The twenty-eight-hour chase toward Toulon

The French were roughly sixty miles from Toulon when Lord Keith's fleet, described as about thirty ships, found them. The estimate of less than a day's sailing to safety assumes better progress than they could necessarily make in the prevailing wind. Keith lacked enough admirals for every detachment and used the senior captain Markham in a commodore's role. Markham pursued with three ships of the line and two frigates, a force that matched the French squadron in hull numbers while greatly exceeding its firepower. A weak southwesterly wind stretched the chase through the night and into a second evening, for about twenty-eight hours. Both forces had to extract what speed they could before the British were close enough to use their guns.