In 1805, the battle of Trafalgar occurred. It is told to be one of the most glorious naval battles of all time. 111 years later the Royal Navy fought another battle, the battle of Jutland, which did not result in an equally successful tactical outcome. This study aims to examine and compare the battle tactics of these two battles and why one of them resulted in tactical success and the other one didn’t. The study contributes with a systematic comparative analysis, with a deeper understanding of which naval tactical elements is more successful. It intends to examine what it was that caused the tactical success in the battle of Trafalgar and what caused the lack of success in the battle of Jutland. The results conclude that most of the elements have been applied in the Battle of Trafalgar, which indicates that the elements of success were a contributing factor to their successful tactical outcome. In the battle of Jutland, it proved to be a lack of application of these elements which is judged to be a cause of their tactical defeat. The use of successful elements in the naval tactical action is therefore indicated to be a reason for why the battles resulted in different tactical outcomes.