The battle of Trafalgar is generally held to be a triumphant English victory but the documentary shows,using the list of crew members of the HMS Bellerophon, that the ships' companies were made up of other nationalities;- recently freed or escaped West Indian slaves, Scandinavian professional sailors who were on board for the money and Americans,sometimes press-ganged from other ships. Though the battle was against the French there were even French career sailors aboard. Hundreds of black sailors took part and there are portrayals of them in the frieze at the base of Nelson's Column.