Algeciras Campaign - Background

Background

On 1 August 1798, a British fleet surprised and almost completely destroyed the French Mediterranean Fleet at the Battle of the Nile in the aftermath of the successful French invasion of Egypt. This immediately reversed the strategic situation in the Mediterranean Sea, eliminating the French fleet based at Toulon as a significant threat and granting the British and their allies in the War of the Second Coalition naval dominance in the region. Over the next three years, British and allied squadrons enforced blockades against all significant French and Spanish naval bases in the region, including Alexandria, Corfu and Malta but particularly the significant harbours at Toulon and Cadiz. This drastically limited the movement of French troops and military materials across the Mediterranean, with the result that Malta and Corfu were captured and the army in Egypt was steadily reduced in size and effectiveness.

In January 1801, in an attempt to increase the size of the French Mediterranean Fleet and to reinforce the beleaguered Egyptian garrison, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a squadron of seven ships of the line to sail from Brest on the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean under Rear-Admiral Honoré Ganteaume. The squadron made three unsuccessful attempts to reach Egypt, eventually retiring to Toulon in late July 1801. During the final effort, Ganteaume's squadron sailed from Toulon on 27 April 1801 with instructions to briefly secure local naval supremacy around Elba to allow a seabourne invasion to go ahead, before travelling on into the Eastern Mediterranean. During these operations, Ganteaume discovered that several ships in his force were dangerously undermanned, and therefore decided to consolidate his crews and send three ships of the line, Formidable, Indomptable and Desaix, and the frigate Créole back to Toulon.

The presence of this force at Toulon enabled the French to plan a secondary operation using Ganteaume's new arrivals. A deal had been brokered earlier in the year between Bonaparte and Charles IV of Spain for the Spanish government to provide six ships of the line from the Cadiz fleet to the French Navy. Orders were given that the new squadron at Cadiz was to be joined by the three ships of the line detached from Ganteaume's squadron, as well as the frigate Muiron under the overall command of Rear-Admiral Charles Linois. This force of nine French ships, accompanied by six promised vessels from the Spanish fleet, was then to fulfil one of two mooted plans: the first was a large scale attack on Lisbon. Portugal and Spain were engaged in the War of the Oranges and Lisbon was a major British trading port: the French admiral Kerguelen had estimated some years earlier that an attack there could seize as much as "2 millions" of British goods and shipping. The other planned operation, adopted following the end of the War of the Oranges on 2 June, was for the force to resupply Egypt using soldiers stationed at Italian ports. To facilitate the transfer of the Spanish ships to French control, Napoleon ordered Contre-Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley to sail to Cadiz. Le Pelley arrived at the Spanish port on 13 June in the frigates Libre and Indienne with sailors to begin manning the newly purchased ships and Commodore Julien le Ray to command them. His arrival was noted by the British blockade squadron off Cadiz under Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez, a veteran of the Battle of the Nile and one of Lord Nelson's famous "Band of Brothers": Le Pelley's ships were chased by HMS Superb and HMS Venerable, but the French admiral managed to evade his pursuers and reach Cadiz safely. Saumarez had been ordered to Cadiz in May 1801 with orders not only to blockade the Spanish fleet, but also specifically to watch for an attempt by a French squadron to link with the Spanish fleet at Cadiz.