From Codrington’s evidence it is at any rate clear that some time before the 19th Nelson had told off an ‘advanced squadron’ as provided for in his memorandum, and that the ships that were forming the connection between the fleet and the frigates before Cadiz formed part of it.  Now Nelson had begun to tell off these ships as early as the 4th.  On that day he wrote to Captain Duff, of the Mars, ’I have to desire you will keep with the Mars, Defence and Colossus from three to four leagues between the fleet and Cadiz in order that I may get information from the frigates stationed off that port as expeditiously as possible.’  On the 11th, writing to Sir Alexander Ball at Malta, he speaks of having ’an advanced squadron of fast sailing ships between me and the frigates.’  The Agamemnon (64) was added on the 14th, the day after she joined.  On that day Nelson entered in his private diary, ’Placed Defence and Agamemnon from seven to ten leagues west of Cadiz, and Mars and Colossus four leagues east of the fleet,’ &c,[26] On the 15th he wrote to Captain Hope, of the Defence:  ’You will with the Agamemnon take station west from Cadiz from seven to ten leagues, by which means if the enemy should move I hope to have constant information, as two or three ships will be kept as at present between the fleet and your two ships.’[27]

On the 12th he writes to Collingwood, of the Belleisle, the fastest two-decker in the fleet, as though she too were an advanced ship, and on the morning of the 19th he tells him the Leviathan was to relieve the Defence, whose water had got low.  Later in the day, when Mars and Colossus had passed on the signal that the enemy was out, he ordered ’Mars, Orion, Belleisle, Leviathan, Bellerophon and Polyphemus to go ahead during the night.’[28] On the eve of the battle therefore these six ships, with Colossus and Agamemnon, made up the squadron of eight specified on the memorandum.

The conclusion then is that, though some of the ships destined to form the advanced squadron had not arrived by the 9th when the memorandum was issued, Nelson had already taken steps to organise it, and that on the evening of the 19th, the first moment he had active contact with the enemy, it was detached from the fleet as a separate unit.  Up to this moment it would look as though he had intended to use it as his memorandum directed.  Since with the exception of the Agamemnon and the Leviathan, which had only temporarily replaced the Defence while she watered, the whole of the ships named belonged to Collingwood’s division, the resulting organisation would have been, lee-line nine ships, weather-line eight ships, and eight for the advanced squadron—­an organisation which in relative proportion was almost exactly that which he had explained to Keats.  It would therefore still have rendered Nelson’s original plan of attack possible, although it did not preserve the balance of the divisions prescribed in the memorandum.