by a French sniper in the epic sea-battle.

The fleet review is one among a host of festivities to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle, including an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum comparing Nelson and Bonaparte and noting how similar they were in character. Nelson - who lost his right eye and right arm in different battles - had celebrity status in 19th-century Britain.

On Tuesday the Queen will be aboard the Endurance, the Royal Navy's Antarctic survey vessel, sailing up and down the lines of assembled ships. It is the first fleet review since the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

The naval spectacular will end with a fireworks display and then the ships will dramatically turn on all their lights.