Joseph followed that line of thought. "What ports do our country and Spain have along the western coast?
"Zeebrugge, Ostend, Le Havre, Dunkirk, Rouen...
"Bilbao, Santander, Gijón... That makes at least twelve."
Marquis Leissard immediately added, "Your Highness, there are also Dieppe, Fécamp, Cherbourg, Jávea..."
The ports he named were all relatively small. Joseph had never even heard of most of them, but as Minister of the Navy, Marquis Leissard knew them intimately.
Joseph nodded. "Then we have close to thirty seaports. Hmm, the Netherlands has several as well.
"I'd never noticed before that we had so many ports at our disposal."
In the past, the seaports of western Europe had all basically lain under the threat of the English Fleet, so he had only paid attention to major ports such as Le Havre and Brest. Only now did he realize what excellent maritime resources France possessed.
If all those ports could be put to use, then for the British Navy to effectively blockade French and Spanish maritime trade, it would have to "chop its fleet into mincemeat" and scatter it across the Atlantic Ocean.
At present, the British Navy publicly possessed around one hundred third-rate battleships or above. After deducting the fleets used to control the Americas, it could only allocate an average of two and a half warships to each French and Spanish port.
In reality, ships needed to defend the British Isles and those undergoing maintenance and repair had to be deducted as well. That meant there was probably only one battleship patrolling outside each port.
Such a blockade was like a sheep pen with wooden fences spaced ten meters apart. Wouldn't the "sheep" be free to come and go as they pleased?
The Minister of the Navy, however, pondered for a moment. "Your Highness, making use