Harley decided to mount the expedition as part of a major shift in British military policy, emphasizing strength at sea.

The expedition's leaders, Admiral Hovenden Walker and Brigadier-General John Hill, were chosen for their politics and connections to the crown, and its plans were kept secret even from the Admiralty.

Admiral Walker also had difficulty acquiring experienced pilots and accurate charts for navigating the waters of the lower Saint Lawrence River.

The expedition reached the Gulf of Saint Lawrence without incident, but foggy conditions, tricky currents, and strong winds combined to drive the fleet toward the north shore of the river near a place now called Pointe-aux-Anglais, where the ships were wrecked.

[3] Harley wanted to change Britain's military strategy, implementing a "blue water" policy that emphasized strength at sea, at the cost of a reduced army.

Harley therefore authorised expeditions by land and sea to capture Quebec,[5] but fell ill, so most of the work of organisation was done by his Secretary of State, Henry St. John (the future Lord Bolingbroke).

[7] Walker, who was promoted to admiral in March, had led a squadron on an expedition to the West Indies earlier in the war that had failed to produce significant results, and may have been chosen due to his friendship with St. John and his Tory sympathies.

[6] St. John probably chose Hill to curry favour at court:[8] he was the brother of Queen Anne's confidante Abigail Masham.

[6] Francis Nicholson arrived in Boston in early June 1711 with news and details of the expedition plans, and a meeting of provincial governors was quickly arranged in New London, Connecticut.

[13] The fleet arrived in Boston on 24 June, and the troops were disembarked onto Noddle's Island (the present-day location of Logan International Airport).

[16][17] Additional laws were passed penalizing residents found harbouring deserters from the fleet; apparently the attraction of colonial life was sufficient that this was a significant problem during the five weeks the expedition was in Boston.

Samuel Vetch, however, deeply distrusted the Frenchman, writing that he was "not only an ignorant, pretending, idle, drunken Fellow", but that he "is come upon no good Design".

[22] On the morning of 18 August, just as the expedition was about to enter the Saint Lawrence River, the wind began to blow hard from the northwest, and Walker was forced to seek shelter in Gaspé Bay.

On the morning of the 20th, the wind veered to the southeast, and he was able to advance slowly past the western extremity of Anticosti Island before it died down and thick fog blanketed both shore and fleet.

"[32] The fleet sailed down the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and came to anchor at Spanish River (now the harbour of Sydney, Nova Scotia) on 4 September, where a council was held to discuss whether or not to attack the French at Plaisance.

Given the lateness of the season, insufficient supplies to overwinter in the area, and rumours of strong defences at Plaisance, the council decided against making the attack, and sailed for England.

[36] The fleet returned to Portsmouth on 10 October; Walker's flagship, the Edgar, blew up several days later, possibly due to improper handling of gunpowder.

The failure was an early setback in Robert Harley's "blue water" policy, which called for the aggressive use of the navy to keep England's enemies at bay.

[39] Walker eventually wrote a detailed and frank account of the expedition, based on his memory as well as surviving journals and papers; it is reprinted in Graham.

[40] Popular sentiment in England tended to fault the colonies for failing to properly support the expedition, citing parsimony and stubbornness as reasons.

One of Hill's officers wrote of the "ill Nature and Sowerness of these People, whose Government, Doctrine, and Manners, whose Hypocracy and canting, are unsupportable", and further commented that unless they were brought under firmer control, the colonists would "grow more stiff and disobedient every Day.

La Ronde, who coincidentally arrived in Boston on 8 June, the same day as Nicholson, was apparently unsuccessful in his attempts to influence colonial opinion.