Maritime intelligence and the Harbours of Refuge

British preparations against privateering began with detailed observation of French commercial and port capacity. Consular reporting and newspaper correspondence recorded harbor improvements, merchant-steamer horsepower, seafaring manpower, and dependence on British coal and engineers. Those assessments showed that most Channel ports could not support an invasion fleet but could equip local sail and steam vessels as commerce raiders. The intelligence informed the Harbours of Refuge commissions, which provided protected anchorages for merchantmen, convoys, and British war steamers. Admiral Dundas's confidence in blockade therefore addressed a real privateering threat rather than an imagined French invasion.