History of the Royal Navy efficiency, dominating the navies of all Britain's adversaries. Initially Britain did not involve itself in the French Revolution, but in 1793 France declared war, leading to the Glorious First of June battle in the following year off Brest, followed by the capture of French colonies in the Caribbean. The Dutch Republic declared war in 1795 and Spain in 1796, on the side of France. Further action came in 1797 and 1798, with the Battle of Cape St Vincent and the Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay), which brought Admiral Horatio Nelson to the public's
Canopus, Egypt borrowed from Canopus. The Egyptian city of Abu Qir ("Father Cyrus"), honoring two Christian martyrs, is located a few miles away from the ruins of Canopus. It is a village (around 1900 with 1000 inhabitants), at the end of a little peninsula north-east of Alexandria. It has a trade in quails, which are caught in nets hung along the shore. Off Aboukir on 1 August 1798, the French Mediterranean fleet was destroyed within the roads by British Admiral Horatio Nelson on 25 July 1799. Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed there a Turkish army 18,000 strong; and on 8 March 1801, the French