Croisière de Bruix
Keith belatedly followed Bruix' trail, his progress obstructed by distant orders from St Vincent and disobedience from Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson who commanded a separate squadron at Palermo and refused to participate in the campaign due to his preoccupation with the political situation in Naples.
Ultimately however Bruix reached Brest on 13 August, just one day ahead of Keith, unopposed by the remainder of Bridport's fleet which was stationed off Rochefort blockading a Spanish squadron from Ferrol anchored there.
During his time in the Mediterranean Bruix failed to exert any significant influence on the region: in June he escorted a supply convoy to the Northwestern Italian coast, but the smaller British and Russian forces operating off Malta, Corfu and Alexandria were left unmolested, and those blockades continued with minimal disruption.
In the aftermath Keith was criticised for his failure to bring the French and Spanish fleets to action, although interference and disobedience among his fellow commanders also contributed heavily to Bruix' escape.
[2] British squadrons patrolled the approaches to Brest and the other harbours along the Bay of Biscay, supported by the main body of the Channel Fleet, consisting of 19 ships of the line under the command of the 72-year-old Admiral Lord Bridport.
[6] To intercept the French expedition to Egypt, Lord Spencer at the Admiralty in London ordered Earl St. Vincent to dispatch a fleet of his own under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson.
[9] Royal Navy forces returned to the Mediterranean and blockades were imposed on the principal French bases, including Alexandria and Malta under the command of Nelson at Palermo with three ships on each station.
[10] The Spanish base at Port Mahon on Menorca was captured by a British expeditionary force in November 1798 and it was there that St. Vincent, suffering from a prolonged bout of ill-health, had retired, leaving command of the Cadiz blockade fleet to Vice-Admiral Lord Keith.
[17] The blockade of Brest had been prosecuted since January 1799 by a large battle squadron while the majority of the Channel Fleet waited for the calmer spring weather: Bridport's main force departed the anchorage at St Helens on 13 April.
Due to strong northeasterly winds, Bridport then ordered his fleet to sail out of the Iroise Passage at the entrance to Brest Roadstead and hold station instead to the southwest of the island of Ushant.
On discovering that the French had indeed sailed, he sent messages to the Admiralty, Lord Keith and Earl St. Vincent and then turned his ships north with instructions for reinforcements to join him off Cape Clear.
[24] At Gibraltar, St Vincent had sent a flurry of instructions, recalling HMS Edgar from Tétouan and ordering the seriously ill Rear-Admiral Thomas Frederick to make it his flagship.
Warnings were sent to the other British officers commanding stations in the Mediterranean, including Duckworth at Menorca, Nelson at Palermo, Alexander Ball at the Siege of Malta and Sir Sidney Smith off Alexandria.
"[26] Keith's force arrived at Gibraltar on 10 May and by 11 May was reprovisioned and ready to continue the pursuit with St. Vincent now in command, passing through a severe gale on 17 and 18 May to unite with Duckworth's four ships off Menorca on 20 May.
[23] On 1 June Bridport finally realised that the Irish invasion plan had been a ruse and detached a fleet of 16 ships under Admiral Sir Alan Gardner to join Keith in the Mediterranean.
[30] The Spanish squadron remained under blockade throughout the remainder of the campaign, eventually slipping past Pole's force in September and, after an abortive attempt to reach Brest, retiring to Ferrol.
Hastily abandoning plans to follow Bruix, Mazarredo turned his fleet towards the safety of Cartagena, the principal Spanish Mediterranean naval base, arriving on 20 May.
Perceiving the Spanish as the greater threat, St Vincent ordered his ships to hold station at Cape San Sebastian in Girona in case the fleets attempted to combine.
[31] As St Vincent patrolled the Spanish coast, Bruix's fleet returned to sea on 27 May, accompanied by eleven smaller warships and two small ships of the line laden with stores and provisions armed en flute.
[33] Sailing eastwards unopposed, the fleet anchored off Vado Ligure on 30 May and the troops carried aboard were landed for service against the Austrian and Russian armies then engaged against the French in Northern Italy, relieving the besieged city of Savona.
On 2 June St Vincent's health failed and he turned command over to Keith, taking his flagship HMS Ville de Paris back to Port Mahon.
[39] He was also concerned for his reputation: the French force was significantly stronger than his own fleet both in number and size of ships and a battle could well have ended in defeat, while to refuse combat would have been heavily criticised in Britain.
Faced with overwhelming opposition, the French squadron surrendered, all five ships subsequently being commissioned into the Royal Navy, although Junon, renamed HMS Princess Charlotte, was considered to be a more valuable prize than all of the others together.
He remained off the port until 23 June in the hope of their arrival and then turned eastwards to investigate first Vado Ligure and then Genoa, where coastal forts fired on the scouting brig-sloop HMS Vincejo, which escaped by hosting a false Spanish flag.
At Gibraltar St. Vincent, who was traveling back to Britain on the frigate HMS Argo and had paused in the port, ordered a ship to be sent to investigate the firing and dispatched the 18-gun hired armed cutter Penelope under Lieutenant Frederick Lewis Maitland.
The following day the frigate HMS Stag under Captain Joseph Sydney Yorke joined the fleet having sighted Bruix' force off Cape Ortegal sailing for the Bay of Biscay.
Aware that losing control of the English Channel could mean an invasion of Britain, the Admiralty ordered a rejuvenated St. Vincent to assume command of the fleet, now numbering 30 ships of the line.
St Vincent ordered his fleet to remain on constant vigil, only retiring from the blockade in the very worst weather, and then only to an offshore anchorage in Torbay, not to their home port at Spithead.
[51] Keith compounded this confusion by returning to Menorca against instructions to collect Ville de Paris, which ship St Vincent had removed from the fleet to take him to Port Mahon.
"[35] Given the delays and missteps it was remarkable and a testament to the skill of his crews and captains that Keith made up so much distance in the final days of the campaign, and had the combined fleet had a little further to travel, he might have caught them.
