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BRITISH AND FRENCH FLEETS.

1804. BETWEEN the second abstract of the present and the same of the preceding war, there appears, in the sea-service commission-column, a diminution of no fewer than 10 line-of-battle ships. This arose chiefly out of the extensive plan of reform, projected by the first lord of the admiralty, and since put in practice with all the vigour and perseverance which characterised the proceedings of the gallant earl. Many old and useful officers, and a vast number of artificers, had been discharged from the king's dockyards; the customary supplies of timber, and other important articles of naval stores, had been omitted to be kept up; and some articles, including a large portion of hemp, had actually been sold out of the service, A deficiency of workmen and of materials produced, of course, a suspension in the routine of dock-yard business. New ships could not be built; nor, and a very serious misfortune it was, could old ones be repaired. Many of the ships in commis, sion, too, having been merely patched up, were scarcely in a state to keep the sea. †

On the other hand, much fraud and peculation was detected and put a stop to; many thousands of pounds were saved to the country; and, if some suffered, who had done no wrong, others gained, who had long had their rights withheld. In short, earl St.-Vincent, by his measures for reforming the civil branches of the british navy, did much temporary evil; but he also did much permanent good.

A reference to the proper lists will give the names of the purchased enemy's line-of-battle ships and frigates, also of the british ships captured or other

* See Appendix, Annual Abstracts Nos. 12 and 2.

† See p. 267.

See Appendix, No. 23.

wise lost during the year 1803.* Any thing further 1804. deserving notice in No. 12 Abstract will be found in the notes belonging to it.

The number of commissioned officers and masters, belonging to the british navy at the commencement

of the year, was,

Admirals

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And the number of seamen and marines, voted for the year 1804, was 100000.+

against

cruis

ers.

As soon as the commerce of France began to suffer from the vigilance and activity of british cruisers, the war acquired among the French, those especially who were engaged in trade and resident along the Comcoasts of the Channel, a truly national character. plaints The conduct of some of the king's ships, in firing british upon small towns and defenceless places upon the french coast, excited in the inhabitants a strong feeling of indignation; and some of the London journals betrayed a very ill taste when they extolled such exploits. It was this hostile spirit against the English, that induced the first-consul, amidst his many plans for a vigorous prosecution of the war, to prefer that plan which had for its basis a descent upon the island that held him at defiance; as if resolved, by a single campaign, to verify the assertion which he had publicly made, that England, unsupported, could not withstand the power of France.

To assemble an army deemed sufficient for the purpose, even though it should amount to 160000 men, was not very difficult in a country that could

* See Appendix, No. 24.

+ See Appendix, No. 25.

prepa

1804. boast of a population of thirty millions; nor, with so much manual strength at command, and such highwrought zeal in the cause, was the construction of 2000 prames, gun-vessels, and flat-bottomed boats, to contain that army, an inexecutable task. But some doubt existed, even in France, about the practicability of getting this formidable armament across the 20 or 30 miles of sea, which so provokingly flowed betwixt it and its destined shore. However, as it was with the reflecting, and not with the labouring, class of society that any such doubt existed, the work of preparation still went on, and that with all the enthusiasm for which the French are so celebrated. French Almost every department in the state voted a ship naval of the line, each of the larger villages a frigate, and rations. every commune gave its prame, gun-vessel, flatbottomed boat, or péniche. Vessels for the flotilla were constructing, not only in the great naval ports and in the small harbours along the coast, but upon the banks of every river that contained more than three feet of water; no matter whether that river emptied itself directly into the ocean, or first united its waters with those of the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, or the Rhin. Even Paris became, for a time, a maritime arsenal: two slips were erected there, and many vessels of the small kind were launched from them. A due share of attention was also bestowed upon vessels of a more warlike class. At Anvers, or Antwerp, on the river Scheldt, for the first time during a great many years, the keels of ships of the line were laid down. The dock-yards of Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, and Toulon, also displayed the newlaid keels of several ships of force and magnitude. Our attention must now be directed to what is Corn- going on at the first of the four last-named ports. wallis At the close of the preceding year the port of Brest Brest. was left, owing to the extreme severity of the wea

Admi

ral

off

ther, without a blockading force. Before, however, the new year was many days old, a favourable change enabled admiral Cornwallis to regain his station off Jan. Ushant, and to assemble, by the 12th of January,

13 of his ships. Three or four more subsequently 1804. joined. Such had been the exertions in Brest harbour during the winter months, that, by the latter end of April, 17 sail of the line, including two three- April. deckers, lay at anchor in the road, ready for sea.

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The first day of the following month gave birth to May. a set of directions, framed by Napoléon himself, for the improvement of his fleet in Brest water. He begins by complaining, that the enemy should be permitted, with a small number of vessels, to blockade so considerable a fleet as the one at anchor in that port. He orders that the ships shall get under way every day, as well to exercise the crews, as to harass the British, and favour the passage of the flotilla coming from Audierne; that 200 soldiers shall be placed on board each ship of the line; and who, besides being exercised at the guns and about the rigging and sails, are to row in the ship's launch. Premiums are to be given to those who excel in these matters; and nothing that can excite the emulation of either soldiers or sailors appears to have been overlooked. Every ship of the line is to be provided with a quantity of 36-pound shells for her lower battery, and the men are to be taught how to fire them off with effect. The captains are ordered not to quit their vessels to go on shore, and even the commander in chief is not allowed to lodge elsewhere than on board his ship.*

About ten days after the date of Napoléon's directions to the minister of marine, vice-admiral Decrès, two sail of the line from the inner harbour joined themselves to the 17 already at anchor in the road. It does not appear, however, that any movement of consequence took place among the ships; either because the first-consul's attention was too much engrossed by the new dignity he was about to Napoassume, or that he required the presence of the fleet léon to assist in giving éclat to the imposing ceremony ror of which, on the 14th of that same month of May, made him emperor of France.

* Précis des Evénemens, tome xi. p. 195,

empe

France.

1804.

July.

and

dron.

Even after the bustle of this business was over, the Brest ships remained at their moorings until the R. adm. 25th of July, when, encouraged by a fine wind at Graves east-north-east and a thick fog, the advanced squafrench dron, of five sail of the line and two or three frigates, aqua- got under way, and stood for the passage du Raz. A sudden return of clear weather, however, enabled the british look-out cutter to discover and make a signal of the circumstance. Immediately rear-admiral sir Thomas Graves, commanding the in-shore squadron, proceeded in chase; but the french ships, in the mean time, had hauled to the wind, and were working back to Brest road. No second attempt to escape, of which the British outside were aware, was made during the remainder of the year; although, as will presently appear, an expedition of the utmost consequence had been designed to quit Brest before the end of November.

Force

in

Brest

Gan

The number of ships of the line, at this time ready for sea in Brest road, was 22; exclusive of the road. Océan three-decker, repairing in the docks, but expected soon to be afloat, the shipwrights having been ordered to work at her by torchlight. This fleet was now under the command of vice-admiral V-ad. Ganteaume. A curious circumstance had led to the teaume. expulsion of this officer's predecessor. When, in the month of May, the officers of the Brest fleet were called upon to put their signatures to a note for conferring the imperial dignity upon Napoléon, viceadmiral Truguet, true to his republican principles, refused to sign the paper. He wrote to Buonaparte, assigning his reason; and, to show his readiness to perform his duty against the enemies of the nation, made use of the following laconic expression: "Un mot, et l'armée est à la voile." Napoléon, feeling himself personally offended, removed the admiral from his command, dismissed him from being a member of the council of state, and ordered his name to be struck out of the list of the legion of honour.

Dis

missal of M.

Truguet.

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