Action of 6 November 1794 - Background

Background

In February 1793, following years of rising tension, the French Republic that had emerged from the French Revolution declared war on the Kingdom of Great Britain. For the Royal Navy one of the most immediate concerns was to contain the French Atlantic Fleet based in the massively fortified harbour at Brest in Brittany. This port was ideally positioned to disrupt the merchant shipping convoys that passed through the Celtic Sea and the Bay of Biscay en route to Britain from all over the world, and it was therefore imperative that the French fleet was not permitted to put to sea without being challenged. For the French however, Brest was a vital port for the receipt of grain supplies from the Americas and so French fleets regularly put to sea to escort these convoys into the harbour and to disrupt British convoys entering the English Channel.

In May 1794, a large French fleet put to sea to ensure the safety of an American grain convoy and was intercepted far out in the Atlantic at the Glorious First of June by the British Channel Fleet, the most powerful of the Royal Navy's fleets and the force assigned to restrict French movements from Brest. The French suffered a serious defeat, losing seven ships, but managed to retire in good order and saved the grain convoy. Later in June 1794 the British Fleet again put to sea, but was caught in a storm and many ships were badly damaged. Its commander Lord Hood retired with his fleet to the anchorage in Torbay and thus there was no British fleet at sea in late October when a powerful French squadron sailed from Brest with the intention of attacking a large merchant convoy sailing from Lisbon to Britain. The force, under the command of Contre-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly, consisted of the 74-gun ships of the line Marat, Tigre, Droits de l'Homme, Pelletier and Jean-Bart with the frigates Charente, Fraternité, Gentille and the corvette Papillon.

In addition to the Lisbon convoy, Nielly had information regarding a number of other vulnerable British targets, with a second convoy from the Mediterranean Sea under Rear-Admiral Philip Cosby en route to Britain and the first-rate HMS Victory was sailing independently to Britain with Lord Hood on board. Nielly had information concerning these movements, and was cruising in a pattern that was intended to cover the Western approaches too the English Channel. The French force cruised in the Celtic Sea for several days, until on 6 November at 02:30 two unidentified ships were spotted on the northeastern horizon. These vessels were the British 74-gun ships of the line HMS Alexander under Captain Richard Rodney Bligh and HMS Canada under Captain Charles Powell Hamilton, returning northeastwards to rejoin the Channel Fleet after escorting a Lisbon and Mediterranean bound convoy to a safe latitude.