In the very month of Gambier's court-martial, the first troops and ships of the so-called Walcheren expedition crossed the Channel. Their object was the destruction of French ships in the Scheldt, and the seizure of three arsenals and dockyards: Flushing, Antwerp, and Terneuse. Under the Earl of Chatham and Sir Richard Strachan, a total of 40,000 troops, 35 sail of the line, 5 smaller ships, 18 frigates and 200 attendant craft was to be employed. Cochrane first urged the Admiralty to undertake an invasion of the Biscay islands instead. In default of this, he argued in favour of an attack on the Scheldt, using the same weapons as at the Basque Roads, rather than the cumbersome invasion fleet with its 40,000 troops. Their Lordships were not interested. Off the Kentish coast, the great armada rode at anchor. A more impressive display than the fine ships with their cheering men would have been hard to imagine. True, the Earl of Chatham, as Master General of the Ordnance, was not much qualified by experience to command such a force, but the court and the ministry had favoured him.
