Captured French ships strengthen Cochrane's squadron

HMS Pompée began as a French Temeraire-class ship and reached Britain intact when her captain left Toulon after the siege. The Royal Navy altered her battery and operated her with a smaller complement than the French establishment. By 1810 she served as Alexander Cochrane's flagship in the Caribbean. HMS Abercrombie was captured during a failed French attempt to resupply Martinique after that island had already fallen. Pompée helped run down and take her sister ship, which entered British service quickly enough to lead part of the Guadeloupe invasion less than a year later. Cochrane needed such prizes because he was simultaneously protecting captured Danish and other islands and supporting Spain and Portugal across a ship-hungry theater. Together they show how captured capital ships could immediately strengthen the blockade and amphibious fleet that had deprived France of them.