on the renewal of hostilities with france he remained in frigates for some time before being given the ship of the line in the spring of 1805 which was attached to admiral nelson's fleet off cadiz in the blockade of the combined fleet. codrington and "orion" were engaged at the battle of trafalgar on 21 october 1805, where "orion" was stationed to the rear of the northern division and therefore took two hours to reach battle. once there, codrington ignored all other ships and focused entirely on closing with a hitherto unengaged french ship, the "swiftsure", forcing her to surrender. he then attacked but failed to capture the spanish flagship "principe de asturias" before moving on to the "intrepide", the only ship of the northern division to return. "orion", with other ships, dismasted and then sailed round her, firing continually until she surrendered.