British Maritime Video Library on YouTube

[csadn]

The French prooved a few times, that they could break the blockade.

[nod] The wind blows the same for everyone -- so when it's blowing into the harbor, the blockaders can get in close, bit it doesn't matter because the blockaded can't get out anyway; and when it's blowing out, the blockaded can get out, and the blockaders are forced further away, making it that much easier to get out.... :)

...and maybe the ships rot a little bit in the harbours after the Revolution, but not the men, because the French had always a lack of crew members.

When the Frech fleet left Toulon for Egypt in 1799 their ships had only 75% - 80% of the needed crewmen on each ship.

A large part of that problem was Boney himself, pillaging the manpower base for the Army

We know what happened at Abukir & Trafalgar when they left the harbour.

At Abukir, they never even made it out of the harbor.... ;)

I'm shure a French frigate or French ship of the line wasn't the easiest prey for RN ships.

I have noticed from the historical reports elseforum: If the battle goes much beyond two broadsides, it's usually far-closer-run than the overall stats show. It would appear most of Britain's successes came from ships which were surrendered without firing a shot, or after making only token resistance. This leads one to wonder if the naval campaign was not an example of what Napoleon said about "Morale is to physical as three is to one".