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Allemand's expedition of 1805
Allemand's expedition of 1805, often referred to as the ''Escadre invisible'' (invisible squadron) in French sources, was an important French naval expedition during the Napoleonic Wars, which formed a major diversion to the ongoing Trafalgar Campaign in the Atlantic Ocean. With the French Mediterranean Fleet at sea, Emperor Napoleon I hoped to unite it with the French Atlantic Fleet and together form a force powerful enough to temporarily displace the British Royal Navy Channel Fleet for long enough to allow an invasion force to cross the English Channel and land in Britain. In support of this plan, the French squadron based at Rochefort put to sea in July 1805, initially with the intention that they would join the Atlantic Fleet from Brest. When this fleet failed to put to sea, the Rochefort squadron, under Contre-Admiral Zacharie Allemand, went on an extended raiding cruise across the Atlantic, both to intercept British trade left lightly defended by the concentration of British forces in European waters and with the intention of eventually combining with the French Mediterranean Fleet then blockaded in Spanish harbours.
On 25 September, Allemand achieved a major success when his squadron, while waiting for a convoy from the Leeward Islands, encountered a seven ship convoy from the island of Saint Helena. The convoy's commander, Captain Daniel Woodriff in the fourth rate , sought to interpose his ship between the French squadron and his convoy and was captured after a fierce battle. All except one of convoy escaped, and by deliberately drawing the French away from his own convoy's direction, he had saved the Leewards Islands convoy from attack as well. After the battle, Allemand was forced to conduct repairs at Tenerife, sailing again on 17 October, four days before the French Mediterranean Fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar. With the planned invasion impossible, Allemand began commerce raiding in the Eastern Atlantic, capturing 43 merchant ships during his cruise and successfully disrupting the British blockade of Cadiz. This had an unintended but significant effect on the Atlantic campaign of 1806, resulting eventually in the Battle of San Domingo in February 1806. Allemand returned to Rochefort on 23 December, having not lost a single ship during the expedition.
==Trafalgar campaign==
In March 1805, the French Mediterranean Fleet sailed from Toulon under Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve for an extended cruise to the West Indies, ultimately under orders to link with the French Atlantic Fleet based at Brest. Together these fleets would stage a major operation in the English Channel, driving off the Royal Navy Channel Fleet and allowing a fleet of landing barges to land on the southern coast of England as the first move in an invasion of Britain.〔Mostert, p. 439〕 Arriving at Martinique on 14 May, Villeneuve waited for reinforcements from the Atlantic fleet, only to be informed on 2 June that they had failed to leave port. Despite repeated orders issued to the Atlantic fleet instructing them to sail to Martinique, Vice-Admiral Honoré Ganteaume had failed in his one effort to break out of Brest during March and then given up. His entire fleet ultimately remained in port throughout the campaign.〔''The Campaign of Trafalgar'', Gardiner, p. 99〕 On 7 June Villeneuve learned of the arrival in the Caribbean of the British Mediterranean Fleet under Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson and hastily sailed back to Europe, eventually sheltering in the Spanish harbour of Vigo after an encounter on 22 July with a British fleet under Sir Robert Calder at the Battle of Cape Finisterre, in which two of his ships were captured. In the aftermath of the spring campaign, both Nelson and Calder returned to Britain, leaving only relatively small squadrons off the French and Spanish coasts.〔''The Campaign of Trafalgar'', Gardiner, p. 130〕
Despite delays to his plan, Napoleon had pressed ahead with preparations for the Channel campaign: an army of 200,000 men was assembling at Boulogne for the invasion, and orders continued to insist that the fleets under Villeneuve and Ganteaume put to sea.〔Mostert, p. 469〕 Also ordered to sail was the squadron based at the Atlantic port of Rochefort, led by Contre-Admiral Zacharie Allemand. Allemand's squadron consisted of the powerful 120-gun ship ''Majestueux'', three other ships of the line and several frigates and brigs, forming a significant force in its own right and a valuable addition to any battle fleet. Allemand was ordered to cruise off the southern coast of Cornwall, awaiting the combined fleets of Villeneuve and Ganteaume and their descent into the Channel. If this force did not materialise, Allemand was subsequently ordered to the Bay of Biscay to join up with Villeneuve on his route northwards and should this too fail then he was to conduct an extended commerce raiding operation in the Atlantic to take advantage of the concentration of British forces off Europe and the consequent exposure of British trade.〔James, Vol. 4, p. 148〕
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