"I thought in the summer, when it's good weather, we would have a large fleet review and get a lot of nations in, because that is the way we are employed around the world now, fighting terrorism, working with our close allies," First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alan West told BBC radio.
"Nelson would have approved of that, to get the maritime back in the public eye," he said.
French Vice Admiral Jacques Mazars, who is in charge of five vessels that are taking part, said the point of such a ceremony isn't to put British forces on one side, and French and Spanish ones on the other, or to rekindle a rivalry, but to have the strong allies today celebrate a moment in history when both camps showed bravery.
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