| Naval history of Great Britain - Vol. IV
by
William James |
1806 |
Cruise of M. Willaumez |
211 |
8 P.M. that service was accomplished, and the frigate weighed and stood after her consorts.
The capture and destruction of the Imp�tueux was certainly a breach of neutrality ; and the French consul at Norfolk so considered it, by refusing to acknowledge her late crew as prisoners of war. However, the affair happily passed off in the United States with very little notice.
About a fortnight previously to the destruction of the Imp�tueux, the Patriote and Eole, each on a different day, arrived in the Chesapeake in a very disabled state, particularly the former. These ships afterwards proceeded to Annapolis ; where, in a little while, they were blockaded by some British ships of war from Halifax. Eventually, as will be seen, the Patriote reached France ; but the Eole, we believe, was taken to pieces in America. The same fate attended the Valeureuse frigate, who, partially dismasted, had put into the Delaware, and had subsequently removed, for greater security, as high up the river as Philadelphia. The Foudroyant, after undergoing a refit at Havana, set sail on her return to France, and arrived in the road of Brest. The Cassard, the only remaining ship of the French squadron, as soon as the gale had abated, bent her course towards Europe, and reached in safety the port of Rochefort.
A third British squadron had been despatched from the Channel, for the purpose of intercepting M. Willaumez on his return to France. This squadron was placed under the command of Rear-admiral Sir Thomas Louis, Bart., in the 80-gun ship Canopus, with orders to cruise about 50 leagues to the westward of Belle-Isle. The news of the dispersion of the French squadron, and of the disasters that had subsequently attended it, reached the rear-admiral in the early part of his cruise, and Sir Thomas and his squadron forthwith removed to the station off Cadiz. We must now pay a short visit to the port of Brest ; the fleet cruising off which, since the 22d of February, when Admiral Cornwallis struck his flag, had been under the chief command of the Earl of St.-Vincent.
Not of only had the best of the ships and the bulk of the seamen been taken from the Brest fleet to form the two expeditions that had sailed from the road in December, 1805, and of whose respective fates we have already given so full an account, but a serious deficit had been caused in the stock of stores and provisions at the port. Hence the seven or eight line-of-battle ships, that still remained afloat, were not in a condition to go to sea ; nor, during the whole of this year, did one of them make even a show of sailing out. However, on the 5th of October, during the temporary absence of the British squadron stationed off the port, the French 74-gun ship Regulus, after nearly a twelvemonth's successful cruise, the principal events of which we shall hereafter relate, got safe in.
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