Twenty minutes later, more than thirty French warships appeared on the southeastern horizon.
When the British sailors aboard the Theseus saw those small French ships belching black smoke, they could not help but smile mockingly—
Even the largest among them were only fifth-rate ships. On their side, they were not even qualified to join the line of battle and could only handle outer-perimeter patrols.
At the same time, the French fleet's formation was utterly loose—it was neither the standard oblique assault formation nor a line formation. It looked more like a group of leisurely sightseeing vessels.
Moreover, the wind over the sea was blowing from the southwest, yet the French were sailing in from due east, half against the wind...
Some British soldiers had already begun to suspect that the French were not here to fight, because the latter had practically committed every mistake one could make in a naval battle.
However, Major General Hotham and the other British officers still maintained the proper caution toward that distant fleet trailing black smoke.
They had noticed that even while sailing half against the wind, those ships still maintained an extremely high speed.
The captain of the Theseus turned to Hotham and suggested, "General, the wind is greatly in our favor. If we charge straight at them with the wind, we should be able to crush those little ships outright."[Note 1]
In naval battles of this era, whoever seized the windward position could use the wind to swiftly adjust their formation during combat and freely choose their angle of attack. One could say they had already won half the battle.
Not to mention they were merely bullying a group of light warships.
Hotham shook his head hesitantly. "No, observe them first. The French are not fools. If they dare charge in like