Convoy intelligence and the difficulty of finding a fleet at sea

The reading follows several British and French fleets and convoys moving through the same Atlantic search space while remaining largely ignorant of one another. Howe's frigates checked Brest, and recaptured merchant ships yielded logbooks, courses, dates, and prisoner reports that gradually narrowed the search. The French simultaneously captured convoys and tried to draw the British fleet away from the vital American grain convoy. Quoting Julian Corbett, the passage stresses that command of the sea ultimately requires battle, yet the open ocean lets an enemy fleet disappear in a way an army on roads usually cannot. Intelligence, commerce protection, and fleet concentration work together before the Glorious First of June.