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Home The Napoleonic War, 1803-1815 Napoleon and the Invasion of England, 1803-1805 |
Napoleon and the Invasion of England, 1803-1805The war which now ensued is generally called the Napoleonic War. For the first seventeen months after it broke out, from May, 1803. until October, 1805, the main interest centres in Napoleon's plans for the invasion of England.1 To carry out his great scheme, Napoleon stationed at and near Boulogne nearly a hundred thousand Soldiers (Napoleon hoped to have 150,000 men; as a matter of fact, during the critical months of 1805, he had only 93,000 men) - the soldiers who were afterwards to win such a wonderful series of victories on the Continent; and for the transport of this army he built over two thousand flat-bottomed boats, propelled by oars and easily beached. But swarms of British frigates, sloops, and gun-vessels were patrolling the Channel, and Napoleon soon realized that a fleet was essential to convoy his flotilla of boats across the thirty miles of sea that separated France from England. The French ships-of-war, however, lay inside the great harbours of Brest and Toulon and the smaller ones of Rochefort and Ferrol (Ferrol belonged to Spain, but it was virtually annexed at this time by Napoleon), and outside those harbours, ceaselessly and untiringly watching the: French vessels, were the British fleets. The blockade of Brest by Cornwallis - the brother of the soldier - excited the wonder of the world, whilst almost equal vigilance was shown by the British commanders off Ferrol and Rochefort, Nelson could not exercise over Toulon so rigid a blockade, but he had it carefully watched by his frigates, and his fleet during these critical months never went into port except to an open roadstead (Cornwallis blockaded Brest from May, 1803, until after the battle of Trafalgar, 1805 - a blockade unequalled in length; and during the whole of that time no French fleet got out. Nelson for two whole years, wanting ten days, never left the Victory). Napoleon's great army at Boulogne never saw those "far-distant, storm-beaten British ships" outside the French harbours, but nevertheless they "stood between it and the dominion of the world". How were the French fleets to elude the blockading British ships and obtain command of the Channel for sufficient time to enable the flotilla to cross to England (Napoleon at one time thought the command of the Channel for twelve hours would be sufficient, at another time three days. The French admiral at Brest thought "at least a fortnight was necessary", as the Channel was too stormy to be always practicable for the transport-boats)? Napoleon's brain spun plan after plan, but they were all foiled by the ability of Lord Barham, the first lord of the admiralty at Whitehall, and by the vigilant co-operation of the admirals afloat. Limits of space forbid reference except to the last plan of all, a plan devised early in 1805, when Spain had been drawn into an alliance with Napoleon and consequently when her fleet was available for offensive operations against Great Britain. Under this plan, there was to be a general rendezvous of all the French and Spanish fleets in the West Indies, and the combined armada was then to return to Europe and sweep aside all opposition. The Brest fleet, however, was unable to escape. But the Toulon fleet under Villeneuve got away in March, picked up the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, and reached Martinique (May 14). Nelson, who at first thought the Toulon fleet was destined for the East, and who was bound by his orders specially to guard against an attack on Egypt, Naples, or Sicily, watched the sea between Sardinia and the coast of Tunis; and then, hearing of Villeneuve's cruise westward, he went to Gibraltar, reaching it just eight days before Villeneuve reached the West Indies. Various pieces of information led him to conclude that Villeneuve's destination was the West Indies (This was not a brilliant guess on Nelson's part, but the intelligent use of what information he could gather from other ships), and he accordingly followed him there without delay. 1803-1805; Part 2 |
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