The Atlantic campaign of 1806.

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The Atlantic campaign of 1806 was one of the most important and complex naval campaigns of the post-Trafalgar Napoleonic Wars. Seeking to take advantage of the withdrawal of British forces from the Atlantic in the aftermath of the Battle of Trafalgar, Emperor Napoleon ordered two battle squadrons to sea from the fleet stationed at Brest, during December 1805. Escaping deep into the Atlantic, these squadrons succeeded in disrupting British convoys, evading pursuit by British battle squadrons and reinforcing the French garrison at Santo Domingo. The period of French success was brief: on 6 February 1806 one of the squadrons, under Vice-Admiral Corentin Urbain Leissègues, was intercepted by a British squadron at the Battle of San Domingo and destroyed, losing all five of its ships of the line.



The second French squadron, under Vice-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Willaumez, cruised in the South Atlantic and the Caribbean during the spring and summer of 1806, conducting several successful raids on British islands in the West Indies. His ability to affect British trade was hampered by the deployment of British squadrons against him and the disobedience of Captain Jérôme Bonaparte, the Emperor's brother. On 18 August an Atlantic hurricane dispersed his ships, causing severe damage and forcing them to take shelter in friendly or neutral harbours in the Americas. Waiting British ships destroyed one vessel, and several others were so badly damaged that they never sailed again, the four survivors limping back to France individually over the next two years. The various British squadrons deployed against him failed to catch Willaumez, but their presence had limited his ability to raid British trade routes. The campaign included a number of subsidiary operations by both British and French ships, some taking advantage of the campaign to conduct smaller operations while the main enemy forces were distracted, others operating as diversions to the principal campaign to attack undefended areas or lure British ships away from the principal French squadrons. Among these operations was the return of the squadron under Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois from the Indian Ocean, which was captured at the Action of 13 March 1806; the raiding cruises of L'Hermite's expedition and Lamellerie's expedition, which captured a number of merchant ships but each lost a frigate breaking through the blockade of the French coast; and the destruction of a convoy of seven French ships destined with supplies for the French West Indies at the Action of 25 September 1806.
Rochefort blockade squadrons.

French squadrons.



Admiral Leissègues' squadron.

Both of the principal French squadrons departed Brest on 13 December, remaining together for the first two days before dividing in pursuit of separate British merchant convoys on 15 December. The squadron under Leissègues clashed with the convoy's escort, before breaking off and sailing south for the French Caribbean, where Leissègues was intending to land the 1,000 soldiers carried aboard as reinforcements for the garrison at Santo Domingo, via the Azores. The voyage was long and difficult, Leissègues struggling through winter storms that divided his squadron and inflicted severe damage to his ships. Arriving at Santo Domingo on 20 January, Leissègues disembarked his troops and began extensive repairs to his ships in preparation for raiding cruises in the Caribbean.
On 6 February, Leissègues was surprised at anchor by a squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth, which had been taking on fresh supplies at Basseterre when news of Leissègues' arrival reached him. Joined by ships from the West Indian squadron, Duckworth's force was larger than Leissègues' and also had the advantage of the wind that prevented the unprepared French squadron from escaping. Sailing westwards along the coast in a line of battle, Leissègues' flagship Impérial was the first to be attacked, eventually driving ashore along with the next in line, while three others surrendered at the Battle of San Domingo. Leissègues himself escaped ashore; the only surviving ships of his squadron were the frigates, all of which eventually returned to France later in the spring.

Admiral Leissègues' squadron.
Ship	Guns	Commander	Notes
Impérial	120	Vice-Admiral Corentin Urbain Leissègues Captain Julien-Gabriel Bigot	Driven ashore and destroyed at the Battle of San Domingo
Alexandre	80	Captain Pierre-Elie Garreau	Captured at the Battle of San Domingo
Brave	74	Commodore Louis-Marie Coudé	Captured at the Battle of San Domingo
Diomède	74	Captain Jean-Baptiste Henry	Driven ashore and destroyed at the Battle of San Domingo.
Jupiter	74	Captain Gaspard Laignel	Captured at the Battle of San Domingo
Comète	40		Returned to France in 1806
Félicité	40		Returned to France in 1806
Diligente	20	Captain Raymond Cocault	Returned to France in 1806

Admiral Willaumez's squadron.





