1808	British and French Fleets	4

yard was, however, the principal damage sustained by the squadron ; and on the 29th Sir Richard took as a substitute the main yard of the Donegal, who being leaky and very short of provisions, had been ordered to proceed to England. This left with the rear-admiral the

The squadron was unable to clear the bay until the 1st or 2d of February, when Sir Richard crowded sail towards the Straits of Gibraltar, rightly judging that to have been the course steered by the French admiral. On the 4th the rear-admiral spoke Sir Richard King's squadron off Ferrol, consisting, with the Achille, of the 74s Audacious, Captain Thomas Le Marchant Gosselyn, and Theseus, Captain John Poer Beresford; and on the 9th spoke the fleet of Rear-admiral Purvis off Cadiz. On the 10th the squadron passed the rock of Gibraltar, and on the 21st, anchored in Palermo bay, there joining the

The bad weather, of which Sir Richard Strachan had to complain in the bay of Biscay, had assailed with equal if not greater violence the squadron of M. Allemand. The latter, in consequence, had been obliged to send back to Rochefort one of his ships, the Jemmappes, in a crippled state. With his remaining five sail of the line, the French admiral continued his voyage to the Mediterranean. Passing the Straits on the night of the 26th, unseen from the rock, or, it is believed, by any British cruiser, M. Ganteaume, on the 6th of February, anchored in the road of Toulon, having chased from before the port the 38-gun frigate Apollo, Captain Edward Fellowes, and destroyed, during the 20 days' passage, one Portuguese and six English merchant vessels ; none of them, however, of any great value.

On the 7th Admiral Ganteaume sailed out of the harbour, with a fleet composed of 10 sail of the line, three frigates, two corvettes, and seven armed transports of 800 tons each, having on board troops, ordnance stores, and provisions. On the 23d the fleet arrived off the island of Corfu. The admiral immediately sent detachments of his smaller vessels to Taranto,

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