Eight of the fifteen ships in the French fleet continued on to Cádiz. It is not clear if this was because they did not observe the flagship's change of course, because they did not understand its implications, or because they felt their freshly opened orders took precedence. At dawn on 18 August La Clue could see only six other ships. He ordered them to rally on the flagship and heave to and await the anticipated appearance of the rest of the fleet. At about 6:00 am a group of large ships came into view and La Clue remained stationary, believing them to be the missing component of his fleet. It was only when the topsails of the nine ships of the second British squadron, the stragglers under Brodrick, were sighted farther back that it was realised all these ships were British.