Glorious First of June, 1794. An Anglo-French naval battle fought some 400 miles out in the Atlantic from the Breton peninsula, which shelters the French naval base of Brest. Lord Howe's strategy was to watch Brest from Torbay. The battle's immediate cause was Villaret de Joyeuse's evasion of Howe in order to cover a 117-strong convoy bound for Brest from America with 67, 000 barrels of wheat flour for the critically under-provided French capital. By a brilliant chase in foggy conditions, Howe intercepted the French, taking six ships prize and sinking another. But the convoy from America reached Brest unscathed on 15 June.
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