Note 115 — Front matter (continued 4)

Vice-Admiral Pierre Charles Jean Baptiste Sylvestre de Villeneuve-Flayosc was born on December 31, 1763, five years after Nelson. He became garde de la Marine at fifteen. At the Revolution he dropped the particle nobiliaire from his name, and was thenceforward known simply as Villeneuve. Napoleon took a fancy to him after Villeneuve's escape from the battle of the Nile, as a 'lucky man,' and to that fancy Villeneuve owed his command at Trafalgar.