The island's 500-strong garrison was compelled to resist the attack alone; although significant Royal Navy forces were in the area, a combination of wind and tides prevented them from intervening.

Following the failure of the French operation, British forces began a close blockade of the Cotentin ports, where the surviving landing craft were anchored.

In 1795 Captain Sir Sidney Smith, a prominent Royal Navy officer, recognised that if resupply points could be established on islands off the French coast then cruising warships could extend their time at sea.

To this purpose, Smith seized the uninhabited Îles Saint-Marcouf, which lie 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 km; 4.0 mi) off Ravenoville on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy.

[1] Smith constructed barracks and gun batteries and manned the islands with 500 sailors and Royal Marines, including a large proportion of men unfit for ship-board service, described as "invalids".

[3] The Royal Navy regularly supplied the islands with food from Britain, and visiting vessels brought bags of earth that allowed the development of a vegetable garden.

Bonaparte, and then Kilmaine, prepared for an invasion of Britain, and Captain Muskein, a naval administrator from Antwerp, was instructed to develop a suitable fleet of landing craft to convoy the troops across the English Channel.

Over the next two weeks, however, the situation changed – Rear-Admiral Jean Lacrosse at Cherbourg had been informed of Muskein's difficulties and sent reinforcements of 40 barges and armed fishing ships to Sallenelles.

Muskein's force mustered 52 vessels, including a number of brigs that mounted several large cannon and were intended to provide covering fire for the landing barges.

According to unofficial accounts, they lost approximately 900 men killed or drowned and at least 300 wounded, in addition to the loss of a number of the newly constructed landing craft.

[6] The victory was seen in Britain as a foreshadowing of the likely fate of an attempted invasion and helped ease British fears about the threat of a French amphibious attack.

[11] The British strengthened the islands' defences, in case of further attacks, and a number of warships patrolled the area to observe French movements and intercept any flotillas of invasion craft.

At the action of 30 May 1798, this strategy achieved an unexpected success when HMS Hydra intercepted the French corvettes Confiante and Vésuve off the mouth of the river Dives.