Vétéran reaching the French port of Concarneau, Michel Bouquet
After separating from Leissègues on 15 December, Willaumez sailed south, capturing a number of vessels from a British troop convoy and sending the prizes, with the frigate Volontaire, to Tenerife. Willaumez's intention was to raid the China Fleet, a large convoy of valuable East Indiamen that sailed from the Far East to Britain every year. However, on 23 December he was pursued by Duckworth and driven far off course, so that by the time he reached the Cape of Good Hope, where he planned to resupply his ships, it had already been captured by a British expeditionary force. Turning westwards, Willaumez raided shipping in the South Atlantic until April, when he anchored at Salvador in neutral Brazil. By early May, Willaumez was at sea again, stopping at Cayenne and then splitting his force to raid shipping in the Leeward Islands prior to reuniting at Fort-de-France on Martinique in June.
On 1 July, Willaumez sailed again, attacking shipping at Montserrat, Nevis and St. Kitts before sailing to Tortola in preparation for an attack on the Jamaica convoy. Before he could reach the convoy, Willaumez was intercepted off the Passage Islands by a squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane and driven northwards into the Bahamas. There he waited for the Jamaica convoy to pass, seizing any ship of any nationality that came within sight, in case they should reveal his position. After several weeks of waiting, Captain Bonaparte, the Emperor's brother and commander of the ship Vétéran, decided that he would no longer submit to Willaumez's command and sailed north during the night of 31 July, without orders or even notifying the admiral. Vétéran eventually returned to France on 26 August, after destroying six ships from a Quebec convoy. Panicked by the unexplained disappearance of one of his ships and its illustrious captain, Willaumez struck north in search of the vessel and as a result missed the passage of the Jamaica convoy, also narrowly avoiding an encounter with the squadrons under Warren and Strachan. On 18 August a hurricane dispersed his ships, severely damaging them and scattering them along the Atlantic Seaboard of the Americas. One was destroyed by a British patrol, two others were too badly damaged to be repaired and were broken up, and three of his ships successfully made the journey back to France over the next two years.

Admiral Willaumez's squadron.
Ship	Guns	Commander	Notes
Foudroyant	80	Vice-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Phillibert Willaumez Captain Antoine Henri	Badly damaged in an August hurricane, sheltered in Havana. Returned to France in early 1807.
Cassard	74	Commodore Gilbert-Amable Faure	Separated in August hurricane, returned to Brest on 13 October.
Impétueux	74	Commodore Alain-Joseph Le Veyer-Belair	Badly damaged in an August hurricane, driven ashore and destroyed by British ships on 14 September 1806.
Patriote	74	Commodore Joseph-Hyacinthe-Isidore Khrom	Badly damaged in an August hurricane, sheltered in Annapolis. Returned to France in January 1808.
Éole	74	Captain Louis-Gilles Prévost de Lacroix	Badly damaged in an August hurricane, sheltered in Annapolis. Eventually broken up as beyond repair.
Vétéran	74	Captain Jérôme Bonaparte	Separated without orders on 31 July, returning to France alone on 26 August.
Valeureuse	40		Badly damaged in an August hurricane, sheltered in Philadelphia. Eventually broken up as beyond repair.
Volontaire	40	Captain Bretel	Detached in December 1805 to Tenerife. Captured on 4 March 1806 at Cape Town.
Also two corvettes, names unknown

Admiral Linois's squadron.


One of the minor French squadrons that participated in the campaign was the force under Contre-Admiral Linois, who had sailed for the Indian Ocean with a ship of the line and four frigates in March 1803 during the Peace of Amiens. After brief stops at Puducherry and Île de France, Linois sailed on a raiding cruise to the South China Sea only to be driven off by a British merchant convoy at the Battle of Pulo Aura.
Despite subsequent minor success against merchant ships, including the Battle of Vizagapatam, Linois's failure to inflict significant damage to British trade in the Far East enraged Napoleon, and in late 1805, with supplies running low and his ships in need of repair, Linois began the return journey to Europe with just his flagship and a single frigate remaining.

By the early morning of 13 March 1806 he was in the Mid-Atlantic when his lookouts spotted sails in the distance. Turning his force around to investigate, Linois hoped to encounter a merchant convoy but instead discovered the large British second rate HMS London looming out of the darkness ahead.
Unable to escape, Linois fought until his ships were battered and he himself was badly wounded, but he eventually surrendered to the squadron under Admiral Warren that had followed London. Napoleon's fury at Linois was unabated and the French admiral remained a prisoner of war for the next eight years.

Admiral Linois's squadron.
Ship	Guns	Commander	Notes
Marengo	74	Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois Captain Joseph-Marie Vrignaud	Captured at the Action of 13 March 1806.
Belle Poule	40	Captain Alain-Adélaïde-Marie Bruilhac	Captured at the Action of 13 March 1806.

