based on keeping a firm hold on the transports
in the Morbihan, and when he sought to extend his operations against the
Rochefort squadron, he was sharply reminded by Anson that "the principal
object of attention at this time" was, firstly, "the interception of the
embarkations of the enemy at Morbihan," and secondly, "the keeping of the
ships of war from coming out of Brest." Similarly Commodore Warren in 1796,
when he had the permanent frigate guard before Brest, issued orders to his
captains that in case of encountering enemy's transports under escort they
were "to run them down or destroy them in the most expeditious manner
possible previous to attacking the ships of war, but to preserve such a
situation as to effect that purpose when directed by signal." Lord Keith's
orders when watching Napoleon's flotilla were to the same effect.
"Directing your chief attention," they run, "to the destruction of the
ships, vessels, or boats having men, horses, or artillery on board (in
preference to that of the vessels by which they are protected), and in the
strict execution of this important duty losing sight entirely of the
possibility of idle censure for avoiding contact with an armed force,
because the prevention of debarkation is the object of primary importance
to which every other consideration must give way."[22]

[22] _Admiralty Secretary's In-Letters_, 537, 8 August 1803.

In tactics, then, the idea was the same as in strategy. The army was the
primary objective round which all dispositions turned. In the French
service the strength and soundness of the British practice was understood
at least by the best men. When in 1805 Napoleon consulted Ganteaume as to
the possibility of the flotilla of transports effecting its passage by
evasion, the admiral told him it was impossible, since no weather could
avail to relax the British hold sufficiently. "In former wars," he said,
"the English vigilance was miraculous."

To this rule there was no exception, not even when circumstances rendered
it difficult to distinguish between the enemy's fleet and army as
objectives. This situation could occur in two ways. Firstly, when the
invading army was designed to sail with the battle-fleet, as in the case of
Napoleon's invasion of Egypt; and secondly, when, although the design was
that the two should operate on separate lines, our system of defence forced
the fleet to come up to the army's line of passage in order to clear it, as
hap