Editing Glorious First of June (section)

===Royal Navy===
[[File:Admiral Richard Howe, 1726-99, 1st Earl Howe RMG BHC2790.tiff|thumb|Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe; 1794 painting by [[John Singleton Copley]]]]

Since the [[Nootka Crisis]] of 1790, the Royal Navy had been at sea in a state of readiness for over three years.{{sfn|James |2002|p=48}} The Navy's dockyards under [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] [[Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham|Charles Middleton]] were all fully fitted and prepared for conflict. This was quite unlike the disasters of the [[American Revolutionary War]] ten years earlier, when an ill-prepared Royal Navy had taken too long to reach full effectiveness and was consequently unable to support the North American campaign, which ended in defeat at the [[Siege of Yorktown]] due to lack of supplies.{{sfn|Rodger |2004|p=429}} With British dockyards now readily turning out cannon, shot, sails, provisions and other essential equipment, the only remaining problem was that of manning the several hundred ships on the Navy list.{{sfn|Jane |1997|p=94}}

Unfortunately for the British, gathering sufficient manpower was difficult and never satisfactorily accomplished throughout the entire war. The shortage of seamen was such that [[press gangs]] were forced to take thousands of men with no experience on the sea, meaning that training and preparing them for naval life would take quite some time.{{sfn|Jane |1997|p=94}} The lack of [[Royal Marines]] was even more urgent, and soldiers from the [[British Army]] were drafted into the fleet for service at sea. Men of the [[Queen's Royal Regiment|2nd. Regiment of Foot – The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)]] and the [[29th Regiment of Foot]] served aboard Royal Navy ships during the campaign; their descendant regiments still maintain the [[battle honour]] "1 June 1794".<ref name="Worcs">[http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/wr.php?main=inc/h_glorious_first The Glorious First of June 1794], ''[[Worcestershire Regiment]]'', retrieved 23 December 2007</ref><ref name="QRSR">[http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/1661to1966/gloriousfirst/gloriousfirst.html The Glorious First of June 1794] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305005820/http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/1661to1966/gloriousfirst/gloriousfirst.html |date=5 March 2016 }}, ''Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment'', retrieved 1 January 2008</ref>

Despite these difficulties, the Channel Squadron was possessed of one of the best naval commanders of the age; its commander-in-chief, [[Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe]], had learned his trade under [[Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke]] and fought at the [[Battle of Quiberon Bay]] in 1759.<ref name="ODNBHowe">[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13963?docPos=2 Howe, Richard], ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Roger Knight, retrieved 23 December 2007</ref> In the spring of 1794, with the French convoy's arrival in European waters imminent, Howe had dispersed his fleet in three groups. [[George Montagu (Royal Navy officer)|George Montagu]], in [[HMS Hector (1774)|HMS ''Hector'']], was sent with six ships of the line and two [[frigate]]s to guard British convoys to the East Indies, West Indies and [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] as far as [[Cape Finisterre]]. [[Peter Rainier (Royal Navy officer, born 1741)|Peter Rainier]], in [[HMS Suffolk (1765)|HMS ''Suffolk]] and commanding six other ships, was to escort the convoys for the rest of their passage. The third force consisted of 26 ships of the line, with several supporting vessels, under Howe's direct command. They were to patrol the Bay of Biscay for the arriving French.{{sfn|James |2002|p=125}}