port on the 29th, sent in the Dragon to reconnoitre. On a report from the latter, that the combined fleet had not entered Ferrol Sir Robert concluded that M. Villeneuve had proceeded to the southward, and he resumed the blockade of the port.

On the 31st, the vice-admiral sent the Malta to England to get refitted. Taking due advantage of this circumstance, one of the French writers gravely asserts that almost every ship of Admiral Calder's fleet was obliged to return to an English port to get repaired ; * and Napol�on, as soon as he learnt that the Windsor-Castle and Malta had been ordered home, directed his minister of marine, in his letter of condolence to the Prince of Peace on the loss of the San-Rafa�l and Firme, to acquaint the latter, "que deux vaisseaux ennemis sont arriv�s coulant bas � Plymouth. " � Respecting these two "sinking" ships, the Windsor-Castle did not enter the harbour of Plymouth, but refitted herself in Cawsand bay, and in three weeks was again at sea ; and the Malta would have been only half that time in port, had she not required to be newly coppered.

On the 1st of August, in the forenoon, Sir Robert Calder was driven by a strong south-westerly wind far to the north-east of his port. On the 2d, at noon, agreeably to his orders from Admiral Cornwallis, the vice-admiral detached, to resume the blockade of the now vacant port of Rochefort, Rear-admiral Stirling, with four sail of the line ; and, on the same evening, with his remaining nine sail, regained his station off Ferrol. On the 9th, at 3 P.M., the Dragon reconnoitred, in a very gallant and effectual manner, the neighbouring ports of Ferrol and Corunna, and found M. Villeneuve's fleet lying at the entrance of the latter harbour ; making, with the ships at anchor in the harbour of Ferrol, 29 French and Spanish sail of the line, ready for sea. In this state of things, Sir Robert, with his nine sail of the line, abandoned the blockade, and on the 14th joined Admiral Cornwallis off Ushant.

It has already on more than one occasion appeared, that M. Villeneuve's primary destination, after quitting the West Indies, was the harbour of Ferrol ; there to effect a junction with the Rear-admirals Grandallana and Gourdon and their respective squadrons. Accordingly, after losing sight of the British fleet on the evening of the 24th, the combined fleet steered as direct a course for Ferrol as the prevailing north-east wind would permit. M. Villeneuve, no doubt, soon found that the masts and yards of many of his ships were not in a state to withstand a strong head or beating wind and a heavy sea : moreover, it became necessary that the sick and wounded should be landed as early as possible. Under these circumstances, the French admiral acted wisely in bearing up for the

* Victoires et Conquetes, tome xvi., p. 144

�  Precis des Precis des Ev�nemens tome xii p 246

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