CHAPTER VIII

THE COMMAND OF THE SEA.

 

 

The chief causes which led to the renewal of war between Great Britain and France in 1803 have been described in a previous chapter. Various occurrences which preceded the actual outbreak of hostilities appeared to indicate a design on the part of the French Government to invade England. In December, 1802, instructions sent by the First Consul to his so-called commercial agents in the British ports had been intercepted, and were found to point to such an intention. On February 18, 1803, in an interview with Lord Whitworth, he assumed a threatening attitude, and declared that, in case of war, he would risk his life and reputation in an attempt to invade England, though he did not underrate the danger of such an adventure. “He acknowledged” (said Lord Whitworth) “that there were a hundred chances to one against him”, but he went on to state that he could find army after army for the enterprise.

This violent talk alarmed the British Government, the more so as, according to Lord Whitworth’s despatches, it was accompanied by naval preparations. Several French sail of the line had embarked troops in the Mediterranean; there was a considerable movement of French troops in Belgium towards Havre and Dunkirk; in the Batavian Republic, then under French control, a small naval expedition was fitting out. The British ministry saw in these things indications that some treacherous attack was intended, and at once made counter-preparations. A royal message to Parliament (March 8) stated that the military preparations of France rendered it expedient to adopt additional measures of precaution; bounties were offered to seamen for enlistment in the fleet; there was a “hot press” in London for likely men; all seamen and officers in foreign employment were recalled; and the militia were embodied. The number of men voted for the navy by the estimates had been only 50,000; 10,000 more were voted on March 14, and 40,000 in addition when war became certain.

In reality, the British Government seems to have been misinformed as to the French armaments. The French archives do not reveal any threatening movements either by land or sea, which is the more surprising, as it was not Bonaparte’s habit to use threats without force to back them. The probable explanation is that he expected a long period of diplomatic correspondence to elapse before the outbreak of hostilities—a conjecture which receives support from the fact that, on March 6, General Decaen was permitted to sail for the French East Indies with a small force, with instructions drawn up in such a manner as to make it clear that war was not anticipated till about September, 1804. If Bonaparte had thought that hostilities were imminent, he would scarcely have risked the loss of this detachment. His irritation was great when, on March 11, he learnt that the British Government had taken his threats seriously, and, instead of giving way, was arming. On the same day he wrote a large number of orders and letters, all having war in view, and constituted two “national flotillas”, with head-quarters at Dunkirk and Cherbourg. Two days later occurred the famous scene with Lord Whitworth, with its demand of “Malta or war”, indicating that a conflict was inevitable. Yet, after this threat, Bonaparte once more drew back, perhaps to gain time for armaments and to permit Decaen to reach India. War, however, was declared by Great Britain on May 18, 1803. Bonaparte’s first measure of retaliation was to seize and imprison every British subject within his reach.

At the outbreak of war the French navy consisted of 23 ships of the line ready for service or in commission, 25 frigates, and 107 corvettes or smaller vessels, with 167 small craft belonging to the invasion flotilla of 1800. The best part of the fleet was in the West Indies, where twelve battleships, eight frigates, and 28 smaller vessels were covering the operations against San Domingo. In the home ports or in European waters only five ships of the line and ten frigates were actually ready for sea; but this force, after two months’ delay, could be raised to nine ships of the line and thirteen frigates, and in six months to 21 battle­ships (including those from the West Indies) and 19 frigates; while 45 sail of the line were under construction in the French ports. There was the same want of seamen as in the previous war; and timber and naval stores were again lacking. Of the Batavian fleet, comprising fifteen sail of the line, all small, only six were in commission. Five others were new and in good condition; while four stood in need of extensive repairs. The storehouses were empty, and money scarce.

The personnel of the French navy was still disorganised and insufficient. It had not recovered from the demoralisation caused by the Revolution and by the terrible defeat of the Nile. The admirals were too old, and, according to Bonaparte, lacked energy and decision. They were unduly depressed by the prospects of a naval conflict, and seem to have feared Nelson with an almost superstitious dread. Service with the fleet was unpopular and inglorious; the best men went into the army rather than into the navy. The Dutch navy was in no better plight, and was more than ever ill-disposed to France, the Batavian Government being suspected of intriguing with England. Bonaparte was credited with the intention of gradually creating a French navy of 130 sail of the line, to be supported by 60 Spanish, 20 Dutch, and 15 Genoese ships; but the execution of these vast plans demanded time, and could not have been completed in less than ten years. The alliance of Spain was guaranteed to France by treaty, but was of so little value that, though Bonaparte demanded of the Spanish Government the twelve sail of the line and the 24,000 men with whom it was bound to support France, he accepted, in lieu of this, an annual subsidy of £2.880.CU0.

Against the numerically weak and badly manned squadrons of France, England could place on the high seas a powerful force commanded by the men who had made their names famous in the war of 1793-1801. The fleet in commission in January, 1803, numbered 34 sail of the line with 86 50-gun ships and frigates, and numerous small craft. Besides the ships in commission, there were in reserve 77 ships of the line and 49 50-gun ships and frigates. In numbers the British navy was superior to any combination of two or even three Powers. Fresh ships were rapidly commissioned, as the tension between England and France increased; the sail of the line in service rose in May to 52, and in June to 60, with corresponding additions to the force of frigates. Excellent officers were appointed by Lord St Vincent, then at the head of the Admiralty. For the Mediterranean, Nelson was chosen, as this was the post of the greatest danger, and would make the highest demands upon a commander’s activity. In the North Sea and the Straits of Dover Lori Keith was stationed with a small fleet. The main force in waters near home was the squadron off Brest, which was to maintain a close blockade of that port; it was commanded by Cornwallis, who was probably, after Nelson, the ablest of British admirals.

The strategic position of England in the Mediterranean had been improved, as compared with that during the revolutionary war, by the acquisition of Malta. But, for the purpose of watching Toulon, Malta was of little importance; and it was scarcely used by Nelson, who would have preferred the island of Minorca in exchange. In the later stages of the war, during the operations in the Adriatic and the Levant, Malta proved of greater service. The main object of the British commanders was to interpose a superior force between the French fleets at Toulon and Brest; and Malta lay out of the direct course between these ports. Until the battle of Trafalgar, the British forces in the Mediterranean made Gibraltar their chief base, and used the harbours in the north of Sardinia as a “flying base” for action against Toulon.

Throughout the war the British fleets acted on interior lines, blockading the different French detachments in the various ports and preventing their junction—a strategic plan which was comparatively simple in days when the movements of ships depended on conditions of wind and weather, and could never be calculated with exactitude beforehand. For this reason the French fleets were seldom able to combine effectively. But the difficulty of blockading both Brest and Toulon was great. Toulon, in particular, was so remote that any British force watching it was entirely out of touch with the Channel; and the blockaded squadron, if it escaped, could not be pursued immediately, since there was always doubt as to whether it would sail east or west; and this had to be ascertained before the British could move to the Channel. Bonaparte’s Egyptian schemes were well-known, and had been emphasised by Sebastiani’s report. When Spain ceased to be neutral in 1804, the difficulties of the British admirals were much augmented, as Cadiz and Cartagena both contained fleets and had to be masked or blockaded. But it was not necessary, as it had been when Spain joined France in the previous war, that the British navy should evacuate the Mediterranean.

The Italian ports, with the exception of Naples and Sicily, were under French influence or in the hands of the French, while the coast­line under French domination in the north of Europe extended beyond the limits of France proper as far as Hamburg and Bremen, which were more or less subject to French influence, through the French occupation of Hanover in 1803. As the war proceeded, practically the whole northern littoral of the Mediterranean became French, while in northern Europe French influence penetrated to the Baltic; so that, from the Niemen to Corfu, French bayonets repelled the British flag.

Since the British navy was far better trained and prepared for war in 1803 than in 1793, the strategy adopted was bolder and mere determined. On the outbreak of war, the British fleets moved up to the hostile ports in the Atlantic and the Channel, and closely blockaded them. A force was at once directed against the French in San Domingo, whence the French Admiralty had already recalled most of their ships of the line. The British forces sufficed to defeat the French on the island, weakened as they were by disease and pressed on all sides by the negroes; and a naval blockade of the ports soon reduced them to starvation.

The first hostile movement in European waters was made by Cornwallis, who on May 17, the day before the declaration of war, put to sea with ten sail of the line, and moved towards Brest. Next day, acting under an Order in Council of May 16, directing reprisals to be made against France, one of his cruisers captured a French vessel. The situation of the French fleet at this moment was critical, as nine sail of the line were on their way to France from San Domingo; of these one was captured in the West Indies; the remainder were expected by the British to sail for the Mediterranean, and preparations were made to meet them off Cape St Vincent. Contrary to expectation, they steered for the Bay of Biscay; two reached Rochefort; five more entered the Spanish harbour of Corunna; and the other stole into Cadiz. The British squadron detailed to attack them had received too precise instructions; and thus the war opened with a strategic check instead of with a naval victory. One reason for the British failure was the want of frigates, which throughout the campaign of 1803-5, as in that of 1798, hampered the British admirals at every turn. So many vessels were required for the protection of commerce that the fighting fleets were deprived of their necessary scouts; and Cornwallis was at times compelled to employ battleships in doing frigates’ work.

The distribution of the French forces, before the return of the San Domingo fleet, was as follows. At Brest there were three ships of the line ready for sea, and fifteen approaching completion. At Lorient and Rochefort there were six ships completing. At Toulon there were three ready, and six nearing completion. Thus the French battleships were so much scattered that a great fleet action at the outset was impossible; and the blockade imposed by the British had to be accepted, until the squadrons could be reinforced. At Brest, Truguet was placed in command, to be succeeded later by Ganteaume, who at the outset commanded at Toulon. At an early date orders were issued by Bonaparte, directing his admirals constantly to weigh and anchor, so as to train the crews, or, if the enemy vanished, to put out for short cruises.

The real offensive against England was to be directed by a flotilla of small craft, capable of conveying an invading force across the Channel in a single night. There were several stages in the development of the flotilla project. According to the first plan, a comparatively simple one, 310 armed craft of small size and light draft were to escort across the Straits of Dover a fleet of fishing-boats, carrying 100,000 men, the central idea being that small vessels could be rowed across in winter fogs or calms, when the sailing ships of the period were useless. This plan, however, was open to so many difficulties and dangers that good authorities have believed Bonaparte to have intended it merely as a demonstration. Against this view, which is based ultimately on the theory that he never made mistakes, many facts may be brought forward. The most convincing of these is the lavish expenditure not only on the flotilla but also on the construction of harbours of refuge along the northern coast of France. Excavations, basins, moles, and sluices were begun at Ambleteuse, Boulogne, Étaples, and Wimereux; and millions of francs were lavished upon them at a time when the French treasury was embarrassed for funds. Secondly, the French people looked anxiously to Bonaparte to end the war as speedily as possible, for, while it lasted, everything that had been won by the Revolution was at stake. Now the war could be rapidly ended only by an invasion of England. Thirdly, an invasion of England had frequently been contemplated before. That Bonaparte soon perceived some of the dangers of his flotilla project is perfectly clear; but, while he modified, he did not abandon his plans. He began to think out the means by which he could obtain temporary command of the straits.

