Balloons offered limited reconnaissance against blockades

Were balloons used in naval warfare during the Napoleonic Wars?

They were planned and may have provided limited observation of blockading squadrons, but they saw little meaningful naval use.

Plans and isolated use do not amount to an established naval capability. Captive balloons could help a force under blockade look beyond the immediate horizon and observe the squadron outside its harbor. Their employment was limited and did not become a routine part of Napoleonic fleet operations. The answer places early aerial reconnaissance in naval history without projecting the mature aviation systems of the twentieth century backward onto experimental balloon work.