Tasked with intercepting Spanish convoys, Balchen was almost caught by a superior Spanish squadron, which forced him to withdraw deeper into the Atlantic.
Ordered to Gibraltar, Brilliant was attacked by a superior Spanish squadron close to the fortress and was forced to escape to British-held Minorca.
Inman's service in the American war was punctuated by three shipwrecks: the burning of HMS Lark off Rhode Island in the face of a superior French squadron, the grounding of HMS Santa Monica on Tortola and the foundering of Hector following an engagement with two French ships in the Mid-Atlantic.
Three years later, at the Second Battle of Terceira, Santa Cruz defeated a superior French naval squadron sent unofficially to support a rebellion in the Azores against Philip II, the Spanish king.
Ironically, Linois was captured at the Action of 13 March 1806 by a numerically superior British battle squadron that he mistook for a merchant convoy.
The investigators concluded that no superior officers actually ordered the squadron commander, Lt. Col. Odin F. Leberman, to falsify the records, Marine officials said.
Concerned that Rainier's numerically superior force would overwhelm his squadron before they could operate against the British merchant convoys in the region, Linois slipped away under cover of darkness and eventually reached Île de France, where he learned that the Napoleonic Wars had begun on 16 May.
The report, a criminal investigation by the Department of Defense inspector general, also concluded that other officers, possibly including the squadron commander's superiors, condoned the falsifications and did nothing to stop them, according to a one-page summary released today.
Because of this, it is not uncommon for senior members commanding groups and squadrons to have members of superior grades serving under them.
Villeneuve had not left instructions at Vigo for the Rochefort squadron and Allemand was uncertain where his superior was intending to sail to.
