Armada of 1779 - Gathering The Forces

Gathering The Forces

The plan was for the French fleet, commanded by Admiral d'Orvilliers (who had also led at Ushant), including 30 ships of the line and numerous smaller vessels, to meet a Spanish fleet off the Sisarga Islands, near Corunna in north-west Spain. When the French reached the rendezvous point, the Spanish fleet was not there, because (the Spanish later claimed) the winds were unsuitable, so d'Orvilliers had to wait for them. The ships from Brest had deliberately departed before they were fully supplied, to avoid the possibility of being blockaded by the British. Serious problems consequently arose as the wait dragged out to several weeks, and no arrangements were made to take on additional supplies in Spain. Scurvy weakened the crews, and in the hot, crowded shipboard conditions, typhus and smallpox also broke out. The Spanish fleet, commanded by Don Luis de Córdova (who was to be subordinate to d'Orvilliers in the joint enterprise), including 36 ships of the line, finally arrived on 22 July.

An army of over 40,000 men was slowly being gathered around Le Havre and St. Malo in northern France, with 400 transport boats. The purpose of the combined fleet was to put the Royal Navy out of action, so that the army could be safely transported across the English Channel (La Manche), whereupon it would set up a base on the Isle of Wight or the nearby British coast. At the time there were fewer than 40 Royal Navy ships of the line available in the English Channel area, newly under the command of ailing 64-year-old Sir Charles Hardy, who had been desk-bound for 20 years. On 25 July the Franco-Spanish armada set sail northwards to take on the British fleet, with contrary winds greatly slowing its progress. As time passed, it also became apparent that the diseases which had afflicted the French (and killed d'Orvilliers' only son, a lieutenant in the fleet) was spreading to the Spanish. Having missed opportunities to seize two important British convoys of merchant ships from the West Indies (something they did not learn until later), which reached Plymouth on 31 July, the fleet finally passed Ushant on 11 August and entered the Channel. Three days later, a squadron under American colours (though consisting mostly of French ships with French crews) set sail from the French port of L'Orient, heading northward towards Ireland as a diversion. This diversionary fleet was commanded by John Paul Jones, a captain with an alarming reputation in Britain.