Background
The Basque Roads are a sheltered bay on the Biscay shore of France, bounded by the Île d'Oléron to the west and the Île de Ré to the north. The port of La Rochelle stands at the northeast corner of the roads, and the important town of Rochefort is near the mouth of the Charente River to the south.
During the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal the Duke of Wellington depended on maritime supply. The French fleet in the Basque Roads operated against the British supply ships. To protect the convoys, the Royal Navy maintained a blockade of the Basque Roads, but this was expensive and never wholly effective.
In late October 1808, Napoléon sent Decrès orders for the squadrons at Lorient and Rochefort to deliver reinforcements and supplies to Martinique. The continual presence of large British squadrons, however, impeded their departure. On 7 February 1809, Napoleon ordered Admiral Willaumez to raise the blockades with the Brest fleet to allow these small squadrons to make their way to Martinique. Two weeks later, Willaumez finally set out with eight ships-of-the-line and two frigates towards Lorient. Although he chased off the British ships stationed there, calms prevented the Lorient squadron from weighing anchor; they eventually did so, after the fleet had departed, leading to the Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne. Fearful of being caught by the British, Willaumez continued on his way south to Rochefort, but the Rochefort squadron was in no shape to sail, having been recently ravaged by sickness. With the subsequent arrival of a large British fleet, Willaumez was trapped in Rochefort.
A British squadron arrived on the scene and held the French there until Gambier arrived with the rest of the Channel fleet to impose a blockade. The British Admiralty became concerned about the concentration of such a large segment of the French fleet in one place. If the ships escaped they could ferry supplies to Napoleon’s Peninsular forces, making it very difficult for Britain to return to the Peninsula.
With these reasons in mind, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Mulgrave, proposed an attack on the French fleet at anchor using fire ships. Cochrane's superior officer, Lord Gambier, commanding the Channel Fleet, was opposed to the plan, calling it "a horrible and anti-Christian mode of warfare".
Cochrane was given twenty-one fireships to command, but he was also focusing on his own invention: explosion ships, which were basically fireships packed tightly with explosive powder.
Gambier's opposition and Mulgrave's persuasiveness meant that full responsibility for executing the plan fell to Lord Cochrane.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of The Basque Roads
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