Naval Database

Santa Madalena, 1805
Notes:
4th of June, 1805 (Vol iii - page 338)
On the 4th of June the combined fleet, composed of the same vessels with which it had anchored, except the Santa-Madalena, Torche, Naïade, and Cyane, and having on board in addition to the troops it had brought out, a portion of the garrison of Martinique, set sail from the harbour of Fort-Royal, steering a northerly course. On the same or following day the two 74s, Algésiras and Achille, which had arrived at Guadaloupe on the 29th of the preceding month, and had sailed on the 2d of June in search of the admiral, effected their junction. On the 6th M. Villeneuve lay to off the road of Basse-Terre, and received on board his fleet a portion of the garrison of Guadaloupe.

Thus reinforced, the French admiral, with his 20 sail of the line, seven frigates, and two brigs, passed to windward of Montserrat and Redundo, and to leeward of Antigua, with what precise object in view has never been satisfactorily explained. However concealment or a distortion of facts might suit the policy of Napoléon, it was aiming a deadly blow at the reputation of his officers to make their public letters the channel of falsehoods. In M. Villeneuve's letter of 8 thermidor (26th July), published in the Moniteur of August 11, a void occurs between the day of his departure from Martinique, "le 16 prairial," or 4th of June, and that on which he made Cape Finisterre, " le 21 messidor, " or 9th of July. Not a word there about the junction of the two 74s, or the abstraction of colonial garrisons ; a tolerable proof that one or more imports.. paragraphs had been suppressed.