Commodore L'Hermite's squadron.
For more details on this topic, see L'Hermite's expedition.
One of the principal French diversionary operations during 1806 was by a force that had been sent to sea in October 1805 as a diversion during the Trafalgar campaign, which by then was almost over. Sailing from Lorient to West Africa, L'Hermite was supposed to have been reinforced by a squadron under Jérôme Bonaparte and attack and capture British forts on the West African coast, thus forcing the detachment of British forces from the main campaign in pursuit.
The events of the end of the Trafalgar campaign cancelled these plans, and the scheduled reinforcements were instead attached to Willaumez's squadron. Despite this setback, L'Hermite continued with elements of the original plan and attacked British merchant ships and slave ships off West Africa during the spring of 1806, inflicting some local damage but failing to capture a trading post or to affect the wider strategic situation.
In June, L'Hermite sailed to Cayenne for supplies and then returned to Europe the following month, encountering part of the British blockade squadron under Rear-Admiral Thomas Louis on his return and losing the frigate Président.

Commodore L'Hermite's squadron.
Ship	Guns	Commander	Notes
Régulus	74	Commodore Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermite	Returned to Brest on 5 October
Président	40	Captain Labrosse	Captured by a British squadron in the Bay of Biscay on 27 September 1806
Cybèle	40		Damaged in a hurricane on 20 August, forced to shelter in Hampton Roads. Returned to Rochefort in 1807.
Surveillant	corvette		Returned to France in January 1806
Favourite	18		Captured off West Africa on 6 January and attached to squadron. Remained in the Caribbean and was captured by HMS Jason on 27 January 1807.

Commodore La Meillerie's squadron.

For more details on this topic, see La Meillerie's expedition.
One of the French squadrons that operated in the Atlantic campaign of 1806 was the result of opportunity rather than strategy. After the Battle of Trafalgar, most of the French survivors had retreated to Cadiz, where they remained until Duckworth's blockade squadron abandoned the port in November 1805. Although Duckworth's ships were replaced by forces under Lord Collingwood, the replacements were inadequate and on 26 February 1806, while the blockade squadron, which had been pulled back in the hope of luring the French out of the port, had been blown off station, four frigates and a brig escaped. Chased by the British frigate HMS Hydra, Commodore Louis La-Marre-la-Meillerie refused battle and abandoned the brig Furet to the British in his haste to escape.
Sailing to Senegal and then Cayenne, La Meillerie's operations had little effect and by 18 May he was already on the return journey to France, hoping to anchor in the Biscay port of Rochefort. On 27 July, the frigates were spotted by HMS Mars, a ship of the line of the British blockade squadron, and chased with the frigate Rhin rapidly falling behind. Declining to support the straggler, La Meillerie ran on towards France while Mars took possession of Rhin, and the surviving ships found safe ports along the Biscay coast.

Commodore La Meillerie's squadron.
Ship	Guns	Commander	Notes
Hortense	40	Commodore Louis La-Marre-la-Meillerie	Returned to Bordeaux on 28 July
Rhin	40	Captain Michel-Jean-André Chesneau	Captured on 28 July by HMS Mars
Hermione	40	Captain Jean-Michel Mahé	Returned to Bordeaux on 28 July
Thémis	36	Commodore Nicolas Jugan	Returned to Rochefort on 28 July
Furet	18	Lieutenant Pierre-Antoine-Toussaint Demai	Captured on 28 February by HMS Hydra

Commodore Soleil's squadron.
The final French operation in the Atlantic during the campaign was an attempt to send seven frigates and corvettes to the French West Indies in September, laden with supplies to help maintain the strength and morale of the garrisons.
With Willaumez believed to be still at sea, September 1806 seemed a good time to send a squadron into the Atlantic, but in fact the force was spotted within hours of leaving Rochefort by the British blockade force under Commodore Sir Samuel Hood. Hood's force gave chase and the large ships of the line soon caught up the frigates in heavy weather. Sending four of his ships off in different directions, Soleil attempted to give them cover with his three largest vessels, but after a hard-fought battle in which Hood lost an arm, four of the French frigates were captured.

Commodore Soleil's Squadron.
Ship	Guns	Commander	Notes
Gloire	40	Commodore Eleonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil	Captured at Action of 25 September 1806
Minerve	40	Captain Joseph Collet	Captured at Action of 25 September 1806
Armide	40	Captain Jean-Jacques-Jude Langlois	Captured at Action of 25 September 1806
Infatigable	40	Captain Joseph-Maurice Girardias	Captured at Action of 25 September 1806
Thétis	36	Captain Jacques Pinsum
Lynx	16
Sylphe	16