Intimate portrait of the man who really won the Battle of Trafalgar - Admiral Lord Collingwood. Historian Max Adams sets out to retrace the life of Nelson's best friend from his early days as an officer in the Bunker Hill conflict in Boston through to his tragic last years as Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Along the way, Adams discovers more of the relationship between the two men from their time together in the Mediterranean and West Indies. A veteran of three of the great fleet actions of his era - The Glorious 1st June, St Vincent and Trafalgar - Cuthbert Collingwood might justifiably be regarded as Britain's foremost naval hero…..were it not for his modesty and the well documented demise of his friend Nelson, next to whom he lies in St Paul's Cathedral.

At Trafalgar, Collingwood's ship was first into battle. For half an hour disdainful of the fire of six enemy ships, his guns were silent. When the Royal Sovereign broke the enemy line he ordered them to fire two double shotted broadsides in 90 seconds - felling 300 men on the Spanish flagship Santa Ana. Hours later with Nelson dead and twenty ships captured, he was in command of the British fleet with a hurricane rising. Nelson was credited with the victory. But the battle was won by Collingwood. Adams' journey begins in Collingwoods' home county of Northumberland where his monument towers over the mouth of the Tyne - adorned by the guns with which he was the first to fire at Trafalgar.

He moves on to Boston where Collingwood had a ringside seat for the start of the American Revolution. Next stop is Antigua where he and Nelson fell in love with the same woman. Adams then goes in search of Collingwood letters and documents in Menorca where he had a house. He finds out more about the Admiral's strategies on Sicily and Corsica where he confounded Napoleon's battle plans time and time again.

Nelson died a hero in battle. Less than five years later his friend Collingwood was dead too. Tired and overworked, Collingwood had effectively frustrated every attempt by Napoleon to put the French Fleet to sea following defeat at Trafalgar. But being one step ahead of Bonaparte had taken its toll. It had been seven years since the Admiral had set eyes on his wife and daughters and when the orders arrived from the King to say he could at last return home, it was too late. Collingwood died at sea shortly after leaving his command in 1810.