Editing Glorious First of June (section)

==French recovery==
[[File:La Marine-Pacini-50.png|thumb|Villaret's ''Montagne'' breaking loose to reform the French forces. Drawing by [[Antoine Morel-Fatio]].]]

Villaret in ''Montagne'', having successfully broken contact with the British flagship and slipped away to the north, managed to gather 11&nbsp;ships of the line around him and formed them up in a reconstituted battle squadron.{{sfn|Tracy |1998|p=99}} At 11:30, with the main action drawing to a close, he began a recovery manoeuvre intended to lessen the tactical defeat his fleet had suffered. Aiming his new squadron at the battered ''Queen'', Villaret's attack created consternation in the British fleet, which was unprepared for a second engagement.{{sfn|Padfield |2000|p=38}} However, discerning Villaret's intention, Howe also pulled his ships together to create a new force. His reformed squadron consisted of ''Queen Charlotte'', ''Royal Sovereign'', ''Valiant'', ''Leviathan'', ''Barfleur'', and ''Thunderer''.{{sfn|James |2002|p=151}} Howe deployed this squadron in defence of ''Queen'', and the two short lines engaged one another at a distance before Villaret abandoned his manoeuvre and hauled off to collect several of his own dismasted ships that were endeavouring to escape British pursuit.{{sfn|Gardiner|2001a|p=38}} Villaret was subsequently joined by the battered ''Terrible'', which sailed straight through the dispersed British fleet to reach the French lines, and he also recovered the dismasted ''Scipion'', ''Mucius'', ''Jemmappes'', and ''Républicain''—all of which lay within reach of the unengaged British ships—before turning eastwards towards France.{{sfn|James |2002|p=169}}{{efn|Several of these ships had already signified surrender by lowering their flags, only to re-hoist them once out of danger. This was a severe breach of the customs of naval warfare at the time and provoked outrage in the British naval establishment. (Woodman, p. 36)}} At this stage of the battle, Howe retired below and the British consolidation was left to his [[Captain of the Fleet]], [[Roger Curtis|Sir Roger Curtis]]. Curtis was subsequently blamed by some in the Navy for not capturing more of the dismasted French ships, and was also accused of dissuading Howe from attempting further pursuit.{{sfn|Jane |1997|p=96}}

[[Image:Vengeur du Peuple-Prairial.png|thumb|The sinking of the [[French ship Vengeur du Peuple|''Vengeur du Peuple'']], engraving by P. Ozanne.{{efn|This depiction is somewhat fantastical, as the [[French ensigns|French ensign]] flown by ''Vengeur'' was in all likelihood the white flag with a canton of three equal columns of red, white, and blue, and not the tricolour which, even though it had been officially introduced, was flown only by the flagship ''Montagne'' due to a lack of appropriate fabric in Brest. Furthermore, ''Vengeur'' is seen listing on the wrong side.}}]]
[[File:Bataille du 13 prairial an II.jpg|thumb|The sinking of the ''Vengeur du Peuple'', haut relief by [[Léopold Morice]], Monument to the Republic, Paris, 1883.]]

