Nelson, Horatio

English admiral. He joined the navy in 1770 at the age of 12. During the Revolutionary Wars against France he lost the sight in his right eye in 1794, and lost his right arm in 1797. He became a rear admiral and a national hero after the victory off Cape St Vincent, Portugal. In 1798 he tracked the French fleet to the Egyptian seaport of Aboukir Bay where he almost entirely destroyed it at the Battle of Aboukir Bay (also known as the Battle of the Nile). In 1801 he won a decisive victory over Denmark at the Battle of Copenhagen, and in 1805, after two years of blockading Toulon, he defeated the Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, near Gibraltar. He was knighted in 1797, made a baron in 1798, and a viscount in 1801.