Trafalgar, wind, and global naval operations

Trafalgar was an unusually global campaign, with fleets crossing oceans on a scale compared here with Coronel and the Battle of the Falkland Islands in World War I and with the wider oceanic operations of World War II. Wind, currents, and the routes they created constrained where sailing fleets could travel and meet. Steam did not make the environment irrelevant: at Taranto, darkness, the lunar phase, and the approach of stormy weather affected operational planning. Modern technology introduces other environmental risks, including solar activity that can disrupt communications. Trafalgar also set a British expectation that naval power should deliver a resounding victory, even as designers remained uncertain about what future ships should become.