Battle of Mahé Louis in December 1799 had restored absolute British control. The importance of the East Indies to British trade encouraged a number of French plans to threaten the region, of which the most advanced was the invasion, in 1798, of Egypt by a French Army under General Napoleon Bonaparte. Although the campaign saw initial success, the annihilation of the French Mediterranean Fleet by Sir Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798 effectively doomed the campaign to failure. Later in the year Bonaparte considered building a squadron at Suez in the Red Sea, but the plans were
Bay Fleet Bay Fleet The Bay Fleet was a summer convoy of trading ships that travelled through the English Channel from and to the important trading areas of the Hanseatic League, Holland and Flanders in the Middle Ages. The fleet's frequent destination was the salt manufacturing lands of the Bay of Bourgneuf, which they duly plundered. In 1449, a fleet organised by Henry VI to keep the Channel free of pirates, turned to piracy themselves under the charge of Robert Winnington, attacking the Bay fleet in an unprovoked peace time assault. Sixty Hanseatic ships and fifty ships from the Low countries were