Episode 2 of 3
Flotilla Test
- When
- 1803-1805
- Where
- Boulogne-sur-Mer
Napoleon ordered a large-scale test of invasion craft despite advice from naval commanders, revealing design flaws.
The test occurred despite choppy weather. Admiral Charles René Magon de Médine advised against it. The craft were shown to be ill-designed, and many men were lost during rescue efforts led by Napoleon.
Sources
- Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-07
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.