Editing Glorious First of June (section)

==Fleets==
{{further|Glorious First of June order of battle}}

The navies of Britain and France in 1794 were at very different stages of development. Although the British fleet was numerically superior, the French ships were larger (even if more lightly built), and carried a heavier weight of shot.{{sfn|Jane |1997|p=96}} The largest French ships were three-decker [[first rates]], carrying 110 or 120 guns, against 100 guns on the largest British vessels.{{sfn|James |2002|p=127}}

===Royal Navy===
[[File:Admiral Richard Howe, 1726-99, 1st Earl Howe RMG BHC2790.tiff|thumb|Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe; 1794 painting by [[John Singleton Copley]]]]

Since the [[Nootka Crisis]] of 1790, the Royal Navy had been at sea in a state of readiness for over three years.{{sfn|James |2002|p=48}} The Navy's dockyards under [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] [[Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham|Charles Middleton]] were all fully fitted and prepared for conflict. This was quite unlike the disasters of the [[American Revolutionary War]] ten years earlier, when an ill-prepared Royal Navy had taken too long to reach full effectiveness and was consequently unable to support the North American campaign, which ended in defeat at the [[Siege of Yorktown]] due to lack of supplies.{{sfn|Rodger |2004|p=429}} With British dockyards now readily turning out cannon, shot, sails, provisions and other essential equipment, the only remaining problem was that of manning the several hundred ships on the Navy list.{{sfn|Jane |1997|p=94}}

Unfortunately for the British, gathering sufficient manpower was difficult and never satisfactorily accomplished throughout the entire war. The shortage of seamen was such that [[press gangs]] were forced to take thousands of men with no experience on the sea, meaning that training and preparing them for naval life would take quite some time.{{sfn|Jane |1997|p=94}} The lack of [[Royal Marines]] was even more urgent, and soldiers from the [[British Army]] were drafted into the fleet for service at sea. Men of the [[Queen's Royal Regiment|2nd. Regiment of Foot – The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)]] and the [[29th Regiment of Foot]] served aboard Royal Navy ships during the campaign; their descendant regiments still maintain the [[battle honour]] "1 June 1794".<ref name="Worcs">[http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/wr.php?main=inc/h_glorious_first The Glorious First of June 1794], ''[[Worcestershire Regiment]]'', retrieved 23 December 2007</ref><ref name="QRSR">[http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/1661to1966/gloriousfirst/gloriousfirst.html The Glorious First of June 1794] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305005820/http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/1661to1966/gloriousfirst/gloriousfirst.html |date=5 March 2016 }}, ''Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment'', retrieved 1 January 2008</ref>

Despite these difficulties, the Channel Squadron was possessed of one of the best naval commanders of the age; its commander-in-chief, [[Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe]], had learned his trade under [[Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke]] and fought at the [[Battle of Quiberon Bay]] in 1759.<ref name="ODNBHowe">[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13963?docPos=2 Howe, Richard], ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Roger Knight, retrieved 23 December 2007</ref> In the spring of 1794, with the French convoy's arrival in European waters imminent, Howe had dispersed his fleet in three groups. [[George Montagu (Royal Navy officer)|George Montagu]], in [[HMS Hector (1774)|HMS ''Hector'']], was sent with six ships of the line and two [[frigate]]s to guard British convoys to the East Indies, West Indies and [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] as far as [[Cape Finisterre]]. [[Peter Rainier (Royal Navy officer, born 1741)|Peter Rainier]], in [[HMS Suffolk (1765)|HMS ''Suffolk]] and commanding six other ships, was to escort the convoys for the rest of their passage. The third force consisted of 26 ships of the line, with several supporting vessels, under Howe's direct command. They were to patrol the Bay of Biscay for the arriving French.{{sfn|James |2002|p=125}}

===French Navy===
[[Image:Louis-Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse, vice-amiral (1750-1812).jpg|upright|thumb|1839 portrait of Villaret by [[Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin]]]]

In contrast to their British counterparts, the [[French Navy]] was in a state of confusion. Although the quality of the fleet's ships was high, the fleet hierarchy was riven by the same crises that had torn through France since the [[French Revolution|Revolution]] five years earlier.{{sfn|Jane |1997|p=94}} Consequently, the high standard of ships and ordnance was not matched by that of the available crews, which were largely untrained and inexperienced. With the Terror resulting in the death or dismissal of many senior French sailors and officers, political appointees and conscripts—many of whom had never been to sea at all, let alone in a fighting vessel—filled the Atlantic Squadron.{{sfn|Gardiner|2001a|p=16}}

