 To conduct the British operation , Admiral Albemarle Bertie at the Cape of Good Hope organised a squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley to blockade the islands , capture any French shipping that presented itself and begin preparations for the invasions . Rowley was equipped with the antiquated ship of the line HMS Raisonnable and a small squadron of frigates and smaller ships , later reinforced with a force of soldiers from Madras in British India , with which he seized the nearby island of Rodriguez to use as a raiding base . 