The idea of a transport flotilla of unarmed fishing craft, accompanied by a few small armed vessels, was given up almost at once; and the number of armed vessels was steadily increased. In May, 1803, there were to be, as we have seen, only 310 fighting craft; in July the number rose to 1410, in August to 2008. It was anticipated that the flotilla might be ready by November, and that the armed vessels would be able to clear a way for it by driving off the British fleet. These anticipations were not fulfilled. When Bonaparte visited Boulogne in July, only fourteen vessels of the flotilla were ready at that place. Numerous skirmishes with the British frigates and small craft went on along the coast, the British showing persistent energy, and attacking the French boats whenever they ventured beyond the shelter of their coast batteries. In these encounters, the British almost always had the upper hand, thus revealing the grave military weakness of the flotilla. The French soldiers complained bitterly of the timidity and hesitation of their seamen; they did not see that the whole project was absurd, and that to ask men in boats to attack well-armed and skilfully handled ships was to demand impossibilities.

In June, in a note to Decrès, his Minister of Marine, Bonaparte insisted on the necessity of having twenty battleships ready at Brest by November, and gave instructions for a large number of additional ships to be taken in hand. But he altogether overestimated his forces; in November only eight vessels were actually ready, so that Cornwallis had not the slightest difficulty in maintaining a close blockade at Brest, while other detachments watched Ferrol, whither the French vessels from Corunna and the West Indies had moved, and the Biscayan ports. It would appear from Bonaparte’s order that, so early as June, 1803, he intended his fleet to act in close concert with the flotilla, which was to be ready before the winter for the attempt on England. The fleet was not to be actually present in the Straits of Dover; it was to divert the attention of the British admirals by raids in other directions.

In September, 1803, Bonaparte saw that the flotilla could not be counted upon by November, and postponed the date of action to January, 1804. At the same time he ordered Ganteaume at Toulon to be ready to put to sea with ten battleships, though as a matter of fact only seven were complete. In December Ganteaume was asked to give his opinion on the flotilla. It was extremely unfavourable; but he suggested that it might be possible for a handy, swift-sailing fleet to lead the enemy astray by feints, and then, by suddenly appearing in the Channel, to secure the command of the sea for two days, and so clear the way for the flotilla. The enterprise would be extremely bold and very hazardous; and the best way of accomplishing it would be either to sail round the north of Great Britain or run up the Channel past Brest, and appear in the Downs. Here we have the germ of the strategy subsequently pursued in the Trafalgar campaign. Six days later, in a letter to the admiral, Bonaparte disclosed his projects, giving a choice of three plans, all of which in substance involved a feint by the Toulon squadron in the direction of Egypt to mislead Nelson, and a gradual concentration of the French squadrons at Ferrol and Rochefort, to be effected by the Toulon fleet moving out of the Mediterranean and successively setting them free. The whole force thus concentrated was finally to appear off Boulogne, while the Brest fleet was to make feints at Ireland, so as to occupy Cornwallis’ attention. But, as Ganteaume shrewdly pointed out, the element of surprise would probably be wanting in so complicated a plan; and for the French to move into the Channel with anything larger than a flying squadron of a few fast ships would be to court disaster. The British could detach in pursuit forces “quadruple or quintuple” the strength of the French squadron.

As its construction proceeded, the flotilla proved more and more untrustworthy and expensive. In November, 1803, Bonaparte went in person to Boulogne and made some unwelcome discoveries. If the plan of a surprise invasion was to be carried out, it was essential that the boats should be able to put to sea at the very shortest notice. But this involved keeping them outside the basin at Boulogne, since at the most only 100 boats could pass from the basin in any one tide. Outside the basin they were exposed to the British attacks and to injury by weather. Under the eyes of the First Consul five boats were wrecked by a storm; and the records prove that, for nearly six months, from November, 1803, to May, 1804, the flotilla only went out of the basin thrice and remained outside ten days in all. It had become a mere incumbrance, and had even ceased to cause the British admirals any serious alarm, so long as it was unsupported by a fleet of large ships. In April, 1804, the Boulogne flotilla was caught by a storm when outside the basin, and forty vessels were driven to Staples. Experience proved that at least six days would be required to get all the boats out of harbour, so that for that period it would be necessary to command the waters of the Channel; but, all through 1803-4, there was no period of six days’ continued fine weather. Thus the original idea of a surprise passage of the straits proved impracticable. Yet the outlay on the small craft and on the harbours continued; and Bonaparte refused to abandon his project, though he inclined more and more to the employment of the flotilla in conjunction with a squadron of large ships. His army in 1804 was concentrated between Brest and the Texel, waiting for the opportunity to embark; his fleets at Brest and Toulon were steadily increasing.

Though the British Government did not seriously believe in the pos­sibility of invasion, it neglected no precaution. In March, 1803, it had 250,000 men under arms on land, of whom 110,000 were regulars. The volunteer movement developed rapidly, though there was considerable doubt as to the military value of the forces which it produced; and in December, 1803, there were 463,000 men available in the three kingdoms belonging to this branch alone. Making heavy deductions, the Government could dispose of about 500,000 troops of all sorts during the period of danger, and could rapidly concentrate 100,000 of them against an invader disembarking on the south-east coast. Thus, even had the fleet been drawn off, as Bonaparte had originally contemplated, the position of Great Britain would have been tolerably secure.

In the spring of 1804, fresh instructions were sent to Latouche-Treville, who had succeeded Ganteaume at Toulon, to put to sea. He was to elude Nelson by feinting at Egypt, to pick up the French ship of the line which was blockaded at Cadiz, then to make for Rochefort and set free the French ships in that port; after which he was to sail far out into the Atlantic, finally making a dash up the Channel past Cornwallis, as soon as the winds were favourable, and putting into Cherbourg. Ferrol and Brest were to be left blockaded. This plan contains all the characteristics of Napoleonic strategy: unexpected concentration of superior force at the point where that force could be used to the greatest advantage; feints to distract the enemy’s attention from that point; disregard of minor considerations. Its defects were that it made insufficient allowance for the energy of the British admirals, and that it assumed a degree of training and seamanship in the French navy which that force did not possess. Bonaparte counted confidently on the mismanagement of the British Admiralty, of which he had a very poor opinion, and he underestimated the military genius of Nelson.

The date at which the French army of invasion was to cross was fixed by the First Consul for September, 1804. Feints would no longer be necessary, if a French battle-fleet could reach the Downs; but it was impor­tant to have good weather and long days for the operation. All through the spring and summer of 1804 the concentration of the flotilla in the neighbourhood of Boulogne was going painfully forward, under the guns of the British cruisers, which watched every movement of the French with lynx-eyed vigilance. But the sections of the flotilla which had been constructed on the littoral of the Bay of Biscay found the British fleet off Brest a fatal obstacle to their passage, and never succeeded in effecting their junction with the Channel division. Of 231 small craft, only 35 reached the Channel from the Atlantic coast. In July, 1804, Bonaparte again visited Boulogne and inspected the flotilla. For a second time a storm occurred in his presence; the flotilla was scattered and thirteen vessels were lost; while, of forty boats at Étaples, nine had to be run ashore and several others were carried by the storm to various ports. The flotilla, even in summer, was the sport of the winds and waves.

On the night of October 2, 1804, an attack was made by the British forces upon the flotilla in the Boulogne roads. Fire-ships and “catamarans”, a primitive kind of torpedo, were employed. Their explosion caused confusion in the French flotilla, but the loss of life was insignificant; and on the whole the French were rather encouraged than alarmed by this affair. From this point onwards the flotilla played but an unimportant part; and, though large sums were still devoted to it, it became more and more a mere subsidiary to the French fleet.

The complete inactivity of the French fleets during 1803 and the earlier months of 1804 must in part be explained by the want of seamen and the lack of stores in the naval ports. Even when the ships were ready, it was impossible to send them to sea. The flotilla made heavy demands for funds and men; and thus its equipment militated against the efficiency of the fleet, a fact which Bonaparte never seems to have perceived. In May, 1804, complaining bitterly that Truguet remained immoveable at Brest, and allowed himself to be shut in by a small British force, he removed this officer and replaced him by Ganteaume. When Ganteaume took over the command at Brest in June, 1804, twenty ships were ready for sea, but only seven were fully manned; and, to fill up the gaps, it was necessary to put out of commission a large number of boats belonging to the western section of the flotilla. In September, 1804, Ganteaume was directed to report on the possibility of getting to sea in November, and carrying a force of 16,000 men to Ireland; but the coronation of Bonaparte as Emperor interrupted the project, and no answer from Ganteaume is recorded. As there were accidents whenever his vessels weighed anchor, his reply is not likely to have been favourable, though his force had now risen to twenty-one ships of the line.

The strength of the Toulon squadron steadily rose; it numbered nine ships early in 1804; ten in the middle of that year; and eleven towards its close. On July 8, 1803, Nelson had arrived off Toulon, and had taken charge of the blockade of the port with a total force of nine ships, of which, however, four were frequently on detached duty. Only seven ships of the line were at first available for the blockade; and these were not in good condition, while their crews were weak, and, it would seem, in some cases of inferior quality. Reinforcements subsequently reached Nelson, raising the Mediterranean fleet to thirteen ships of the line; but he could rarely collect more than six off Toulon, and was always short of frigates. Owing to the inadequacy of this force, the blockade was not a close one. From time to time Nelson withdrew altogether to fill up his ships with water and provisions in Maddalena Bay, which was his real base. On these occasions he generally left two frigates to watch the French. His battleships were so few that it was unsafe for him to divide his squadron, while this method of blockade gave the French a chance of coming out; and it was his one wish to get them out and defeat them. The plan aroused great misgivings among British officers, because it unquestionably afforded openings for the escape of the French and a possible concentration of their forces in the Atlantic. But it was the best adaptation of the available means to the end; moreover, the escape of the French squadron from Toulon could not be so dangerous to British interests as the escape of the far larger and more formidable squadron in Brest. This last force was kept hermetically shut in by the closest possible blockade; but, had it been thoroughly trained and efficient, it might have found opportunities for escape. For, as Collingwood said— and subsequent experience confirmed his judgment—ships are not like sentinels standing at the door; there must be occasions when the greatest vigilance may fail in preventing a sortie.

