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L'Hermite's expedition
L'Hermite's expedition was a French naval operation launched in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars. The operation was intended as both a commerce raiding operation against the British trading posts of West Africa and as a diversion to the Trafalgar campaign. Sailing from Lorient in October 1805 with one ship of the line, two frigates and a corvette, Commodore Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermite was under orders to intercept and destroy British traders and slave ships off the West African coast and await reinforcements under Jérôme Bonaparte which were to be used in the invasion and capture of one of the British trading forts for use as a permanent French naval base from which further raiding operations could be conducted. It was also hoped by the French naval command that L'Hermite might draw some of the large British fleet maintained off Cadiz away from the blockade to allow the French and Spanish allied fleet trapped in the harbour to escape.
Although L'Hermite achieved minor successes against individual British shipping, his force was too small to have a serious impact on British trade in the region and the promised reinforcements failed to materialise in the aftermath of the destruction of the Cadiz fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, ten days before L'Hermite sailed although before news of the battle had reached Lorient. In early January 1806, L'Hermite managed to capture a small British naval brig but was still unable to make any significant impact on British trade operations. In the spring of 1806 L'Hermite withdrew across the Atlantic, taking on supplies and effecting repairs in neutral Brazil. During the return journey to France in August 1806, the squadron was caught in a major hurricane and one frigate was severely damaged, limping to a port in the United States for repairs. The rest of the squadron continued on to France, L'Hermite reaching Brest in his flagship ''Régulus''. The other frigate was intercepted by a British blockade squadron on 27 September 1806 and captured in the Bay of Biscay.
==Background==
By the summer of 1806, the Napoleonic Wars were two years old and the first major campaign at sea, the Trafalgar campaign, was nearing its climax. A French fleet had departed Toulon in March 1805 under Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, gathered Spanish ships from the Spanish Mediterranean ports and then crossed the Atlantic, under orders to disrupt British trade in the region and seize British colonies. Closely pursuing the Allied fleet was an equivalent British Royal Navy force under Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson, which reached the Caribbean on 11 June and found that Villeneuve had already begun the return journey to Europe.〔''The Campaign of Trafalgar'', Gardiner, p. 130〕 On 22 July 1805 the Allied fleet had fought the Battle of Cape Finisterre against a British force under Sir Robert Calder and been forced to divert south, seeking shelter in the Spanish fleet anchorage of Cadiz. Appearing off Cadiz a few days after Villeneuve's arrival, Nelson began a blockade of the Allied fleet, awaiting their emergence and preparing for battle.〔''The Campaign of Trafalgar'', Gardiner, p. 137〕
Although the French Atlantic Fleet, principally based at the major seaport of Brest, had played no significant part in the campaign, it was decided that in order to relieve some of the pressure on the fleet in Cadiz, minor squadrons would be sent to prey on British trade in the Atlantic, hopefully drawing off some of Nelson's ships in pursuit.〔 One such squadron was a force under Contre-Admiral Zacharie Allemand, consisting of five ships of the line, two frigates and two corvettes, which sailed from Brest for operations in the North Atlantic on 12 July.〔James, p. 148〕 A second squadron was placed under Commodore Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermite, with the ship of the line ''Régulus'', frigates ''Président'' and ''Cybèle'' and corvette ''Surveillant''.〔 L'Hermite was ordered to sail to West Africa, raiding merchant vessels and slave ships that operated among the numerous British trading posts along the coastline. At an undetermined point in the cruise, L'Hermite would be joined by a larger squadron under Captain Jérôme Bonaparte, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's brother.〔James, p. 264〕 The reinforced squadron would include over 1,000 French soldiers who would be used in an attack on one of the British West African trading posts. If the post could be successfully captured, it could be turned into a naval base for use by French commerce raiders and would force the British to deploy a full squadron from the Channel Fleet in response, at a time when every ship of the line was needed for the Trafalgar campaign.〔''The Victory of Seapower'', Gardiner, p. 17〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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