d the
Admiralty known that Villeneuve was at sea outside the Straits they
would not have allowed Craig to start. That Nelson was right in this
assumption is proved by the fact that acting on the inspiration of
Barham--perhaps the greatest strategist that ever presided at
Whitehall--the Admiralty, as soon as they had grasped the situation,
sent orders to Calder off Ferrol, that if he came in contact with the
expedition he was to send it back to Plymouth or Cork under cruiser
escort and retain the two ships of the line which had so far escorted it
under his own command. The fact was that if Craig's expedition once
passed Finisterre it would find itself totally without the naval
protection on which the Admiralty relied when it was dispatched.
Villeneuve was outside the Straits no one knew where, and had been
reinforced by the Spanish ships from Cadiz. Nelson, whose exact
whereabouts was equally unknown to the Admiralty, was detained in the
Mediterranean by baffling winds and also by the necessity of making
sure before quitting his station that Villeneuve had not gone to the
Levant. Orde, who had been blockading Cadiz with a weak squadron which
had to retire on Villeneuve's approach, had convinced himself, on
grounds not without cogency, that Villeneuve was making for the
northward, and had, quite correctly on this hypothesis, fallen back on
the fleet blockading Brest, being ignorant of the peril to which Craig
was exposed. Thus Craig's expedition seemed to be going straight to its
doom unless Calder could intercept it and give it orders to return.
However, Craig and Knight, whose flag flew in one of the ships of the
line escorting the expedition, passed Finisterre without communicating
with Calder, and having by this time got wind of their peril, they
hurried into Lisbon, there to await developments in comparative safety,
though their presence caused great embarrassment to the Portuguese
Government and raised a diplomatic storm. It was not until Craig and
Knight had ascertained that Villeneuve was out of the way and that
Nelson had passed the Straits that they put to sea again and met Nelson
off Cape St Vincent. Nelson had by this time satisfied himself, after an
exhaustive survey of the situation, that Villeneuve had gone to the West
Indies, and resolved to follow him there as soon as he had sped the
expedition on its appointed way. But so apprehensive was he of the
Spanish ships remaining at Carthagena, that, inferior to