In the Mediterranean, the French made no move during 1803 and the early part of 1804. Nelson was now convinced that the French intended some fresh stroke against Egypt; Bonaparte’s skilfully-devised false information had put him off the true scent. The British Admiralty were receiving accurate information from their agents in France as to French intentions, but they do not appear to have communicated their intelligence to Nelson. St Vincent had been replaced as First Lord by Lord Melville; and Admiral Gambier was now First Sea-Lord. Gambier was an officer of inferior capacity and poor judgment; timid to excess, he prevented Cornwallis from carrying out a daring plan, which had been matured by Captain Puget, for an attack with fire-ships on the French fleet at Brest. Melville was a good administrator and understood the general outline of Bonaparte’s plan. He thought that a move against the West Indies was probable.

In the autumn of 1804, relations between England and Spain became more than ever strained. The blockade of the French force at Ferrol was carried on by Cochrane with scant respect for Spain’s rights as a neutral. His haughty conduct was due to the hostile attitude of the Spaniards, who had given constant assistance to French privateers, and were reported to be fitting out a large number of ships in their dockyards, while they had permitted French gunners to be sent from France to the squadron blockaded at Ferrol. It was known that Napoleon was drawing a large subsidy from Spain, exempting her in return from the fulfilment of the other conditions of the Treaty of San Ildefonso, because he thought that French interests would on the whole be better served by such an attitude of benevolent neutrality on the part of the Spanish Government. This state of affairs the British ministry had hitherto tolerated; but Spain was warned that any serious armaments on her part would lead to war, and that without further negotiations or notice. As Spanish hostility always diminished when the treasure-ships from South America were drawing near to Europe, and increased after their safe arrival, and as the British agents, in September, 1804, reported great activity in the Spanish dockyards, the British Government issued instructions to seize four of these ships which were due at Cadiz. The British commander off Ferrol was also ordered to prevent Spanish vessels leaving or entering that port and to communicate his instructions to the Spanish authorities. On October 5 the treasureships were encountered off Cadiz by four British frigates. The Spanish commander was summoned to surrender, and disregarded the summons, the forces being equal on either side, though he was quite unprepared to resist. A short but furious action followed, in which one of the Spanish vessels, with a number of non-combatants on board, blew up; the other three were captured, with treasure valued at £1,000,000. The act was denounced as one of piracy, but, in the circumstances and in view of the plain warning given to Spain, it was justifiable, the only mistake being that an inadequate force was employed.

War was reluctantly declared by Spain on December 12, under pressure from Napoleon. In the same month a Spanish official return gave the Spanish force available as fifteen ships of the line at Cadiz, eight at Cartagena, and nine at Ferrol; but two months would be required to get all these ships ready for sea. The arsenals were empty; at Cadiz the plague was raging; and there was a dire want of funds.

The alliance with Spain modified the strategic position, and led Napoleon to make important changes in his plans. In September, 1804, he had appointed Villeneuve to the command of the Toulon squadron, and had detailed 7,000 men under General Lauriston to embark on board the fleet. To Decrès he sent instructions and plans for several expeditions. In the first place, the Rochefort squadron was to sail to the West Indies, in order to reinforce the French garrisons there and seize Dominica and Santa Lucia. The bulk of the Toulon fleet was simultaneously to seize Surinam, and afterwards to join the Rochefort squadron. The whole force, thus concentrated, was then to appear off San Domingo, attack Jamaica, return to Ferrol, and liberate the squadron in that port, finally putting in to Rochefort with twenty sail of the line. Lastly, the Brest fleet was to sail with 18,000 men for Ireland, and, after landing them, to move by either the northern or the southern route to the Texel or Boulogne. These plans, however, appear to have been intercepted by British agents, since they disappeared for several days and eventually turned up in a damaged envelope, with the postmark “Boulogne”. It has been suggested that Napoleon purposely allowed them to fall into British hands in order to divert British attention to Ireland; but this supposition is improbable, as the plans embodied many features of the combination which Villeneuve afterwards attempted to execute. On learning what had happened to his instructions, Napoleon ordered the Brest ships not to embark any troops, but to remain in readiness for sea.

At the close of the year 1804 the French fleets were at last ready to act, though they still lacked trained seamen. The strain of continual watching was becoming very serious for England; and only young and active officers could have supported the hourly anxieties of such a blockade as was maintained. The strategy adopted was simple, yet well-adapted to the requirements of the situation. Every effort was concentrated upon the command of home waters. If the French fleets escaped, the British blockading squadrons were to follow them and bring them to action, or to fall back on the main force at the entrance to the Channel, thus securing England against invasion. Unfortunately, however, it was not found possible to secure an overwhelming preponderance in force in European waters; the British fleet was scattered, and a large number of ships of the line were on distant stations. The Allied force at the close of 1804 consisted of eleven ships ready at Toulon, five at Cartagena, ten nearly ready at Cadiz, five French and four Spanish at Ferrol, five at Rochefort, twenty-one at Brest, and three at the Texel. These were faced by twelve British battleships in the Mediterranean, thirty-seven under Cornwallis off Brest and in the Bay of Biscay, nine in the North Sea, and five in British ports. On foreign oi' distant service were twelve ships of the line. Thus the total battleship force of England was seventy-five ; that of the Allies was sixty-four.

In European waters the British preponderance was extremely slight; and the question arises whether it was a wise disposition which placed seven ships of the line in the East Indies and five in the West Indies, when, if used in Europe, they might have prevented the escape of the French. The economic importance of the East and West Indies was, however, very great at this period—a fact which explains both Napoleon’s anxiety to conquer San Domingo, and the maintenance of so large a British force in distant waters. The Mediterranean fleet was the weakest of all the important British squadrons ; and Nelson was hampered in his work by the appointment of an influential but inefficient senior officer, Orde, to command off Cadiz. Orde impeded Nelson in various ways, and appropriated his cruisers whenever they came within reach, which prevented Nelson from keeping a ship on the look-out at Gibraltar.

In December, 1804, fresh instructions were sent by Napoleon to Missiessy, his admiral commanding at Rochefort, and to Villeneuve at Toulon. Both were to evade the British and immediately put to sea, the first standing for Martinique and the second for Cayenne. After forming a junction and doing as much harm as possible to the British possessions in the West Indies, they were to return to Ferrol, proceeding thence to Rochefort. The ultimate intention was that this concentrated force, in conjunction with the Spanish fleet and the Brest fleet, should cover the invasion of England. On January 18, 1805, Villeneuve, with eleven ships of the line and nine smaller craft, put to sea. His vessels were so crowded with troops and so deeply laden with stores that lie expressed grave fear as to their stability and the safety of their masts. Nelson had retired to Maddalena to water his fleet, and had only left two frigates on the look-out; so the way was open to the French. But, when Villeneuve had made one day’s sail to the south, he was caught by a severe storm; two of his battleships and two of the smaller craft lost masts or yards; and three frigates were accidentally separated from the fleet.

Villeneuve, recognising that a long voyage with damaged ships was out of the question, decided to return to port and effect repairs. On his way back, he captured a small craft carrying despatches for Nelson from England. If, as is probable, the despatches contained the secret information as to the true intentions of Napoleon which we know to have been reaching the British Admiralty, Nelson must have been left in the dark as to the ulterior purpose of the French at the most critical moment of the whole campaign. In March, 1805, he complained that he had had no news from England of later date than November 2, 1804.

As soon as he learnt that the enemy had put to sea, Nelson sailed from Maddalena Bay and cleared for battle, with the fixed resolve to bring them instantly to action. Learning from his cruisers that the French had been seen off Ajaccio, steering south, he concluded that they must be making for Egypt, as the wind was strong from the west, which would prevent their rapid movement through the Straits of Gibraltar. He hurried to Alexandria, heard nothing of them, and returned, overwhelmed with anxiety and fear, to discover that Villeneuve had been driven back to port by bad weather. Nelson’s letters show that, then and afterwards, he considered the various possible destinations of the French, and was determined to follow them without further orders, whether to the West or the East Indies. The danger to be apprehended from the arrival of a strong French force in the West Indies was in his judgment very great. “If St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent, Antigua, and St Kitts... fall,” he had written, “in that case England would be so clamorous for peace that we should humble ourselves”; and this statement explains his subsequent action.

On his return from Egypt, Nelson proceeded to the Gulf of Palma and provisioned there. Meanwhile Villeneuve put to sea again on March 30. Again the French squadron was followed and watched for some distance by the British cruisers; but again it disappeared from view. Villeneuve learnt from a neutral vessel where Nelson was, and avoiding him ran in to Cartagena, in order to join forces with the Spaniards. The Spanish admiral, however, had received no orders to put to sea with the French fleet, and declined to move till orders arrived. Unwilling to wait, Villeneuve hastened to the Straits of Gibraltar, and on April 9 passed through them, to the roar of the alarm-guns from the Rock. Nelson did not hear of his escape till April 4. He then deployed his fleet between Sardinia and the Algerian coast, in order to prevent any eastward movement on the part of the French, and to cover Egypt and Naples, and waited for information before sailing west or east.

The greatest of Napoleon’s projects was now in train of execution. The complicated plans had been further modified. Two squadrons were to escape from port, and open the French movement. The proceedings of Villeneuve’s force have been described down to the second sortie in March. Missiessy’s detachment, consisting of five ships of the line and five small craft, put to sea from Rochefort on January 11, 1805, heavily laden with troops and stores, and proceeded to the Antilles. On the way across, it suffered the usual mishaps which befell French vessels whenever they moved; in three weeks the ships of his squadron lost nine masts or important spars. On February 20 Missiessy reached Martinique, and at once attacked the British island of Dominica ; but, though he took the British by surprise, he could not reduce the island. He seized or destroyed thirty-three British merchantmen, levied contributions upon the islets of St Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, and then returned to Martinique, where, according to his original instructions, he was to await Villeneuve. But, when Villeneuve was driven back after his first sortie, fresh orders were sent from France, which directed Missiessy not to expect help from Villeneuve, but to carry out his special mission independently: in other words, he was to convey some reinforcements to San Domingo and then return to Europe.

It was Missiessy’s anxiety to obey these orders that prevented him from receiving a third despatch directing him, after all, to wait for Villeneuve. Villaret-Joyeuse, who commanded at Martinique, was desirous that Missiessy should assist him in the reduction of the Diamond Rock, an islet off the Martinique coast, where the British had a small post which annoyed passing French ships; and the delay which such an operation would have involved would have given time for the arrival of the third despatch. But Missiessy was anxious to get away; he feared that superior British forces were following in his wake; he thought, from the tone of his earlier orders, that his return to France was urgently required; and he pointed out that he had already stayed in the West Indies longer than had been intended. Accordingly he sailed off' to San Domingo, where he landed a few men and some stores, and then returned to Rochefort, making a very slow passage and reaching that port on May 20. He had been five months at sea and, for all practical purposes, had done nothing beyond causing great alarm in England and the British West Indies, and obtaining some 60,000 by the sale of prizes and by contributions levied on the British.

