1805 - Sir Robert Calder's Action


 
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Naval history of Great Britain - Vol. IV
by
William James
1805 Sir Robert Calder's Action 2

Gun Ship Senior Officers present
98 Prince-of-Wales Vice-adm (b.) Sir Robert Calder
Captain William Cuming
Glory Rear-adm. (b.) Charles Stirling
Captain Samuel Warren
Barfleur Captain George Martin
Windsor-Castle Captain Charles Boyles
80 Malta Captain Edward Buller
74 Thunderer Captain William Letchmere
Hero Captain Hon. Alan Hyde Gardner
Repulse Captain Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge
Defiance Captain Philip Charles Durham
Ajax Captain William Brown
Warrior Captain Samuel Hood Linzee
Dragon Captain Edward Griffiths
Triumph Captain Henry Inman
64 Agamemnon Captain John Harvey
Raisonable Captain Josias Rowley

Frigates, Egyptienne, Captain the Honourable Charles Elphinstone Fleming, and Sirius, Captain William Prowse.

Lugger Nile, Lieutenant John Fennell, and cutter Frisk, Lieutenant James Nicholson.

With this force the vice-admiral was directed to proceed 30 or 40 leagues to the westward of Cape Finisterre, and there endeavour to intercept the combined fleet from the West Indies, represented, upon the authority of the Diamond-Rock account, to consist of only 16 sail of the line.* Thus had the blockade of two ports been raised, in which, at the time, were about as many ships of the line ready for sea, as, by all accounts, composed the fleet which the blockading squadrons, when united, were ordered to intercept. The policy of this measure does not seem very clear. If the Ferrol squadron, did not, as the Rochefort had done, take advantage of the circumstance and sail out, it was merely because it had received no orders from France.

On the 19th Sir Robert received a copy of Lord Nelson's despatch, of date the 15th of June, addressed to the British commanding officer off the Tagus, stating that the combined fleet, of what force not mentioned, had passed Antigua on the 8th of June, and was probably on its way to Europe. On the 22d of July, in the forenoon, that same combined fleet, composed of 20 sail of the line, seven frigates, and two brigs,� besides the recaptured galleon Matilda, made its appearance to windward, in the manner we shall proceed to relate.

On the morning of the 22d, in latitude 43� 34' north, and longitude 16� 13' west, from Paris, the combined fleet, formed in three divisions, and having a light breeze from west-north-west was steering in a thick fog, east-south-east, a direct course

*  See Vol. iii., p. 331

�  See Vol. iii., p. 340

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