 By 1810 the French Navy fleet based in the Atlantic ports had been prevented from launching any major operations for four years , penned into harbour by the British strategy of close blockade . A failed attempt by a French fleet to sail had been defeated at the Battle of Basque Roads in 1809 , and the main operations still carried out by the Navy were undertaken by privateers and frigate squadrons operating commerce raiders operating from smaller ports , such as those on the English Channel . In November 1810 squadrons were based at Cherbourg , with two ships of the line and the newly built frigate Iphigénie , and Le Havre , with the frigates Elisa and Amazone , commanded by Captains Louis @-@ Henri <unk> @-@ <unk> and Bernard @-@ Louis Rosseau respectively . To blockade these squadrons , the Royal Navy 's Channel Fleet had assigned the ships of the line HMS Donegal under Captain Pulteney Malcolm and HMS Revenge under Captain Charles Paget to patrol the entrance to Cherbourg , while frigates HMS Diana under Captain Charles Grant and HMS Niobe under Captain John Wentworth Loring kept watch on Le Havre . The blockade had achieved some minor successes ; in October 1810 Revenge had captured the privateer Vengeur from Dieppe , and on 6 November Donegal ran down and seized the privateer Surcouf from Cherbourg . 