Through the latter half of 1804 and the first weeks of 1805 embar­rassments had been accumulating about Napoleon’s path. The attitude of Austria was becoming more and more threatening, as the general feeling in that country was that any failure of the French to invade England would bring about a war on the Continent by way of diversion. Relations between France and Russia were already broken off in consequence of the execution of the Due d’Enghien; and a personal appeal which the French Emperor addressed to George III, with the probable object of strengthening the hands of the British Opposition, was answered by a curt refusal to discuss terms of peace without consulting Russia and the Continental Powers. Under these menacing conditions, Napoleon, early in January, 1805, appears for a moment to have abandoned the invasion project. Orders were sent recalling Missiessy; and instructions were despatched to Villeneuve to undertake a movement against India. But, just after these despatches had been forwarded, the situation changed once more. A letter from the Austrian Emperor which arrived at Paris at the end of January reassured Napoleon, and led him to resume the “immense project”—his own term for the complicated plan of invasion. The orders to Missiessy were revoked; but the counter­order, as we have seen, reached the West Indies too late.

A fresh series of orders, dated March 2, 1805, directed Ganteaume to put to sea with twenty-one battleships as speedily as possible, to sail to Ferrol and open that port, capturing eight British vessels which were watching it, and to form a junction with the ten or eleven French and Spanish ships now ready in the harbour. He was then to stand away for Martinique, where the Rochefort and Toulon fleets would be found; and then, instantly returning to Europe with at least forty sail of the line, to beat the British fleet off Ushant and move up to Boulogne, there to cover the passage of Napoleon’s army. On the same day further instructions were sent to Villeneuve; and these are of great importance, being the last he received before putting to sea for the second time on March 30. They directed him to move from Toulon, pick up the Spaniards at Cadiz, and proceed to Martinique, there to meet Ganteaume and Missiessy. If Villeneuve arrived before Ganteaume, he was to remain at Martinique, ready to put to sea at a signal; after waiting forty days, in case Ganteaume had not appeared, he was to move by San Domingo to the Canaries, to cruise off the Canaries twenty days, and then to return to Cadiz, in the event of nothing having been seen of Ganteaume. Though every precaution was taken to keep these orders secret, they were known to the agents of England and the Bourbons even before they had reached their destination. “The fleets”, wrote the mysterious “fils d'ami” of d’Antraigues, on March 1, “are to move against the West Indies and to attack Jamaica. England will know in eight days the exact facts which I tell you... She places entire faith in these sources of information at Paris; she has found them too trustworthy in the past not to show such faith”. Thus there is good contemporary evidence that the British secret service was fully informed as to Napoleon’s intentions. But these facts do not appear to have been communicated at once to the British admirals, perhaps because of the confusion at the Admiralty at this juncture, owing to the attack on Lord Melville, which culminated in the vote of censure of April 8.

Napoleon had hitherto based all his plans on evading the British naval forces. His fleets were ordered to leave port without fighting; but this, in the case of the Brest force, was out of the question, so closely did the large British fleet watch that place. Yet, at times, the blockading fleet fell much below the strength of the blockaded ; and, had they been allowed to fight, the French had opportunities, which in consequence of Napoleon’s orders they were unable to use. On March 24 Ganteaume telegraphed to Napoleon that he was ready to sail with twenty-one ships, and that there were only fifteen British ships outside; there must be a battle if he went out, but his success was certain. Napoleon replied, directing him to go out but forbidding him to fight a battle. This reluctance to run an insignificant risk at one of the most critical moments tied the Brest fleet thereafter to harbour. The lost opportunity never recurred, though at a later date Ganteaume was ordered not to shrink from fighting his way out. Dispirited by the threatening attitude of the British admiral, who a few days later received large reinforcements, Ganteaume on March 29 retired from Bertheaume Bay to the interior of Brest harbour; and, when inside, received too late the news that Villeneuve was at sea, with pressing orders for himself to go out.

Meanwhile Villeneuve, after passing the Straits of Gibraltar, appeared on April 9 off Cadiz. There he was joined on the same day by one French ship of the line and by six Spanish ships under Admiral Gravina, raising his total force to eighteen vessels of the line. He was anxious to put as great a distance as possible between his ships and Nelson’s, “as the enemy’s squadron in the Mediterranean must be in pursuit of me, and may be able to effect a junction with that which has been blockading Cadiz”. As a matter of fact Orde’s squadron, consisting of four ships of the line, narrowly escaped capture, and fled north without keeping touch with the Allies or sending information to Nelson, thus rendering that officer’s task harder than ever, since he was left to grope in the dark for the destination of the French. On April 11 Villeneuve was well on his way to the West Indies, but with only one of the Spanish ships in company. The Spaniards sailed wretchedly; and, if there had been any British pursuit, they must have been captured one by one. Napoleon was filled with satisfaction at the news that the junction with the Spaniards had been effected, and sent off pressing orders for Admiral Magon to start with two ships of the line from Rochefort and join Villeneuve at Martinique. He added further instructions which ordered Villeneuve to spend thirty-five days, after Magon’s arrival, in the West Indies, to employ the time in attacking the British inlands, and after that interval to return to Ferrol if Ganteaume did not appear. From Ferrol he was to go to Brest and there join Ganteaume, even at the risk of battle. Villeneuve reached Martinique on May 14, having occupied more than a month on the passage, and in conformity with his original orders, Magon had not yet joined him, took in water and made ready to put to sea as soon as Ganteaume should appear.

The alarm was great in London at this juncture. The Admiralty was distracted by the political attack which, at this moment, the Opposi­tion were making upon the purity of its financial management. The First Lord, Melville, had resigned on April 9; and further complication followed, when, with utter disregard of national interests, Lord Sidmouth claimed the office for one of his supporters in the Ministry, and strongly opposed Pitt’s appointment of Admiral Sir Charles Middleton (Lord Barham). Fortunately, Pitt stood firm; and his judgment was vindicated by events. The precautionary measures taken by Barham were as follows. Cochrane, with six battleships, had left in March for the West Indies, where four British battleships were already stationed, in order to deal with Missiessy; and on April 27 a secret order was issued by the Admiralty to Gardner, then in temporary command off Brest, to detach Admiral Collingwood with five ships to Madeira. If Nelson with his fleet had not passed that point going west, he was to move to the West Indies and effect a junction with Cochrane, which would raise the force in the West Indies to fifteen battleships. If Nelson had passed, Collingwood was to rejoin the Channel fleet. At the same time orders were sent to the ports to expedite the fitting out of all available ships. A few days later, Orde was removed from his command; and Collingwood was directed to make at once with eight sail for Barbados. But, before he could leave, the news that Nelson was moving in pursuit of the French led to counter-orders.

That admiral had been searching the Mediterranean for Villeneuve; nor was it till April 18 that he heard that the enemy had passed through the Straits, steering west and picking up the Spanish ships at Cadiz. The fact that the Spaniards, of whose incapacity at sea Nelson was fully aware, were in Villeneuve’s company, seemed to point to a move towards Ferrol and Brest and Ireland; and he at once decided to make for the Scilly Isles, from which point he could cover the Channel. He was detained for several days by unfavourable winds and by the necessity of convoying 5000 British troops on their way from England to the Mediterranean; but he used the delay to fill up with provisions and water. On May 10 he at last received from Admiral Campbell, a British officer in the Portuguese service, information which convinced him that the French were bound for the West Indies. Sending in all directions the information that he was following Villeneuve, he started with ten sail of the line “ to save the West Indies.” So far was he from being “decoyed” away, that the mere news that he was on his passage caused a feeling of immense relief in England.

Notwithstanding the foul condition of his ships, so swiftly did Nelson make the passage that on June 4 he was at Barbados, where he picked up two battleships, raising his force to twelve. His arrival was speedily reported to Villeneuve, who in obedience to his orders had waited at Martinique, utilising his stay to effect the capture of the Diamond Rock. Receiving, however, from Magon Napoleon’s later instructions to drive the British from the Antilles, he set sail for Barbados, intending to attack that island. On June 8 Villeneuve captured a British convoy, and learnt from prisoners that Nelson was in the neighbourhood with a force represented at from twelve to fourteen ships. This intelligence filled him with something approaching panic; and, after a conference with Gravina, he decided to return forthwith to Ferrol. The Spanish crews were daily diminishing through sickness and desertion; and a prolonged stay might have forced him to abandon some of the Spanish ships. He sent back, in frigates, the troops embarked at Martinique and Guadeloupe, and hurried off to Europe with twenty sail of the line. He was fortunate in not being molested on his passage; but this he owed to the fact that Nelson was led by false information to make a move to Trinidad. On June 12, however, Nelson heard that the French had disappeared, and, with the judgment of a consummate commander, at once divined their course of action—if indeed definite information did not reach him from the British secret-service agents at Martinique, where Villaret appears to have been dangerously talkative. He sent off a fast vessel with news for the Admiralty, and himself followed with his squadron. His fast ship sighted the Allies on her passage, and was thus able to carry to London exact information of the enemy’s movements.

Nelson was off the Spanish coast on July 18, steering for Gibraltar, and, after provisioning his ships and conferring with Collingwood, who had moved up to Cadiz, sailed slowly northwards to the entrance of the Channel with his fleet, being much delayed by unfavourable winds, so that he did not form his junction with Cornwallis till August 15. His return to Europe had a disconcerting effect on Napoleon, who at first flatly refused to credit it or to believe that the start gained by Villeneuve- had been absolutely lost. Meanwhile the British Admiralty, having received Nelson’s information as to the French movements, issued orders to Cornwallis to reinforce the British fleet off Ferrol, under Calder, by adding to it the squadron blockading Rochefort, after which Calder was to move to the west of Ferrol with fifteen battleships, so as, if possible, to intercept the allied fleet. It was a fresh complication and source of danger to the British that Allemand, who had replaced Missiessy, put to sea from Rochefort on July 17, as soon as the blockaders vanished, just missing orders which were sent him from Paris at the last moment to sail direct for Ferrol, and acting on earlier instructions, which ordered him to cruise on the parallel of Ferrol from July 29 to August 3, and after this for ten days in the Bay of Biscay, when he was to put into Vigo. It was unfortunate for the French that he sailed without knowing that Ville­neuve was expected back forthwith at Ferrol; and so it happened that he cruised at no great distance from Calder, without being near enough to be present at the battle of Finisterre.

On July 22, in foggy weather, Calder sighted the allied fleet. He had but fifteen ships to their twenty, though he had been given to understand that they would not have more than sixteen, and he had good reason to fear that the Rochefort ships might at any moment appear and form a junction with the enemy. He was a mediocre commander, incapable of bold or decided action, and unequal to the strain of so perilous a position.

