Trafalgar cannons fired to mark 200th anniversary
Cannons which last saw action at the Battle of Trafalgar are fired on Tyneside to mark the 200th anniversary of Admiral Lord Collingwood’s death. They were last used in battle on board Collingwood’s vessel Royal Sovereign as it led British ships in 1805.
Collingwood was born in 1748 and went to sea at the age of 13. At Trafalgar in 1805 he was Nelson’s second-in-command and as Nelson lay mortally wounded it was Collingwood who directed the fleet to victory. He died at sea on 7 March 1810.