er Admiral Montagu, with orders that after Montagu had convoyed the
merchantmen a certain distance, he was to cruise about with six ships of
the line and look out for the provision ships. Their safe arrival was
vital to France, and Rear-admiral Villaret-Joyeuse sailed with the Brest
fleet to bring them in. As soon as Howe found that the French fleet had
sailed, he determined to strike at the main force of the enemy. He
sighted the French to windward on the 28th, about 400 miles west of
Ushant. Their fleet consisted of twenty-six ships of the line, the same
number as his own. He at once sent four of his fastest ships to get to
windward of them, and attack their rear. A partial action took place in
which the _Revolutionnaire_ (110) was utterly disabled, and her last
assailant, the _Audacious_ (74), was so crippled that she went home. On
the 29th Howe planned to obtain the weather-gage and to deliver a
concentrated attack on the rear of the enemy. He took his flagship, the
_Queen Charlotte_ (100), through the French line, and was followed by
two others. Villaret manoeuvred skilfully, but three of his ships were
badly damaged. The result of Howe's admirable tactics during these two
days was that four French ships were forced to leave the fleet, and
another had to be towed by a consort, and that he won the windward
position and so was enabled to force an action. On the 30th there was a
thick fog, and during the day the French received a reinforcement of
four ships, giving them the advantage of one over the British. The fog
cleared at noon on the 31st; the British fleet came up with the enemy,
then to leeward, and "near sunset" formed the line of battle.

On Sunday morning, June 1, a fresh breeze blowing south by west, the two
fleets lay in parallel lines, the leading British ship being opposite to
the seventh of the French fleet. The British having formed on the
larboard line of bearing, Howe brought them down slantwise on the enemy,
apparently intending that each ship should pass across the stern of her
opponent, rake her, and engage to leeward. Unlike Rodney in the battle
of the Saints, he deliberately adopted the manoeuvre of breaking the
line, and planned that his ships should fight to leeward instead of to
windward, and so bar the crippled ships of the enemy from getting away.
As the _Queen Charlotte_ bore down, he bade the master, Bowen, lay her
as close as he could to Villaret's flagship, the _Montagne_ (120). Bowen
br