He joined battle, however, forming his fleet in a line in close order, while the enemy also slowly formed a line. A confused, scrambling action resulted, ship fighting ship in a thick fog that rendered unity of control impossible. As darkness fell, two Spanish ships in the allied rear struck and were taken possession of by the British, whose losses in killed and wounded amounted to 199, while the Allies lost 476. Thus, though the issue was not decisive, the Allies had the worst of the battle. At daylight on the 23rd the two fleets were still in sight of each other; but neither admiral would attack—Calder because he wanted to cover and secure his prizes; Villeneuve, because, if his excuses are to be believed, he thought he could not reach the British before nightfall, and did not care to risk a night action. Thereupon, imagining that the British would receive reinforcements, he decided to shape his course to Ferrol. Thus the two fleets parted without decisive results, though the allied ships received such injuries that they were compelled forthwith to make for a port. Villeneuve asserted that Calder had fled before him; and this report, being credited in England, led to a bitter outcry against the latter. Yet Calder had fought fairly against considerable odds; his position was one of great anxiety; and, if his success was not in the same class with Nelson’s victories, it was at least worthy of comparison with Lord Howe’s victory of June 1 and Hotham’s Mediterranean actions. He was subsequently court-martialled and severely censured for his behaviour—such an effect had Nelson’s tactics produced on public opinion.

After the action, Calder proceeded to blockade Ferrol, but was per­plexed by finding no sign of Villeneuve there on July 29. The French admiral had sailed to Vigo, to disembark his numerous sick and take on board food and water. Leaving behind him three of his worst ships, he put to sea on July 31 with fifteen sail; and, as Calder had been blown off the station by a storm, he managed to slip into Corunna without a battle and form a junction with the fleet inside, now fourteen strong. On August 9 Calder discovered that the French were inside Corunna in great force; and, holding himself too weak to keep them in, he fell back upon the Channel fleet, which, with Calder’s and Nelson’s ships, now reached a total of thirty-seven sail of the line. Cornwallis, however, after all his brilliant work in the blockade, committed at this point a blunder which might have proved fatal against any antagonist but Villeneuve and the disorganised Franco-Spanish fleet. He divided his force into two squadrons : one, consisting of twenty ships, he sent to Ferrol to meet Villeneuve, who was reported to be twenty-eight sail strong; the other, of seventeen ships, he kept with his flag off Brest. Had Villeneuve put to sea and appeared off Brest with the thirty-four effective sail which, including Allemand’s squadron, he could have collected, Cornwallis, caught between this force and Ganteaume’s twenty-one sail inside the port, must have been compelled to retire or have sustained a great defeat.

But Villeneuve did not proceed to Brest; nor did he even effect a junction with Allemand, for a cruiser sent off with instructions to the latter’s rendezvous was snapped up by the British almost in sight of both the French fleets. Allemand wandered aimlessly about the Bay of Biscay, out of touch with his colleagues, and performing no useful service. Villeneuve had been forbidden by Napoleon to go into Ferrol, and had some difficulty in getting his ships out of Corunna; both he and Gravina now despaired of success. He complained that he had “bad masts, bad sails, bad officers, and bad seamen... obsolete naval tactics; we only know one manoeuvre, to form line, and that is just what the enemy wants us to do”. When he started to move out of Corunna, his ships collided with each other, and fresh trouble ensued. It took him five days, from August 8 to 13, to get the fleets at Ferrol and Corunna to sea.

On his moving westward, with a total force of twenty-nine sail of the line, fortune once more played the French a cruel trick; on August 14 several of Allemand’s squadron were sighted to the north, and were mistaken for British ships; at the same time Allemand mistook Villeneuve for his enemy. But for this mutual misunderstanding, the two would have met; the French fleet would have risen to thirty-four sail of the line; and the despondency of Villeneuve might have been removed by a real success. As it was, feeling that he had no chance of carrying out “the immense project,” and finding that the wind was dead against him, Villeneuve on the 15th turned south to Cadiz, in obedience to the express orders of Napoleon, bearing date July 16, which directed him, in the event of unforeseen circumstances, or if the position of the fleet did not permit him to attain the main object, to concentrate an imposing force at Cadiz. These orders had been subsequently cancelled; but news of the fact had not reached Villeneuve. He was short of supplies, short of everything; and mishap succeeded mishap in the Spanish contingent. On August 20 he drove off Collingwood and entered Cadiz, where his force rose to thirty-five, counting the six Spanish ships already inside that harbour. A few hours later, with stupefying audacity, the imperturbable Collingwood once more closed in on the harbour, though his total force was only three sail of the line; and Villeneuve accepted this truly remarkable blockade. Powerful reinforcements for Collingwood were hurried south; and Nelson, after a brief visit to England, was despatched to Cadiz to take command in what was to be the last and greatest battle of his glorious life.

For Napoleon the summer of 1805 had been a period of great suspense, as he was obliged to face at once towards Austria and England. On August 3 he arrived at Boulogne; five days later he learnt of the battle of Finisterre, and at first expressed satisfaction at Villeneuve having effected a junction with the Ferrol fleet. On second thoughts, he despatched a letter to Villeneuve, blaming him for his weak conduct; and on the 13th, supposing the admiral to be at Ferrol, ordered him to attack the British, provided the Allies could oppose twenty­eight ships to the British twenty-three or fewer. For the first time since he devised “the immense project”, he contemplated a great naval battle. The explanation of this sudden change in his designs is probably that he saw the extreme danger of risking an invasion of England without the command of the sea, now that Nelson was back and Austria was pre­paring for war. A naval engagement must be won before he could cross the Channel; while, if the battle were lost, it would justify his abandonment of the flotilla scheme without any loss of reputation, since the blame of the disaster would naturally be laid on the unsuccessful admiral. Subsequent orders, dated August 13 and 14, directed Ville­neuve to attack the enemy, who were supposed to have but twenty-four ships, and then to move up to the Channel, where “we are ready everywhere ; his appearance for twenty-four hours will suffice.

Napoleon had imagined a picture of the British dispositions which was far from the truth. Nelson and Collingwood were in the Mediter­ranean; a large British force was in the West Indies; there could be nothing in Villeneuve’s way. But these messages and orders did not reach the French admiral at Corunna; it was not till he was at Cadiz that he knew he was expected to fight. Meanwhile Ganteaume was directed to move his ships out of Brest and to be ready for a battle when Villeneuve drew near. On August 22 a message was sent by semaphore, to be given to Villeneuve when he appeared at Brest, urging him to come up Channel at once, the army being embarked and England at his mercy. Napoleon directed that, if Villeneuve, in obedience to the earlier orders, should have fallen back to Cadiz, he was immediately to leave that port, with the Spanish ships there and, if possible, with the ships at Cartagena, and sail for the Channel. Decrès, however, filled with misgivings as to the invasion project, adjured the Emperor not to bring the combined fleet north at that season of the year, but to regard its arrival at Cadiz as “ the decree of destiny, which reserves the fleet for other purposes”.

Written on August 22, this letter appears to have decided Napoleon. Though he still wished to wait fifteen days before moving against Austria, his cavalry began on the 24th to march off to the Rhine, and was followed on the 26th and 28th by other portions of the array. On the 30th the flotilla was ordered to be concentrated in the Liane—a fact which indicated the postponement of the invasion; on September 1 letters were sent to Villeneuve criticising his conduct and directing him to take on board six months’ provisions, to “dominate the coasts of Andalusia”, and to attack the enemy, if of inferior force. On September 8 a letter in Napoleon’s correspondence contains, for the first time, the allegation that Villeneuve’s movement to Cadiz had defeated the project of invasion. It is sufficient comment to point out that on August 28, before he knew of Villeneuve’s move southward to Cadiz, Napoleon had written that the “army is in full march” against Austria.

In reality, it was Nelson’s swift movements, the Austrian diversion in Napoleon’s rear, and the hopeless unseaworthiness of the flotilla, that dictated the abandonment of the “immense project.”

The final act in the great drama was yet to be played. On September 28 Nelson in the Victory joined the fleet off Cadiz. He at once convened his captains and laid before them his arrangement for the battle. Such enthusiasm did his plans excite, so extraordinary was his influence, that some of his audience were moved to tears. The whole fleet was filled with exultation at the fact that he commanded it; a thrill of enthusiasm ran through the crews; and, as a small token of their regard for him, the captains painted their ships the colour he preferred. With true generalship, though he judged his force adequate for victory, Nelson sought to obtain a fleet which would secure “not victory but annihilation”. And, just as Napoleon at the opening of his Italian campaign strove to attract to himself all available force, so Nelson begged his Government to send him ships, more ships, so that he might have the largest fleet possible at the vital point in contact with the enemy. “It is only numbers that can annihilate”, he wrote to Lady Hamilton. Various detachments, however, among others the despatch of a division to take in water and provisions at Gibraltar, reduced his force, in mid-October, to twenty-seven sail of the line.

The attack which he meditated, and the details of which he had communicated to his officers, was a double cutting of the enemy’s line and concentration upon its centre and rear, leaving the van out of the fight. If reinforcements joined him in time, he intended to attack in three separate columns and to effect a treble severance; but, as the reinforcements had not reached him, he formed his fleet in two divisions, the second led by Collingwood, who had full authority to manage his own part of the battle. The central idea was that, having lured the enemy out of Cadiz, he should pass through them with one division of his fleet in line abreast, covered by the other in line ahead, get to leeward, and cut them off from that port—a manoeuvre which would make a decisive engagement certain. In order to mislead the Allies as to his strength, Nelson kept only a small force close to the port; the bulk of his fleet cruised far away in the offing, out of sight of the coast, linked to the squadron inshore by a chain of cruisers and battleships.

On October 19 Villeneuve, having heard that Rosily had been sent to supersede him, determined to obey the orders of Napoleon and issue forth, his intention being to form a junction with the ships at Cartagena. His force comprised thirty-three sail of the line; but the crews of the French ships were short of their establishment by 2200 men, and the Spanish vessels were in even worse plight. Provisions were so scarce, in consequence of the strict blockade, that his crews were on the verge of starvation. Nelson made no premature attack when he learnt that the Allies were moving. He fell back, trusting to his cruisers to keep good touch, and headed for the Straits of Gibraltar to cut his enemy off from the Mediterranean. On the 20th he was in sight of Gibraltar; and there the last conferences were held on board the Victory.

At noon on that day the allied fleet turned and steered south. Nelson watched them closely all that afternoon and night; the 21st he had selected for the battle, as a day glorious in the annals of his family. At 6.30 a.m. on the 21st he made the signal to form line of battle in two divisions, the left or windward division under his own personal command, eleven ships strong; the right or leeward one under Collingwood, fifteen strong, while one ship was far off to the north. A little later came the order to prepare for battle, followed by another to “bear up east” towards the Franco-Spanish fleet. The British fleet mustered twenty-seven sail of the line, with a broadside of 29,000 lbs.; the allied fleet thirty-three ships, with a broadside of 30,000 lbs. The morning was grey and cloudy; a light wind blew from the north-west; and a great swell rolled booming in upon the cliffs of Cape Trafalgar, which showed to the eastward out of the mists of morning.

