Lamellerie's expedition

Although the squadron was intercepted by elements of the British blockade force, Captain Louis-Charles-Auguste Delamarre de Lamellerie escaped with the four frigates by abandoning the slower brig, which was captured.

During the next six months, Lamellerie's squadron cruised the Atlantic, visiting Senegal, Cayenne and the West Indies but failing to cause any significant disruption to British trade.

[1] In December 1805 however, Duckworth abandoned the station in search of a French squadron under Vice-Admiral Zacharie Allemand that was raiding British convoys off the Savage Islands.

Although Allemand escaped Duckworth, the British admiral became embroiled in the Atlantic campaign of 1806 and did not return to Cadiz, eventually sailing to the Caribbean where he won the Battle of San Domingo on 6 February 1806.

[9] Taking on fresh supplies, the squadron sailed from Cayenne on 7 April and operated with limited success against British merchant shipping in the Caribbean Sea, including 15 days cruising off Barbados.

[4] Mars was a large and powerful ship, a veteran of Trafalgar that was operating as a scout for the squadron under Commodore Richard Goodwin Keats, detailed to blockade the French Atlantic port of Rochefort.

Immediately giving chase, Captain Robert Dudley Oliver signaled from Mars to the nearest British ship HMS Africa, warning of the position and direction of the French.

When dawn rose on 28 July, it was clear that Hortense and the other leading vessels were stretching the distance between themselves and Mars but that the rearmost French ship, the frigate Rhin was struggling to keep up.

A fierce rain squall caused the frigate to roll and Oliver maintained the pursuit so that at 18:00 he was close enough to fire a single shot at Rhin, a warning of that a full broadside was to follow.

[13] Although the rest of Lamellerie's ships were still within sight, the approaching night, increasingly stormy weather and the large number of prisoners of war to be transferred from the prize persuaded Oliver to give up any further pursuit.

[15] In British histories his actions have been roundly condemned – William James accuses him of lying in his official despatches and wrote in 1827: "What, then, but a misrepresentation of the facts could have saved this French commodore from being cashiered?