The French anticipated that this would be a major blow to British morale, prestige and military effectiveness, and was also intended to possibly be the first stage of an eventual invasion of Great Britain itself.

To this end, the Directory gathered a force of approximately 15,000 soldiers at Brest under General Lazare Hoche during late 1796, in readiness for a major landing at Bantry Bay in December.

The French fleet was subject to confused orders as it left port and was scattered across the approaches to Brest: one ship was wrecked with heavy loss of life and the others widely dispersed.

In total, the French lost 12 ships captured or wrecked and thousands of soldiers and sailors drowned, without a single man reaching Ireland except as prisoners of war.

[1] Opposition to British rule in Ireland had existed for centuries, but the French Revolution, combined with hostility towards the penal laws which discriminated against the Catholic majority and a large Presbyterian minority, prompted the creation of the Society of United Irishmen, a broad non-sectarian coalition of groups seeking to create an independent Irish republic.

[2] Initially a non-violent political movement, the United Irishmen were forced to operate as a secret society after membership was made illegal by the Dublin Castle administration in 1793 due to the French Revolutionary Wars.

In search of external aid, two of their leaders, Lord Edward FitzGerald and Arthur O'Connor, travelled to Basel to meet with French General Lazare Hoche.

[6] This latter problem was a major cause for concern: the Navy had suffered heavily from the removal of its officer corps during the Revolution and then endured a series of military setbacks, culminating in the tactical defeat at the Glorious First of June in 1794 and the disastrous Croisière du Grand Hiver in 1795.

[Note A] By August the plan was already behind schedule: severe shortages of stores and wages slowed work at the Brest shipyards, while the troops set aside for the invasion of Cornwall proved unreliable, deserting in large numbers.

Hoche publicly blamed the naval command and specifically Vice-amiral Villaret de Joyeuse for the delay, whom he accused of being more interested in the planning of a proposed invasion of India.

[13] Despite the misgivings of the expedition's commanders, the fleet left Brest as scheduled on 15 December 1796, one day ahead of a message from the Directory calling off the entire operation.

He remained off Brest with the rest of the squadron, and sighted the main French fleet at 15:30 on 15 December, bringing his frigates inshore towards Camaret Bay to establish its size and purpose.

Pellew added to the problem by weaving ahead of the fleet shining blue lights and firing rockets, further confusing the French captains as to their location.

[20] The other ships, including Fraternité, which also carried General Hoche, were alone or in small groups; the captains forced open their secret orders to discover their destination, in the absence of instructions from any commanding officers.

Despite the disappearance of its commanders the French fleet continued to Bantry Bay, sailing through both high winds and thick fog, which delayed its arrival until 21 December.

[24] Unwittingly passing Bouvet's fleet in the fog, de Galles separated from his small squadron near the rendezvous on 21 December, only to discover a British frigate immediately ahead.

[24] During the night of 21 December, the weather suddenly and significantly worsened, Atlantic gales bringing blizzards that hid the shoreline and forced the fleet to anchor or risk being wrecked.

Together they resolved to force a landing despite the weather, identifying a nearby creek as the safest point and giving orders for the operation to go ahead at first light on 25 December.

[30] HMS Monarch, flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir George Elphinstone returning from the successful Invasion of the Cape Colony, was battered by the storm and passed right through the French fleet without realising the danger, anchoring in a disabled state at Crookhaven.

[30] Others were destroyed: an American ship named Ellis, passing close to Crookhaven on 29 December, encountered a vessel wallowing in the waves, dismasted and with the deck strewn with bodies.

Captain Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley was in the process of removing the crew and passengers from Scévola before she foundered, the heavy weather having reduced the 40-gun razee frigate to a sinking condition.

During the following days, the French ships that had gathered off the Shannon limped home, all badly damaged due to the increasingly rough seas and high winds.

When Unicorn and Doris reappeared the following morning, they were operating as scouts for Bridport's fleet, which had finally left port at the start of the new year and had encountered the frigates during the night.

[34] The majority of the remaining French ships had reached Brest on 11 January, including Constitution, Trajan, Pluton, Wattignies and Pégase, the latter towing the dismasted Résolue.

[33] By 13 January, all of the French fleet had been accounted for except the small brig Mutine, which was blown all the way to Santa Cruz and was captured there in July,[33] and the 74-gun Droits de l'Homme.

[39] As Droits de l'Homme steered southwest, the winds increased once more and the sea became choppy, preventing Lacrosse from opening the gunports on his lower deck without severe risk of flooding and snapping his topmasts, which reduced his ship's stability.

[46] The French Navy, although criticised for failing to land the expeditionary force, was also praised for successfully reaching Ireland and returning without encountering the main body of the British fleet.

[29] At sea, Colpoys was replaced in command of the blockade of Brest by Rear-Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, and extensive deployments to the Bay of Biscay were made in February and March to prevent any further French operations.

[50] In Ireland, the failure of the French expeditionary force was the source of great frustration: Wolfe Tone, who was aboard Indomptable throughout the voyage, reported that he felt that he could have touched either side of the bay with both hands.

[51] Postponing the uprising, Tone continued to rally support in Europe, raising a fleet in the Netherlands for an attempted invasion that ended in destruction at the Battle of Camperdown.