As the British drew nearer, Villeneuve, who had been heading southward, changed his course and stood north, seeing that a battle was inevitable, and wisely deciding to fight with a friendly port under his lee. His ships formed a long line, bent at an obtuse angle, the ends inclining inwards to the approaching British fleet. At the head of each British column sailed its admiral, Nelson to the left in the Victory; Collingwood to the right in the Royal Sovereign. Under Nelson’s leadership the spirit of the fleet had risen to a degree of exaltation which was in itself the presage of victory. Nelson, as he went to battle, declared to a friend that he looked for twenty prizes; the captains jested with each other as to the ships which they should capture. The approach was slow and tedious to excited nerves; while it proceeded, Nelson prepared the final codicil to his will and wrote his last prayer, in which he asked for a great and glorious victory, with no misconduct in his fleet. His final orders to the frigates accompanying him show the sternness of his spirit and its remorseless insistence upon gathering in the full fruits of victory. These lighter vessels were not to save ships or men; they were to complete the enemy’s annihilation; “capture was but a secondary object.”

As the fleets drew nearer, Nelson was entreated by his personal friends to cover the orders which he wore on his coat, since in naval actions of that date the leader was exposed to the enemy’s fire at close quarters, and his decorations would attract the aim of their marksmen. He refused to comply with this request or to move to a light ship where the danger would be less, giving as his reason the importance of a great example in the leader. About 11 o’clock, perceiving that stormy weather was to be expected, he signalled to prepare to anchor, and soon afterwards made the last great appeal of his life to those he led, in the famous signal “England expects that every man will do his duty”. Originally he had intended a different and perhaps warmer appeal, cast in a form which expressed not expectation but certainty—“Nelson confides that everyman will do his duty”. But, even in its altered form, the signal evoked a zeal and spirit like his own; “it seemed like inspiration to most of them”. The last and invariable order of the Nelson battle, “Engage more closely”, followed just before the firing began. These, with the possible exception of an intimation to Collingwood that he meant to feint against the allied van, were all the important signals of that morning, illustrating the perfect forethought of the admiral, the complete prepa­ration for all contingencies.

The bands played in the British ships as they went down to battle, in irregular lines, with little precision of formation. Just before closing, Collingwood, whose column, owing to the enemy’s formation, was now nearly parallel with the allied rear, gave the signal to bear up together, i.e. to turn to the right and attack as nearly simultaneously as possible. Nelson’s column was still in line ahead, slightly converging on that of Collingwood. The first gun was fired by accident in a British ship; the next shots were fired by the Allies about midday at the Royal Sovereign, as she approached in advance of her line. A dense cloud of smoke gathered round their line as it moved north; Collingwood reserving his fire, headed for the twelfth ship from their rear, but at the last moment swerved and made for the thirteenth, which was larger. The Allies were in the closest possible order; but Collingwood was not to be denied. He drove straight ahead, ready to carry away the bowsprit of the French vessel astern of his quarry; and the Frenchman gave way before his unflinching tenacity.

From the Victory the Royal Sovereign was seen to vanish amidst a tempest of firing in the thick cloud of smoke; then her tall masts showed on the further side of the line, and it was known that Collingwood had gloriously performed his task. Some minutes followed before support reached her; but Nelson’s confidence in his subordinate was justified. The Royal Sovereign's fire was deadly; it tore down the stern of the Santa Ana, and caused great execution in the press of hostile ships gathering round her. Her friends followed eagerly to her aid; there was no hanging back in the line; and as, one by one, the other ships judiciously brought their broadsides to bear, the battle in the rear began to go decisively in favour of the British.

On the left, Nelson watched with intense admiration Collingwood’s fierce onset, as the Victory slowly covered the space between the fleets. He feinted towards the French van, as he came within range, probably with the object of holding it inactive, and then turned sharply to the right and, after passing some distance down the enemy’s line, turned left and broke through, driving his flagship through the smoke and flame, and suffering heavy loss as the French guns raked him. He passed under the stern of the tenth ship in the allied line, the Bucentaure, pouring into her a raking fire, which brought clouds of dust and splinters from her hull. Then, after penetrating the allied line, he turned to starboard again and dropped on board a French 74, the Redoutable. It was about 12.20 p.m. when the Victory broke the French line.

When the leaders had struck the enemy’s line and passed through it without disabling loss, the battle might be considered won. Of necessity, in such a scheme of action, the heads of the British columns would suffer most heavily in the approach; and this is doubtless the reason why Nelson led himself with Collingwood, on whose iron nerve he could absolutely rely. But, when the line was penetrated, generalship ceased for the moment; the rest was the work of the captains, to whom full initiative had been conceded. The logs prove that they too showed judgment and energy worthy of their leaders, breaking boldly through the hostile line wherever they thought their efforts would tell most, or moving without further orders to meet the enemy’s van, when it at last began to threaten the British ships in the centre of the fight. The battle of Trafalgar is the most perfect example of initiative among subordinates, as it is of the leader’s scientific use of his weapons, that is to be found in the whole naval war. Though the details of the attack have been much disputed, especially in regard to the question whether the method indicated in Nelson’s previous instructions was precisely followed or not, there is no doubt that its greatest merit—what he himself called “the Nelson touch”—consisted in the concentration of an overpowering force upon the rear half of the enemy’s fleet, the bold occupation of the enemy’s van with a force numerically inferior (under his immediate command) so as to leave his lee column free to do its work, and the handling of both columns in such a way as to prevent the enemy, till the last moment, from knowing how the attack was to be made.

Villeneuve’s tactics, on the other hand, were of the simplest description. He intermingled the French and Spanish ships, to prevent misconduct on the part of the latter, and then adopted a passive attitude, dictated, no doubt, by his officers’ want of skill and practice in manoeuvring. As he had said at an earlier date, there was but one evolution of which they were capable, and this was forming line. But, if the leadership throughout the fleet was indifferent or bad, there was no want of individual courage. The French and Spanish seamen displayed the greatest bravery, and suffered terrible losses before they could be induced to strike.

The first French ship struck about 1 p.m., soon after the engagement had become general; it fell to Collingwood. From this hour onward, the frigates watching the battle saw a steady succession of surrenders; one two-decker at 1.35; two ships to the Victory and Téméraire at 1.50; “several” at 2 o’clock. With each surrender the demoralisation of the allied fleet and the confidence of the British increased. But these results were not won without great loss to the British, both in officers and men. A few minutes before the resistance of his antagonist in the French line was overcome, Nelson, while walking the Victory's quarter­deck, was struck by a bullet from the Redoutable's top and mortally wounded. He fell with the words “They have done for me at last”, and was borne below. His intellect remained unclouded for two hours, during which, again and again, he urged his flag-captain to give the order to anchor. About three he was told that a great and decisive battle had been gained; that fifteen of the enemy had been taken, and that no British ship had struck. The ruling spirit was strong even in death, and he cried that he had looked for twenty prizes. A little later consciousness ebbed from him; and with the last words “God and my country”, this great servant of England passed away.

His presence was sorely needed in the last stage of the battle, to complete the victory which his genius had gained. The French van, five ships strong, turned and attacked the confused mass of British ships struggling with the allied centre. A large part of the British fleet was still intact, and might have been used to crush this detachment. But Collingwood, though incomparable as a subordinate, did not possess the force and decision of Nelson, and let the opportunity slip. Again, when the shattered French and Spanish ships in the centre and rear fled towards Cadiz, no general pursuit was ordered or attempted. Had Nelson been alive, it is doubtful if one of them would have been permitted to escape. The logs show continued signals at the end of the battle to the British ships, which, acting on their own initiative, were attempting pursuit, to “close round the admiral”; and, as night came down, Collingwood committed a final blunder in refusing to anchor his prizes.

The serious fighting ended with the repulse of the French van about three. Spasmodic firing continued till five, when the French ship Achille blew up with a terrific report. Of the allied fleet, thirty-three ships of the line strong, one French ship blew up after she had struck, eight French ships and nine Spanish were taken. Four French vessels escaped to the north; eleven, French and Spanish, ran eastwards to Cadiz. After the battle a violent storm set in, in consequence of which three of the prizes, with insufficient crews on board and in a shattered condition, were either recaptured by their own men or handed over by the British prize-crews, as the only way to keep them afloat and save the lives of all, while ten were wrecked or destroyed by their captors; so that ultimately only four ships remained in the hands of the victors. The British loss was 449 killed, and 1241 wounded; while that of the Allies, though never exactly ascertained, is stated to have reached the enormous figure of 5860; and this estimate may probably be accepted, in view of the fact that, out of a crew of 645 men, the Redoutable lost 522 in killed and wounded.

The losses of the Allies did not, however, end with the day of the great battle. On October 23, Commodore de Cosmao Kerjulien put to sea from Cadiz with five battleships and five frigates, in the hope of retaking some of the British prizes. His movements contributed to the recapture of two of the vessels already mentioned. But his force was caught by a storm, and three of its five ships were wrecked, so that there remained in Cadiz only nine sail of the line, including the recovered ships. On November 4, four of the ships which had escaped from the French van at Trafalgar, under Rear-Admiral Dumanoir le Pelley, were over­taken after a long chase and brought to action by a British squadron of five ships of the line and four frigates, then cruising off Ferrol under the orders of Captain Sir Richard Strachan, and after a prolonged resistance were taken and carried into Plymouth. Strachan was looking for Allemand’s squadron, which however eluded the British fleets and re­turned safely to Rochefort, having done great damage to British commerce.

Brilliant as was the victory of Trafalgar—, the climax of the pro­longed naval struggle with France, and the last pitched battle of the war fought at sea between large fleets, it caused at the moment little jubilation in England. So closely had Nelson identified himself with the glory of the navy, so much had he endeared himself to his countrymen, that his loss seemed to them to outweigh the virtual annihilation of the enemy’s fleet. The news of Trafalgar brought sorrow rather than rejoicing; and the British triumph seemed to be balanced by the French victories at Ulm and Austerlitz. No immediate effect was perceptible, yet from the close of 1805 the French navy ceased to cause serious anxiety in England ; and, though more than once Napoleon attempted to repeat the combinations which had ended thus disastrously, British predominance upon the seas was henceforward beyond dispute.

