31. Controlling the English Channel
Across the narrow waters separating it from its target, Napoleon drilled, trained, and the Army of England to a fine edge. In the meantime, his admirals tried to figure out how to seize temporary control over the English Channel to secure a safe crossing. The Franco-Spanish navy was divided into two main contingents, penned in and blockaded by two powerful Royal Navy fleets in Toulon and Brest. A third British fleet guarded the English Channel.
The Royal Navy’s confidence was such that the First Lord of the Admiralty commented in response to invasion fears that: “I do not say they cannot come – I say they cannot come by sea“. Napoleon’s admirals had to break out of their blockade in Toulon and Brest, and combine the newly freed fleets. Then they had to defeat the British Channel fleet, or at least keep it away from a stretch of the English Channel long enough for the invasion force to cross the waters to England.