"Royal Sovereign" and "Santa Ana" duelled for much of the battle, with "Santa Ana" taking fire from fresh British ships passing through the line, including and , while nearby French and Spanish vessels fired on "Royal Sovereign". "Santa Ana" struck at 14:15, having suffered casualties numbering 238 dead and wounded after battling "Royal Sovereign" and . "Royal Sovereign" lost her mizzen and mainmasts, her foremast was badly damaged and much of her rigging was shot away. At 2.20 pm "Santa Ana" finally struck to "Royal Sovereign". Shortly afterwards a boat came from "Victory" carrying Lieutenant Hill, who reported that Nelson had been wounded. Realising that he might have to take command of the rest of the fleet and with his ship according to his report being "perfectly unmanageable", by 3 pm he signalled for the frigate to take "Royal Sovereign" in tow. "Euryalus" towed her round to support the rest of the British ships with her port-side guns, and became engaged with combined fleet's van under Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley, as it came about to support the collapsing centre. Fire from the lead ships shot away the cable between "Royal Sovereign" and "Euryalus", and the latter ship made off towards "Victory". "Royal Sovereign" exchanged fire with the arriving ships, until Collingwood rallied several relatively undamaged British ships around "Royal Sovereign", and Dumanoir gave up any attempt to recover some of the prizes, and made his escape at 4.30pm.