Algeciras Campaign - Interlude

Interlude

Immediately following the battle, Linois used overland messengers to request the assistance of the Spanish fleet at Cadiz under Admiral Jose de Mazzaredo. Linois and Saumarez also embarked on a program of refitting and repairing their damaged squadrons in preparation for a resumption of the action. At Gibraltar, the wounded were transferred to the naval hospital and the dead buried in the gravesite later to be known as Trafalgar Cemetery. Saumarez ordered that the most damaged of the surviving ships, Pompée and Caesar, be laid up in dock and their crews distributed among the remaining ships to ensure that they could be repaired as rapidly as possible, a situation made necessary in part due to the seizure of many of Gibraltar's shipwrights in Algeciras Bay when they were sent to aid Hannibal in the last stages of the battle. The entire squadron needed extensive repairs, their requirements met by Captain Alexander Ball, naval commissioner at Gibraltar. Captain Jahleel Brenton of Caesar protested this order and Saumarez permitted him to continue with repairs: Caesar's crew worked all day and in regular shifts throughout the night for the next week to ensure that when Saumarez sailed again, Caesar sailed with him, the crew having replaced the ship's damaged masts in just four days. Saumarez also sent a boat under a flag of truce in to Algeciras to arrange for the repatriation under parole of Ferris and his officers. Following a brief correspondence between Linois and the British admiral, the captured British officers, including Ferris and Cochrane, were sent to Gibraltar, later joined by the wounded British sailors captured on Hannibal. Ferris was immediately sent to Britain on HMS Plymouth with despatches, to await the court-martial for the loss of his ship. He and his officers were completely exonerated.

Linois also began a programme of refloating and making extensive repairs to his ships, including the captured Hannibal, which he renamed Annibal. Jury masts were set up on the battered hulk, although such extensive repairs were required that when Linois sailed a week later the ship was still only just seaworthy, and was sent back to Algeciras. In Cadiz, despite Spanish hesitation, the messages from Linois coupled with strong representations from le Pelley prompted Mazzaredo to order a squadron to sea on the morning of 9 July, commanded by Vice-Admiral Don Juan Joaquin de Moreno and including two very large first rate ships of the line: Real Carlos and San Hermengildo, each mustering 112 guns. The remainder of the squadron consisted of a 96-gun Spanish ship, an 80-gun Spanish ship, a 74-gun Spanish ship as well as the 74-gun ship Saint Antoine, which a few days earlier had been the Spanish San Antonio. The first of the purchased ships of the line to be commissioned into the French Navy, Saint Antonine's crew was drawn from the men brought to Cadiz on the frigates Libre and Indienne, supplemented by a number of Spanish sailors and commanded by Commodore Le Ray. Accompanying the squadron were the frigates Libre, the Spanish Sabina and the French lugger Vautour.

The departure of this combined squadron was observed by Captain Keats on Superb, which after returning to Cadiz had retained station off the port with HMS Thames and HMS Pasley. Thames was inshore searching a sezied American merchant ship, and witnessed the emergence of the squadron, retreating before four ships of the line that approached the British frigate. Superb was sighted shortly afterwards and also retreated before a ship of the line and two frigates, reconstituting his small squadron in the wake of Moreno's force. Keats immediately sent Pasley ahead to Gibraltar to warn Saumarez, the brig arriving at 15:00 closely followed by the main body of the combined squadron, from which Saint Antoine had detached during the departure from Cadiz and was following behind, shadowed by Superb. Moreno's squadron anchored in Algeciras Bay, out of reach of the British batteries on Gibraltar and waited there for Linois to complete his repairs, Saint Antoine joining the squadron on the morning of 10 July. Keats then brought his ships into Gibraltar, where efforts to repair the squadron were increased, with the knowledge that Moreno would soon be sailing to Cadiz with Linois squadron. Saumarez, concerned by the size of the combined squadron, sent urgent messages to the Mediterranean Fleet under Lord Keith in the Eastern Mediterranean requesting support in the belief that Moreno would be delayed at least two weeks due to the condition of Linois's ships. Saumarez was wrong: Moreno planned to convoy the battered squadron the short distance to Cadiz as soon as they were seaworthy.