Before the battle of Trafalgar, but after his army had moved from Boulogne, Napoleon issued orders to Rear-Admirals Willaumez and Leissegues, both of whom held commands in the Brest fleet, to put to sea, the one with six ships of the line and the other with five, and to wage relentless war on British commerce. Both squadrons managed to escape on December 13, and soon parted company. But their exit was observed; and two powerful squadrons, under Sir John Warren and Sir Richard Strachan, were sent in pursuit. Willaumez sailed to the Cape, after a narrow escape, from Admiral Sir John Duckworth, who saw him but, though almost equal in force, showed no anxiety to attack him. As the Cape was in British hands, the French admiral proceeded to Brazil and Martinique, off which island he had another narrow escape from a British squadron under Rear-Admiral Cochrane. While he was waiting at sea to catch a British convoy, storms scattered his fleet; and he was compelled with only one ship to make for Havana. He reached that port in safety, and returned to France early in 1807. The results of the expedition were miserable —seventeen merchantmen taken at the cost of two French ships of the line. Leissegues was even more unfortunate. His five sail of the line were caught at anchor in San Domingo roads, on February 6,1806, by Duckworth with eight sail of the line, and sustained a crushing defeat. Three of his ships of the line were taken and two destroyed; only the small craft with him managed to escape.

In January, 1806, Cape Colony was attacked by a small British expedition under Commodore Sir Home Popham, and captured with but little difficulty. The results of this conquest, and the subsequent failures of Popham and Whitelocke in their attempts upon Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, will be described in a later chapter of this volume.

In 1807, two important operations were undertaken by the British navy in European waters. The first was against the Sultan, who had been induced by Napoleon to declare war on Russia, with which Great Britain was still in alliance. A squadron of eight ships of the line was assembled off the Dardanelles under Duckworth, with orders to compel the Sultan, by a threat of bombardment, to surrender his fleet. Duck­worth viewed the project with something verging on alarm; but, instead of either resigning his command or acting with celerity, though he knew that the works commanding the Straits were being strengthened daily, he wasted time. While he was waiting, one of his ships was accidentally burned with heavy loss of life. At last, on February 19,1807, he forced his way past the forts in the Dardanelles, destroying a small Turkish squadron on his progress and suffering trivial loss. But, though he now had Constantinople at his mercy, his indecision reasserted itself; and, instead of taking instant action, he spent days in consultations with the British minister at Constantinople, while the Turks recovered from their alarm and prepared to meet him. He was more than ever uneasy when he found that vague threats had no effect on the Porte; and on March 2, after showing himself off Constantinople, he returned to the Dardanelles and repassed the Straits next day, suffering considerable loss and damage in the transit. The whole expedition was mismanaged; and Duckworth was fortunate in escaping a court-martial. An attempt on Egypt was equally unsuccessful. The British took Alexandria, but were defeated at Rosetta, and in September agreed to evacuate the country. The Russian Admiral Seniavin, who was in the Mediterranean with ten sail, defeated the Turkish fleet in July; but, on hearing that peace had been made at Tilsit, he concluded an armistice with the Sultan and hurried back towards the Baltic. He succeeded in reaching the Tagus, but was blockaded by a British squadron, and ultimately, in August, 1808, after Wellesley’s landing in Portugal, was obliged to hand over his ships to the British Government.

The second expedition of 1807 was the direct consequence of the Peace of Tilsit. Information reached the British ministry that a secret article in this treaty stipulated that Denmark, Sweden, and Portugal should be compelled by France and Russia to close their ports to British ships and join in the war against Great Britain. This would add to the naval force at Napoleon’s disposal twenty Danish, eleven Swedish and nine Portuguese sail of the line, and would more than repair the losses of Trafalgar. It was of the utmost importance that Napoleon should be forestalled; and Canning, then Foreign Minister, had sufficient daring to act at once. The weapon was ready to hand, as a large force had recently been mobilised for service on the Continent.

On July 19, eleven days after the signing of the secret articles, the resolution to seize the Danish fleet was formed; and on July 26 Admiral Gambier sailed from Yarmouth with seventeen sail of the line, subse­quently raised to twenty-five, and a large flotilla of gunboats and transports, carrying 27,000 troops under Lord Cathcart. Though the Danes could not offer any serious resistance, when, on August 3, Gambier appeared off Elsinore, they refused to surrender their ships. The blockade of Zealand was therefore enforced by the British navy, while the army disembarked and drew its lines round Copenhagen. On September 2 the bombardment of the town began. It was continued till the 5th with terrible effect, when negotiations followed; and on the 7th the Danish Government decided to surrender the fleet. Eighteen Danish ships of the line, ten frigates, and forty-two smaller vessels were seized and most of them removed, the others being destroyed. The operations were well planned and skilfully carried out; and an ample force was wisely employed. That the attack was necessary no one will now deny. England was fighting for her existence; and, however disagreeable was the task of striking a weak neutral, she risked her own safety if she left in Napoleon’s hand a fleet of such proportions. In Count Vandal’s words, she “merely broke, before he had seized it, the weapon which Napoleon had determined to make his own”. During the operations against Copenhagen, Heligoland was occupied; it was used thenceforward as a depot for trade with the Continent. The island of Anholt was seized in 1809, and held till the close of the war.

The natural result of the seizure of the Danish fleet was that Denmark declared formal war, and joined France against Great Britain. A British fleet and a small expeditionary force were despatched to the Baltic early in 1808; and thus it came to pass that, when the Spanish troops whom Napoleon had virtually interned in Fünen, under the Marquis of Romana, heard of the dethronement of their sovereign and showed signs of disaffection, a British fleet was able to take off the greater portion and to convey them back to Spain. During the later months of 1808 the British blockaded the Russian fleet, which showed little inclination to cause trouble. This blockade continued without intermission until 1812. From 1810 to 1812 Sweden was an unwilling enemy; but the British and Swedish admirals mutually arranged not to attack each other. As for the Portuguese fleet, Napoleon was not able to seize it, since it withdrew to Brazil. At the same time the island of Madeira -was temporarily handed over to British custody. In the autumn of 1812, on the approach of the French army, Alexander I of Russia decided to send his fleet to England for the winter, fearing that otherwise it might fall into the hands of the French. Seventeen Russian sail of the line accordingly withdrew to England.

On his return from Tilsit, Napoleon gave instructions for the flotilla at Boulogne to be kept in readiness, and pressed forward the work of shipbuilding with greater energy than ever. A powerful expedition was organised at Toulon to attack Sicily. In January, 1808, Allemand put to sea from Rochefort, evaded a British squadron which was watching him, entered the Mediterranean unseen, and with five of his ships reached Toulon. Ganteaume, who had been transferred to Toulon from Brest, was ready to put to sea, with instructions to attack Sicily, or, if this were impossible, to revictual Corfu. He sailed on February 7 with ten battleships, including Allemand’s force, and a number of smaller craft and transports, but was caught by a storm in which one of his ships lost two topmasts, and four others parted company, only rejoining him in the Adriatic. He reached Corfu unmolested, and having thrown rein­forcements and provisions into it, returned to Toulon on April 10, again without opposition. The inferiority of Collingwood to Nelson as a commander and a strategist was shown by his conduct of these operations; with thirty sail of the line and fifty smaller ships, he failed to cut off the French fleet which had ventured into the Adriatic. The blockade of Toulon had been virtually abandoned, and the French were permitted to come and go much as they liked. Collingwood’s failure at this juncture appears to have preyed upon his mind ; he was old, ill, worn out by long years of devoted service, and would willingly have relinquished the command to a younger man ; but, entreated by his Government to remain at his post, he obeyed, to die in harness in 1809.

In May, 1808, Napoleon formulated another “immense project”, from the execution of which he was only diverted by the outbreak of the Spanish insurrection. It embodied most of the features of the old plans formed before the battle of Trafalgar. Great expeditions were to be made ready at Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Ferrol, Nantes, and Toulon, in order to menace England on every side ; while large forces were to encamp close to the squadrons, and to embark if the British fleets relaxed their vigilance. Egypt, the West Indies, and Ireland were to be perpetually threatened, with the purpose of wearing out England by incessant alarms. Napoleon calculated that by midsummer, 1808, he would have 42 battleships available, and a year later, 77; which, added to 54 ships belonging to his various allies, would give an effective fleet of 131 sail of the line. But all these hopes and anticipations were shattered when it became clear that a national war had to be faced in Spain, and that, instead of adding the Spanish forces to his own, he would have to count them as hostile to him. In June, 1808, he directed Decrès to delay his naval armaments and to diminish the purchase of stores and supplies for the navy. Practically, this meant that the project of invading England was again abandoned. In the same month, five French sail of the line, the last remnant of Villeneuve’s fleet, which had been in Cadiz harbour since Trafalgar, were captured by the Spanish insurgents; and a French ship at Vigo shared their fate. As squadrons were no longer needed off Cadiz, Ferrol, and Cartagena, large British forces were set free to watch Toulon and other French ports. The Spanish insurrection therefore greatly diminished the pressure on Great Britain, and, from the naval as well as the military point of view, had an important influence on the course of the war.

In February, 1809, the British fleet blockading Brest was driven off the port by a storm; and Willaumez, who commanded the French forces inside, put to sea with eight sail of the line. Had he shown energy, he might have captured in succession the small British detachments watching Lorient and Rochefort, in each of which ports lay three French ships. His orders were to pick up these squadrons and then proceed to Martinique. On February 24 he anchored in Basque Roads with eleven ships of the line, three of which were in no condition to put to sea; and, as he was at once blockaded by the British and feared an attack, he moved into Aix Roads, where defence was easier. In this operation one of his ships went ashore and became a total wreck. Napoleon thereupon removed him from his command, and replaced him by Allemand. The British Admiralty prepared fire-ships for an attack on the French; and Lord Cochrane, a bold and enterprising officer, was selected for the conduct of the operations, under Admiral Lord Gambier, who viewed the project with no enthusiasm. The attack was delivered on April 11; and, with the smallest energy on Gambier’s part, the whole French fleet must have been taken or destroyed. The British fire-ships, it is true, did little damage, but they created a panic in the French fleet, so that the vessels cut their cables and, drifting in the strong tides, collided with each other or ran aground. At daybreak on the 12th, all the French ships but two were ashore. All that was required to complete the disaster was an attack by the heavy ships of the British fleet. But Gambier did not move; and Cochrane was left to effect what he could with his light ships and frigates. The result was that five of the eight stranded French vessels eventually escaped, and only three of Allemand’s fleet were destroyed. But so low had the professional standard of the British navy fallen since the loss of its great leaders, that Gambier was regarded as having deserved well of the nation. Notwithstanding bitter protests from Cochrane, he was “most honourably” acquitted by a packed court-martial, and was even thanked by Parliament.

In the disastrous Walcheren expedition, however, there was little fault to find with the navy. This expedition was originally planned in March, 1809, to effect a diversion in favour of Austria; and, had the plan been carried out immediately after the defeat of Napoleon at Essling, it might have brought about the fall of the Empire. But there was great delay in completing the preparations; and the French had time to win the battle of Wagram before the fleet and transports sailed (July 28). The naval force consisted of 37 sail of the line and 600 other craft, under Sir R. Strachan. The army was 39,219 strong, and was under Lieutenant-General Lord Chatham, whose chief recommendation for command appears to have been that he was of high rank, and had been seen “in person exercising eight or ten thousand men much to his credit.” The unfortunate results of this expedition will be described in another chapter of this volume. It must suffice to say here that the failure was due to friction between the army and navy, the selection of an incompetent general, and the despatch of the force at the wrong season of the year.

