Armada of 1779 - Action Against The Royal Navy

Action Against The Royal Navy

What d'Orvilliers did not know was that the British fleet was not in the Channel. Having learned that the French fleet had gone out into the Atlantic in June, Admiral Hardy was patrolling off the Scilly Isles. On 14 August, the massive combined fleet came within sight of the English coast, causing a wave of alarm which quickly spread through the country. The alarm did not spread quickly enough to reach the Royal Navy ship Ardent, which left Plymouth on 15 August to join Hardy on patrol. On 16 August the French and Spanish ships, then sailing slowly eastwards up the Channel, received orders from France to turn around, as it had been decided that the best place for the troops to land would be near Falmouth in Cornwall. D'Orvilliers considered this a very bad idea, and sent a reply message to France asking the government to reconsider. The next day Ardent met an outlying French squadron of the great fleet, but was fooled into thinking it was British, and was swiftly captured.

The allies hovered off Plymouth, waiting for a reply to d'Orvilliers' message. On 18 August a gale from the east drove them far to the west and out into the Atlantic. This had one beneficial result: as they struggled eastward again, on 25 August the allies finally learned the location of Hardy's fleet. They decided to neutralise it quickly, because they were finding it increasingly difficult to cope with sickness and lack of food. The allies steered for the Scilly Isles with the intention of forcing a battle, but Hardy decided to try to avoid battle. On 31 August, under cover of fog, his fleet slipped past Land's End and he began leading his would-be opponents as far as he could towards the key British naval base of Portsmouth. Remarkably, on 3 September, the British fleet, completely undamaged, reached the well-defended safety of the Solent, and set about equipping for battle. This was a problem for the allies, who were losing men daily to sickness. French military planners also realised that if the invasion was postponed much longer, troops would be fighting through the British autumn and winter. That day, the leaders of the great armada abandoned their campaign and set sail for Brest.