guard against privateers operating out of Spanish-controlled Dunkirk and other ships were armed in preparation for potential action. The acting High Admiral John Gordon of Lochinvar organised as many as three marque fleets of privateers. It was probably one of Lochinvar's marque fleets that was sent to support the English Royal Navy in defending Irish waters in 1626. In 1627, the Royal Scots Navy and accompanying contingents of burgh privateers participated in the major expedition to Biscay. The Scots also returned to the West Indies, with Lochinvar taking French prizes and establishing the Scottish colony of Charles Island. In 1629 two squadrons of privateers led by Lochinvar and William Lord Alexander, sailed for Canada, taking part in the campaign that resulted in the capture of Quebec from the French, which was handed back after the subsequent peace. Covenanter navies During the Bishops' Wars (1639–40) the king attempted to blockade Scotland and disrupt trade and the transport of returning troops from the continent. The king planned amphibious assaults from England on the East coast and from Ireland to the West, but they failed to materialise. Scottish privateers took a number of English prizes and the Covenanters planned to fit out Dutch ships with Scottish and Dutch crews to join the naval war effort. After the Covenanters allied with the English Parliament they established two patrol squadrons for the Atlantic and North Sea coasts, known collectively as the "Scotch Guard". These patrols guarded against Royalist attempts to move men, money and munitions and raids on Scottish shipping, particularly from the Irish Confederate fleet at Wexford and royalist forces at Dunkirk. They consisted mainly of small English warships, controlled by the Commissioners of the Navy based in London, but it always relied heavily on Scottish officers and revenues, and after 1646 the West Coast squadron became much more a Scottish force. The Scottish navy was easily overcome by the English fleet that accompanied the army led by Oliver Cromwell that conquered Scotland in 1649–51 and after his victory the Scottish ships and crews were divided among the Commonwealth fleet. Restoration navy Although Scottish seamen received protection against arbitrary impressment thanks to Charles II, a fixed quota of conscripts for the Royal Navy was levied from the sea-coast burghs during the second half of the seventeenth century. Royal Navy patrols were now found in Scottish waters even in peacetime, such as the small ship-of-the-line