The only other naval event in Europe of any importance in the year 1809 was the destruction of two French battleships and a convoy in the Gulf of Lyons (October 26—November 1) by ships from Collingwood’s fleet. The French were under the orders of Rear-Admiral Baudoin, who was conveying supplies from Toulon to the French army in Spain. Though Ganteaume had eighteen French and Russian ships in Toulon, he made no attempt to support his subordinate. He was soon afterwards replaced by Allemand, who was subsequently sent to Lorient. Thence, in March, 1812, Allemand managed to put to sea, but he went no further than Brest.

In the Adriatic the British navy slowly asserted its superiority. In October, 1809, the Ionian Islands, with the exception of Corfu, were reduced by small conjoint expeditions, which gave the navy a base in those distant waters. This was followed by a victory gained by Captain Hoste off Lissa (March, 1811) over a strong French squadron of frigates, and by the capture of a French battleship, the Rivoli, in 1812.

From the date of the first despatch of a British expeditionary force to Spain, the British navy was called upon to protect the passage of transports and storeships, and to cooperate in the military operations. The best work in this quarter was achieved by Cochrane, who late in 1808 harried Duhesme in Catalonia. There were many complaints of the navy when Wellington was commanding in Spain. He blamed it in 1813 for insufficient support in the siege of San Sebastian, but not, it would appear, with good reason. He asked impossibilities, and, in the words of the First Lord of the Admiralty, appeared to consider “a large ship within a few yards of the shore...as safe in its position and as immoveable by the winds or waves as one of the Pyrenean mountains.”

Throughout the later years of the war the main French squadrons remained inactive; and this though their numbers were steadily growing, and though, from 1812 onwards, Great Britain was at war with the United States. As a general feature of the war from 1803 to 1814, it may be said that the French fleets never deliberately attacked; they only accepted battle when it was forced upon them.

Outside Europe, the reduction of the French possessions continued steadily all through the war, though it was not effected with the rapidity which might have been expected after the British navy had asserted its command of the sea. Numerous examples, and, in particular, the cruises of Missiessy, showed how easy it was, down to 1805, for French squadrons to put to sea, and to throw reinforcements into the French colonies. In the West Indies, Santa Lucia, Tobago, and Demerarm were reduced in 1803; Surinam in 1804; the Dutch island of Curaçoa in 1807; Marie Galante and Désirade in 1808; Martinique and Cayenne in 1809; and in 1810 Guadeloupe, the last of the French West Indian possessions, and the Dutch islands of St Martin, St Eustatius, and Saba. In the East the British were equally successful; Pondicherry and the other French colonies in India had not been evacuated by the British troops when war broke out, and were retained; Amboyna and Banda Neira, in the Dutch East Indies, were captured in 1810; in the same year Bourbon and Mauritius, the head-quarters of the French privateers in the Indian Ocean, were reduced; and in 1811 the valuable island of Java was taken from the Dutch. In Africa, the French colony of Senegal succumbed in 1809. Reference has already been made to the occupation of Cape Colony in 1806. Thus France and her allies were stripped of all their colonial possessions. Yet the loss of these bases did not render attacks upon British commerce altogether impracticable. At that date there were many weak neutrals, on whose coasts it was possible for cruisers to refit and obtain provisions.

After the failure of his project of invading England, Napoleon determined to prohibit British trade on the Continent. As an answer to his efforts, a blockade of the French coast from Brest to the Elbe, with certain reservations, was proclaimed by the British Government in May, 1806. Napoleon’s replies to this measure, embodied in the Berlin, Milan, and other decrees, which jointly established what is known as the Continental System, are described elsewhere in this volume. The political effects of these measures fall outside the province of this chapter. As to their economic effects, though practically the entire coast of Europe was under Napoleon’s control from the opening of 180S to the close of 1811, and though British trade at sea was attacked by numerous French privateers and cruisers, the results were far less disastrous than might have been anticipated. The measures directed by Napoleon against neutrals contributed to the success of British shipping, by providing it with freight. Probably it would have been a wiser proceeding on his part, had he given all possible encouragement to American shipping, and sought to reduce British exports by a heavy differential tariff. The following figures, giving the clearances of British and foreign shipping engaged in the foreign trade of Great Britain (exclusive of Ireland), will illustrate the effect of Napoleon’s Decrees and the British Orders in Council:

Clearances outwards, in thousands of tons, for years ending January 5.

1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1814

British,  

1626 1453 1463 1495 1486 1424 1372 1531 1624 1507 1665 1875

Foreign,

461   574    587  605    568   631   282  699  1138   696   550   571

The records of 1813 have been destroyed. The remaining figures prove that, while British shipping slightly decreased in the earlier period of the war, and neutral shipping distinctly increased, from 1808 onwards British shipping gained ground, though the heavy demand for transports during the Peninsular War must be taken into account after 1808. The sudden increase of neutral shipping in the nominal year 1810, really in 1809, was due to the repeal of the American embargo, to the expansion of the Baltic trade when Napoleon’s attention was concentrated upon crushing Austria, and to the fact that he intimated that he would permit the entry of neutral shipping, even if laden with British goods; while, in their anxiety to obtain markets for unsaleable produce, the British authorities were even more tolerant towards neutral shipping. But, when the neutral vessels put into French ports, their cargoes were seized and sold or destroyed by the French authorities.

There is a tendency to regard the Continental System as a disastrous failure; but the economic history of England suggests that it inflicted upon her industrial population fearful suffering and loss, and came perilously near to effecting its object. The attempt of Napoleon to cut off the supply of raw material from the British manufacturers was so far successful that in England wool, silk, timber, and hemp rose enormously in price—silk, for example, from 30s. per lb. to 112s., and most other materials in proportion. The control of the Baltic by Napoleon, especially in 1810-11, shook England to her foundations. In 1812 the British people were face to face with actual famine, owing to the demands of the French army for wheat and corn, the export duty levied at Danzig, and a general bad harvest. Wheat, in places, rose from 10s. a bushel to 25s.; and the foreign sources of supply failed. The trade was virtually free, but the cost of licences, freight, and insurance was prohibitive. According to Tooke, these charges, on a vessel of 100 tons burden, occasionally amounted to £50,000 for the voyage to Calais from London and back.

It has been calculated (by Captain Mahan) that the average annual loss to British shipping by capture was 524 vessels, or an average of about 2.1/5- per cent, on the annual number of British vessels entering and clearing from ports in the United Kingdom. Such insurance figures as are obtainable suggest that the percentage of pecuniary loss was much greater, since, even when neutrals were included, the average rate of insurance during the war was more than 5 per cent. To the Mediter­ranean, during the third quarter of the year 1805, the risk varied from 6 to 25 guineas, the lower figure being probably that paid for neutral ships. In 1811 the average rate out to the Baltic was £18, and home from that sea, £22. Outside European waters, however, the risk steadily diminished during the war, with the reduction of the French colonies and the capture of French cruisers and privateers. The voyage to the West Indies was insured at 13J guineas in 1805, while Villeneuve was at sea; the rate in 1810 was £9. To the East Indies the rate was about 16 guineas in 1805, and £8 in 1810. Freight rose in a ratio corresponding with the advance in insurance. According to Tooke, the freight and insurance on hemp rose during 1809-12 to twelve times the cost of the same items in 1837, a normal year; on tallow it was nearly fourteen times the normal; on wheat eleven times, and on timber ten times—all being cargoes from the Baltic. In 1809 as much as £?30 was occasionally paid for the freight of a ton of hemp alone. The value of a ton in time of peace was only from £20 to £30; that price was now quadrupled.

Except in the Mediterranean, where throughout the war France retained a certain amount of coasting trade, French shipping was annihilated. After their brief recovery during the Peace of Amiens, the French Channel ports reverted to the lamentable condition in which the earlier war had plunged them; and at Havre a large number of houses were uninhabited. Metternich, in 1810, speaks of the French people as “ruined by the entire destruction of their commerce”; but this was an exaggeration, as France enjoyed internal prosperity and a considerable expert trade by land. Between 1802 (a year of peace) and 1811, when the Continental System was at its height, French exports increased slightly, while British exports declined. On the other hand, the allies of France suffered lamentably ; the strain upon their population was severer than had been the strain on France in 1796-1800; and they had no compensation for their losses. Their growing exasperation led eventually to the great explosion of national hatred which overthrew Napoleon.

The following figures, given by Captain Norman, indicate the intensity of the French attack upon British commerce, showing as they do the British merchantmen captured year after year by the French, and the French privateers taken annually by the British:

The evidence of the insurance rates would seem to show that the peril was greatest in 1805, when two strong French fleets were at large on the Atlantic. In the closing years of the war with France, the simultaneous conflict with the United States, described in a previous volume, complicates the calculations.

The losses of the French and their allies in the war were enormous. While the British navy did not lose a single vessel of the line in action or by capture, thirty-one French ships of the line were captured or destroyed by the British, while six more were captured by the Spanish insurgents; Spain lost twelve sail of the line, Holland three, Denmark nineteen, and Russia one. But the British losses from storms and shipwrecks were numerous throughout the war, as was to be expected in a fleet which was constantly forced to keep at sea.

The renewal of war in 1815 led to a fresh blockade of the French coast; and, when the news reached the British authorities that Napoleon would probably endeavour to escape to America, the British cruisers in the Bay of Biscay were ordered to show the utmost vigilance. Napoleon, however, speedily gave up the attempt as hopeless, and surrendered himself to Captain Maitland of the Bellerophon on July 15. It was not inappropriate that the navy, which had frustrated two of the Emperor’s greatest projects: the intended invasion of England and the attempted conquest of Spain, should also receive his final surrender. At the close of the war, the navy had reached a point of strength which has never before or since been surpassed or even equalled. In 1814 it counted 240 ships of the line, 317 frigates, and 611 small craft, a total of 1168 pennants; and, though all of these ships were not fit for sea, they represented a force which was more than equivalent to the navies of all the other European Powers combined.

The service which the British navy rendered in this Titanic conflict both to England and to Europe can scarcely be overestimated. It saved England from invasion, and perhaps from conquest; it enabled her to continue her efforts unceasingly, and thus, after she had, in Pitt’s famous words, “saved herself by her exertions”, to “save Europe by her example”. British successes at sea proved to the world that the great conqueror was not invincible, and this at a time when his prestige on land was undimmed by failure. Consequently, throughout the struggle, Great Britain remained the one centre of hope and encouragement to the Continental Powers; her endurance and success bred in them something of her own dauntless and indomitable spirit; and Trafalgar was the really decisive battle of the Napoleonic War.

 

 

 

CHAPTER IX.

THE THIRD COALITION.