 Maitland and the "Boadicea" spent 1804 enforcing the blockade of Rochefort, followed by a period in the North Sea and off the Irish coast.On 2 November he came across a squadron of four French ships of the line under Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley, that had escaped from the Battle of Trafalgar two weeks previously.Maitland fired rockets to attract a nearby British squadron under Captain Sir Richard Strachan, but subsequently lost the French in fog.