The Battle Of Trafalgar
Part Three - The Atlantic Chessboard“If I fail, if they are not gone to the West Indies I shall be blamed; to be burnt in effigy….I must hope for the best”
- Nelson
While Nelson knew that the special troop convoy was sheltering in Lisbon, London was still in the dark. Since April 25 when the news of the Combined Fleets' escape had reached England, the Admiralty had been drafting plans to meet the emergency. The First Lord, a man with service experience of nearly 60 years and one of the oldest admirals in the Navy was charged to preserve, at all times, and against all chances the Western Approaches to England. Moreover, he had to keep open the trade routes and defend British colonial interests. He never forgot that all three principles were vital if England was to survive the threat of Napoleon’s ambition.
Working alone in his room, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Barham made contingency plans, issuing urgent dispatches. He recalled the special convoy, ordering a flying squadron of battleships to reinforce the blockades, and began identifying every ship that could be repaired and readied for service in the Channel. He feared if Villeneuve turned north from Cadiz and attacked the Royal Navy blockading at Ferrol, then the blockade at Brest would become untenable. Newly completed French battleships would emerge from the mouth of the Goulet River, banish the blockading squadron and unite with a victorious, confident, battle-hardened Combined Fleet. Sailing up the English Channel for Bolougne the French and Spanish fleets would seek their terrible revenge, challenging the Royal Navy within sight of the beaches of southern England with as many as 60 ships of the line.
On May 14 news reached England that the Combined Fleet had, as was feared, arrived at Cadiz - but over a month beforehand, on April 9. For the Government, this was disastrous news. England’s precious troop convoy had departed from Portsmouth on April 16, southbound for Malta. Despite the issuing of an urgent recall, it looked for all the world as if it was sailing into a trap. Both Pitt, the British Prime Minister, and the First Lord feared that their troop convoy “carrying the reviving hopes of Europe was at that moment either in enemy hands or hiding somewhere in a Portuguese port. “It’s loss”, reflected Boothby, a young English lieutenant, “would be a sad damper to England”
Mouth of the Tagus River, Portugal
However, warned en route of the escape of Villeneuve, and on the advice of the British Diplomatic Mission to Portugal, Admiral Craig’s transports had already taken shelter in Lisbon on May 7. The newly arrived French ambassador, General Junot, beside himself with apocalyptic rage, violently threatened the neutral Portuguese with war unless the convoy was immediately driven out. The British Embassy now advised Craig to prepare to defend himself against all comers, including the Portuguese. Desperate, Craig resolved to seize the forts on the estuary (Lieutenant Boothby thought it would be excellent fun) and protect his vulnerable transports, now anchored midstream. At that moment both Craig and the ambassador believed that their primary threat was the reinforced Combined Fleet sailing northwards from Cadiz, and they expected it to appear at any moment at the mouth of Lisbon's Targus River. Releasing the convoy, therefore was out of the question. However, the next day, while the French continued to rant and rave incessantly at the Portuguese, feigning hurt and surprise at such an outrageous turn of events, the British frigate ‘Orphueus’ fortuitously arrived with the news that Nelson had passed by Gibraltar and was on his way north to Cape St Vincent. As for the Combined Fleet, nothing had been heard or seen. The troop convoy at once weighed anchor and put to sea, leaving the neutral port of Lisbon behind, much to the relief of the Portuguese Government.
On May 12 the Admiral Craig’s 45 transports sailed uneventfully past Cadiz and two days later were gently herded past Gibralter and into the Mediterranean. Pitt’s special convoy, finally, was safe. But where was Villeneuve? What had happened to the Combined Fleet and what was its destination?
Nelson knew that if Villeneuve had turned north and made directly for the blockaded ports of Ferrol, Rochefort or Brest then urgent reports of his passage would have already been received. Earlier, news had reached him that the Combined Fleet had been sighted on April 11 sailing west and on May 9 another report reached Nelson of the safe arrival of a homecoming convoy which had sailed across the Bay of Biscay unmolested. It seemed, therefore, that the Channel was not Villeneuve’s immediate destination. All of the information seemed to point to the French having sailed for the sugar islands to reclaim some of the colonies lost to the British years before. But the evidence was not conclusive, and the risks were immense. Nelson knew that he could not run to the West Indies based on mere suspicion and yet if he did not, and Villeneuve’s destination was Martinique and Jamaica then those colonies, and much more besides, might easily be lost.
As the special convoy passed into the Mediterranean Nelson reached his momentous decision. He was to go to the West Indies in pursuit of the French. “Although I am late,” he wrote to his friend Ball, ‘yet chance may have given them bad passage and me a good one” Leaving behind sufficient ships to protect the special troop convoy and patrol the Mediterranean, Nelson went hunting a fleet twice his size. He wrote to the Admiralty on May 14 from Madeira that if he was wrong, and the French had indeed gone elsewhere, then he would be back by the end of June – “before the enemy even knew he had crossed the Atlantic”. In the meantime,"salt beef and water with the French Fleet" wrote Nelson, was preferable to roast beef and champagne without.
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