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was intended to succeed. Most of the troops were veterans of the Peninsular War that Wellington had so ably fought against Napoleon. The warships of course were veterans of the long world war which England had maintained for two decades, against Napoleon, mainly through the energy,valor and strength of her Navy.
The following day, November 26, the great Armada began to get underway. Tonnant, together with the 74-gun ship of the line Ramillies and two brigs, set sail; Admiral Cochrane and General Keane desiring to coordinate planning for the intended operations in the general vicinity of the proposed landing. Fair weather promised as the worst of the hurricane season had passed; furthermore the route from Jamaica through the Yucatan Channel was a less frequented hurricane area.
Tonnant touched at Appalachicola and Pensacola and on December 8 anchored off the Chandeleur Islands to await the arrival of the rest of the expedition. Meanwhile the main body had sailed on November 27 and the morning of the December 11 the first transports were in sight from the deck of Tonnant . All ships were anchored by noon on the December 12 and the following day the smaller ships, frigates and transports moved up to the passage between Cat Island and the mainland, Ramillies and Royal Oak, another 74-gun ship of the line, remaining at anchor near the Chandeleurs.
Several routes of attack lay open to the British. All but one were rejected due to various physical obstacles. The Mississippi River had a strong current which would force the ships to engage in a long beat upstream, while theoretically subjected to raking fire from the banks and it was so shallow over the bar that Cochrane?s large ships could not
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