The manpower problem was compounded by the supply crisis which was affecting the entire nation, with the fleet going unpaid and largely unfed for months at times.{{sfn|James |2002|p=58}} In August 1793, these problems came to a head in the [[Ponant Fleet|Brest Fleet]], when a lack of provisions resulted in a mutiny among the fleet's [[naval rating]]s. The crews overruled their officers and brought their ships into harbour in search of food, leaving the French coast undefended.{{sfn|James |2002|p=59}} The [[National Convention]] responded by instantly executing a swathe of the fleet's senior officers and non-commissioned officers. Hundreds more officers and sailors were imprisoned, banished or dismissed from the navy. The effect of this purge was devastating, seriously degrading the fighting ability of the fleet by removing at a stroke many of its most capable personnel.{{sfn|James |2002|p=22}} In their places were promoted junior officers, merchant captains and even civilians who expressed sufficient revolutionary zeal, although few of them knew how to fight or control a battle fleet at sea.{{sfn|James |2002|p=23}}{{sfn|Padfield |2000|p=13}}

The newly appointed commander of this troubled fleet was [[Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse]]; although formerly in a junior position, he was known to possess a high degree of tactical ability, and had served under Vice-Admiral [[Pierre André de Suffren]] in the Indian Ocean during the American War of Independence.{{sfn|Jane |1997|p=96}}{{sfn|Mostert|2007|p=133}} However, Villaret's attempts to mould his new officer corps into an effective fighting unit were hampered by another new appointee, a deputy of the National Convention named [[Jean-Bon Saint-André]]. Saint-André's job was to report directly to the National Convention on the revolutionary ardour of both the fleet and its admiral. He frequently intervened in strategic planning and tactical operations. Shortly after his arrival, Saint-André proposed issuing a decree ordering that any officer deemed to have shown insufficient zeal in defending his ship in action should be put to death on his return to France, although this highly controversial legislation does not appear to have ever been acted upon. Although his interference was a source of frustration for Villaret, Saint-André's dispatches to Paris were published regularly in ''[[Le Moniteur Universel]]'', and did much to popularise the Navy in France.{{sfn|James |2002|p=123–124}}

The Atlantic Squadron was even more dispersed than the British in the spring of 1794: Counter-Admiral [[Pierre Jean Van Stabel]] had been dispatched, with five ships including two of the line, to meet the much-needed French grain convoy off the American eastern seaboard. Counter-Admiral [[Joseph-Marie Nielly]] had sailed from [[Rochefort, Charente-Maritime|Rochefort]] with five ships of the line and assorted cruising warships to rendezvous with the convoy in the mid-Atlantic. This left Villaret with 25 ships of the line at Brest to meet the threat posed by the British fleet under Lord Howe.{{sfn|James |2002|p=127}}

===Convoy===
By early spring of 1794, the situation in France was dire. With famine looming after the failure of the harvest and the blockade of French ports and trade, the French government was forced to look overseas for sustenance.{{sfn|Rodger |2004|p=429}} Turning to [[French colonization of the Americas|France's colonies in the Americas]], and the agricultural bounty of the United States, the National Convention gave orders for the formation of a large convoy of sailing vessels to gather at [[Hampton Roads]] in the [[Chesapeake Bay]], where Admiral Vanstabel would wait for them. According to contemporary historian [[William James (naval historian)|William James]] this conglomeration of ships was said to be over 350 strong, although he disputes this figure, citing the number as 117 (in addition to the French warships).{{sfn|James |2002|p=127}}

The convoy had also been augmented by the United States government, in both cargo and shipping, as repayment for French financial, moral and military support during the [[American Revolution]]. In supporting the French Revolution in this way, the American government, urged especially by Ambassador [[Gouverneur Morris]], was fulfilling its ten-year-old debt to France.{{sfn|Williams |1907|p=381}} Friendly relations between the United States and France did not long survive the [[Jay Treaty]] which came into effect in 1796; by 1798 the two nations would be engaged in the [[Quasi War]].{{sfn|Gardiner|2001b|p=148}}