Biscay campaign of June 1795 order of battle

[1] On 8 June, Cornwallis discovered a convoy of merchant vessels travelling from Bordeaux to Brest under the protection of a small squadron under Contre-amiral Jean Gaspard Vence.

As Cornwallis sent his prizes back to Britain the main French fleet at Brest under Vice-amiral Villaret de Joyeuse put to sea to protect Vence's remaining ships.

Cornwallis had misunderstood the signals from Captain Robert Stopford on the scouting frigate HMS Phaeton and had sailed much too close to the larger French fleet.

[5] The heavy broadsides of the flagship drove back the French and soon afterwards Villaret recalled his ships, concerned by sails on the horizon which he may have believed to be the rest of the Channel Fleet, although in reality they were a British merchant convoy.

Unbeknownst to either Cornwallis or Villaret, the main Channel Fleet was already at sea, protecting an expeditionary force carrying a French Royalist army intended to invade Quiberon, the convoy under the command of Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren.

[8] The British admiral placed his fleet between the French and the expeditionary force, Villaret falling back towards the sheltered anchorage between Groix and the port of Lorient.