The Admiralty used postal packets to send fleet despatches on from England and vice versa. That such missives rarely contained anything approaching decisions of a strategic nature did not dent their value. In addition, packets carried everyday mail, the letters of sailors and soldiers penned to their loved ones. These could be a mine of information and that made the ships that carried them prime targets. Given the route by which they travelled was a certainty, it was a miracle that more were not intercepted; but the ocean is vast and not every day is sunny and clear, especially in the Atlantic, so the privateers and the occasional roving vessels of the French state had to be lucky to even see one, never mind effect a capture. In addition they were up against crews that virtually lived at sea and had a well-honed nose for risk, serving under captains of real ability, in command of craft designed for speed as well as heavy seas. Still, it was a long game and many a despatch would be sent by more than one boat to ensure its safe arrival.