In fact, the British fleet was unable to pursue Villaret, having only 11&nbsp;ships still capable of battle to the French 12, and having numerous dismasted ships and prizes to protect. Retiring and regrouping, the British crews set about making hasty repairs and securing their prizes; seven in total, including the badly damaged ''Vengeur du Peuple''. ''Vengeur'' had been holed by cannon firing from ''Brunswick'' directly through the ship's bottom, and after her surrender no British ship had managed to get men aboard. This left ''Vengeur'''s few remaining unwounded crew to attempt to salvage what they could—a task made harder when some of her sailors broke into the spirit room and became drunk.{{sfn|James |2002|p=164}} Ultimately the ship's pumps became unmanageable, and ''Vengeur'' began to sink. Only the timely arrival of boats from the undamaged ''Alfred'' and [[HMS Culloden (1783)|HMS ''Culloden'']], as well as the services of the cutter HMS ''Rattler'', saved any of the ''Vengeur's'' crew from drowning, these ships taking off nearly 500 sailors between them.{{sfn|Gardiner|2001a|p=33}} Lieutenant John Winne of ''Rattler'' was especially commended for this hazardous work.{{sfn|James |2002|p=164}} By 18:15, ''Vengeur'' was clearly beyond salvage and only the very worst of the wounded, the dead, and the drunk remained aboard. Several sailors are said to have waved [[Flag of France|the tricolor]] from the bow of the ship and cried "Vive la Nation, vive la République!"{{efn|The arguments about the final minutes of ''Vengeur du Peuple'' have been extensive and bitter. French accounts report a great patriotic gesture,{{sfn|Williams|1907|p=381}} mainly due to the report of the action made to the French National Convention in a celebrated speech by [[Bertrand Barère]]<ref name="Bryan1906">{{cite book|editor-last=Bryan|editor-first=William Jennings|editor-link=William Jennings Bryan|title=The world's famous orations|location=New York|publisher=Funk & Wagnalls|year=1906|orig-year=1794|chapter-url=http://www.bartleby.com/268/7/28.html|volume=7|page=1906|last=Barère|first=Bertrand|author-link=Bertrand Barère|chapter=On the Heroism of ''Vengeur''{{'}}s Sailors}}</ref>
Lord Howe however debunks that report entirely, claiming that it never occurred,{{sfn|Tracy|1998|p=95}} a position followed by many British sources.{{sfn|Jane|1997|p=95}} Some interesting light is thrown on this story by [[Thomas Carlyle]], who originally included the legend in his history of the French Revolution. When Admiral John Griffiths—who, as a lieutenant on HMS ''Culloden'' at the time, had been an eyewitness to the sinking—publicly challenged Carlyle's tale, dismissing both Barère's version of the tale and Carlyle's own poetic license, Carlyle set out to get to the bottom of the story, eventually unearthing the official report of ''Vengeur'' by [[Jean François Renaudin|Captain Renaudin]]. Carlyle concluded that Barère had concocted a "cunningly devised fable", and changed his account of the sinking of ''Vengeur'' in subsequent editions.<ref name="Carlyle_to_Mary Rich">{{cite web|title=TC to Mary Rich|work=The Carlyle Letters Online|volume=10|page=236|date=10 December 1838|url=http://carlyleletters.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/full/10/1/lt-18381210-TC-MRI-01|access-date=29 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713022350/http://carlyleletters.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/full/10/1/lt-18381210-TC-MRI-01|archive-date=13 July 2010}}</ref> [[William James (naval historian)|William James]] provides an alternative theory when he suggests that any person who behaved in such a manner on the stricken ship was acting under the influence of alcohol.{{sfn|James|2002|p=164}} In his ''Histoire de la Marine Française'', [[Claude Farrère]] attributes the sinking to failure of the crew to close damaged lower gunports, claims that a good part of the crew evacuated the ship, and describes the patriotic cries as those of wounded men trapped on the sinking ship with no hope of rescue.{{sfn|Farrère|1956|p=271}}}}

Having escaped to the east, Villaret made what sail his battered fleet could muster to return to France, and dispatched his frigates in search of the convoy. Villaret was also hoping for reinforcements; eight ships of the line, commanded by Admiral [[Pierre-François Cornic Dumoulin]], were patrolling near the [[Ushant]] headland. Behind him to the west, the British took the whole night to secure their ships and prizes, not setting out to return to Britain until 05:00 on 2 June.{{sfn|James |2002|p=169}}

Casualties in the battle are notoriously hard to calculate exactly.{{efn|name=casualties|French losses have been estimated by various commentators and historians with some variation: N. A. M. Rodger gives {{nowrap|4,200 casualties}} and {{nowrap|3,300 captured}};{{sfn|Rodger|2004|p=430}}
Digby Smith gives {{nowrap|4,270 casualties}} and {{nowrap|3,254 captured;}}{{sfn|Smith|1998|p=83}} Padfield lists {{nowrap|3,500 casualties;}}{{sfn|Padfield|2000|p=39}} Gardiner {{nowrap|3,500 casualties}} and the same number captured.{{sfn|Gardiner|2001b|p=38}} Saint-André gave {{nowrap|3,000 killed}} and wounded in his official dispatch and James assesses total French killed, wounded, and captured as no fewer than 7,000.{{sfn|James|2002|p=153}} British casualty returns are easier to establish due to surviving records although there are discrepancies here too. The official total was {{nowrap|287 killed}} and {{nowrap|811 wounded}} during the campaign, while the individual ship totals listed in James do not add up to his eventual total of 1,148, coming in slightly under this figure.{{sfn|James|2002|p=152}} Most sources agree however that the total casualty figure is approximately 1,200.}} With only one exception (''Scipion''), records made by the French captains of their losses at the time are incomplete. The only immediately available casualty counts are the sketchy reports of Saint-André and the records made by British officers aboard the captured ships, neither of which can be treated as completely reliable.{{sfn|James |2002|p=153}} Most sources accept that French casualties in the campaign numbered approximately 7,000, including around 3,000&nbsp;captured, but these figures are vague and frequently do not agree with each other on details.{{efn|As an example of this, the losses sustained aboard the sinking ''Vengeur'' have been variously reported as "very low besides the badly wounded", (James, p. 164) 150 survivors, (Gardiner, p. 33) and "over 600&nbsp;drowned". (Tracy, p. 106)}} British casualties are easier to confirm but here, too, there are some discrepancies; overall British casualties are generally given as around 1,200.{{efn|name=casualties}}