1809	British and French Fleets	96

west, formed in line of battle, the Theseus leading, followed by the Revenge, Triumph, and Valiant. A short continuance of the British squadron upon this course leaving open the port of Lorient, the French ships, by the time they had approached within four or five miles of the enemy, again hauled their wind. At 6 p.m., neither squadron then in sight of the other, the British ships tacked and shortened sail; and at about the same time the French squadron, which had been partly delayed by the falling of the breeze, arrived off Isle Groix.

A calm during the night kept both squadrons stationary ; but at daylight on the 23d a fresh breeze from the north-west enabled M. Willaumez, after sending in the Magpie schooner to apprize Commodore Troude of his arrival off the port, to steer for the Pertuis d'Antioche. At about 9 a.m. the two squadrons regained a view of each other, and continued in sight until late in the afternoon. The French ships then, passing inside of Belle-Isle, steered for Isle d'Yeu, with the wind back to north-east ; and at 10 h. 30 m. p.m., just as they had arrived abreast of the Tour de Baleine, were discovered by the 36-gun frigate Amethyst, Captain Michael Seymour, the look-out ship of Rear-admiral Stopford's squadron, at anchor to the north-west of the Chasseron lighthouse, consisting of the 80-gun a ship Cæsar, Captain Charles Richardson, and 74-gun ships Defiance, Captain Henry Hotham, and Donegal, Captain Peter Heywood, acting for Captain Pulteney Malcolm, who was in England attending a court-martial. A flight of rockets soon conveyed the information to the rear-admiral, and the British squadron got under way and stood to the north-west, the direction in which the Amethyst lay. At about midnight the British rear-admiral gained a sight of M. Willaumez's squadron to the eastward, standing into the Pertuis d'Antioche. The former went in chase, and at daylight on the 24th saw the French in the act of entering Basque road. Rear-admiral Stopford, rightly considering that the squadron had escaped from Brest, despatched by signal the 38-gun frigate Naïad, Captain Thomas Dundas, to acquaint Lord Gambier with the circumstance. At 7 a.m. the Naïad, having run a few miles to the north-west, made the signal of three suspicious sail coming down from the northward ; whereupon, leaving the Amethyst, in company with the 36-gun frigate Emerald, Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, to watch the squadron of M. Willaumez, Rear-admiral Stopford wore and made sail in the direction pointed out by the Naïad.

Shortly after Rear-admiral Willaumez had sailed from Isle Groix, the three French 40-gun frigates Italienne, Commodore Pierre-Roch Juries, and Calypso and Cybèle, Captains Louis-Léon Jacob and Raymond Cocault, sailed from Lorient, with the wind at abort east-north-east. Finding, on clearing the road that Commodore Troude, owing to the state of the tide, had not a sufficient depth of water to enable him to get under way, Captain

^ back to top ^