Quote Originally Posted by Angiolillo View Post
"All the ships were anchored at the bow. In order to hold a ship in position, the anchor cable had to be as near horizontal as possible, otherwise it would easily lose its grip on the bottom, particularly in sand or mud. This in turn meant long cables of four or five times the depth of the water. Anchored with a single anchor, the ships would swing with the wind (there is no tide in the Mediterranean), so allowance had to be made to ensure the ship would not swing into the shallower water. Moreover, there had to be large gaps - of about 160 yards at the Nile - between the ships so the lenghty cables did not get entangled as the ships moved. Thus the line of battle was at least a mile and a half long."
(Mark Adkin, The Trafalgar Companion, Section five: Nelson - The Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798, page 285-286).
Thanks, Angiolillo! I've always wondered about that. I've heard they were undermanned, so they probably couldn't have afforded the crew to man the capstans anyway.

I've been coming up with springing rules for SoG which I will post here when I'm satisfied with them.