Preparation
Rowley became aware of Feretier's presence at Saint-Paul during the following month and determined to attack the port and recapture the valuable ships in the harbour. The operation was also to be a prelude to an eventual invasion attempt, giving the squadron experience of an amphibious landing operation. Conferring with Lieutenant Colonel Henry Keating on Rodriguez, Rowley determined that Keating's men would land behind the gun batteries that defended the town and storm them. This would allow Rowley to bring his squadron directly into the harbour, capture the shipping anchored there and possibly seize the town as well. Rowley's planning was directly affected by a failed attack on Saint-Paul on 11 November 1806, when HMS Sceptre and HMS Cornwallis had attacked the harbour without infantry support. Their target was the frigate Sémillante, but neither ship had been able to pass the heavy batteries that protected the port and the British ships were forced to withdraw.
On 16 September, the troops were prepared, and 368 British Army soldiers were embarked on the British frigate HMS Nereide under Captain Robert Corbett, Willoughby's Otter and the Honourable East India Company schooner Wasp. This troop convoy was joined off Saint-Paul on 18 September by the rest of Rowley's squadron, the flagship Raisonnable and the frigates HMS Sirius under Captain Samuel Pym and HMS Boadicea under Captain John Hatley. These ships mustered an additional 236 seaman volunteers and Royal Marines who would join the assault. The entire invasion force was then embarked on Nereide, as Corbett had experience with the Île Bonaparte coastline, with the assault designated for the early morning of 21 September.
Read more about this topic: Raid On Saint-Paul
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“Living each day as a preparation for the next is an exciting way to live. Looking forward to something is much more fun than looking back at something—and much more constructive. If we can prepare ourselves so that we never have to think, “Oh, if I had only known, if I had only been ready,” our lives can really be the great adventure we so passionately want them to be.”
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