It is my hope that Napoleon magazine will begin publishing naval-related historical articles. Most people seem to study the land battles of the Napoleonic Wars; their related maneuvers and outcomes. The vital naval aspect is largely overlooked. Events that happened at sea directly or indirectly affected events on land.

For example, a small frigate action that took place in the Adriatic on 28 November, 1811 saw three British frigates intercept and engage three French frigates bound for Trieste. After a fierce fight, the British managed to capture two of the three French frigates. The third French frigate was able to escape.

This may not seem like much, but what makes this little naval action important is that the two captured French frigates were carrying two hundred cannon with carriages and all the necessary stores. These guns were to be a part of a military build up in Illyria to be used against Constantinople. Considering that Napoleon deployed about 250 artillery pieces at Waterloo, the loss of these 200 cannon was considerable. Had those French ships made it to their destination, history might have been different. Perhaps the 1812 Russian campaign might have been postponed or canceled in favor of a campaign against the Ottoman Empire.

Even the coastal signal stations the French had constructed to monitor the movements of British ships make for some interesting reading. Napoleon constructed a series of coastal signal stations that were all within line of sight of one another for easy communications using signal flags. These signal stations observed blockading British ship movements and passed the information swiftly up and down the coast. This knowledge about British ship dispositions saved many French merchant ships that might have otherwise been captured. They simply remained in a fortified anchorage until the coast was clear (no pun intended).

These signal posts were sometimes large structures with barracks, signal masts, and other buildings guarded by between forty and one hundred militia. Late in April, 1806, the remarkable Captain Lord Cochrane, commander of the 38-gun frigate HMS Pallas, decided to break the French line of communications. Cochrane did this by razing half a dozen neighboring signal stations, using landing parties from HMS Pallas which chased away the militia garrisons and then set fire to the signal masts and buildings.

The first five stations put up little resistance and proved easy victories. The sixth station, however, required a more careful approach because it was guarded to seaward by a battery of three 32-pound cannon and a garrison of about fifty regulars. Cochrane personally led a night attack and successfully stormed the battery. The cannon were spiked, ammunition thrown into the sea, and the gun-carriages and adjacent buildings burned. The signal station was then razed like the others.

[Editor's Note: As a matter of fact, we have several naval articles in the works, as well as a survey of books covering this important aspect of Napoleonic history.]

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