The Aberdeen Courier reported on 6th March 1798 – 225 years ago today – that the French fleet had been spotted off the Isle of Wight coast.
News travelled slowly in the 18th century, compared to the almost instant reporting of Island Echo in the 21st century. The attempted ‘invasion’ had happened a week previously on 21st March.
It won’t come as a surprise that it all turned out to be a false alarm.
On that day, there had been a sighting of the French fleet off the coast of the Isle of Wight.
General Wade gave the order that all troops stationed on the Island should prepare themselves to engage the enemy at short notice. The Isle of Wight volunteers turned out with scarcely a single man absent.
The Aberdeen Courier reported:
“After continuing under arms for several hours, it was discovered that there was not any likelihood of being called into immediate active service, as the fleet on the Coast were found to be Friends and not Enemies.
“The mistake arose either from them not seeing or not attending to the signals made from the signal-house on the Start point, from whence it was concluded that they must be enemy ships.”
Article continues below this advertisement
Are they still there do you think?
I didn’t realise that they had time travel back then…??
“on 6th March 1798 ..The Aberdeen Courier reported…that ..
The attempted ‘invasion’ had happened on 21st March..”
Je pense que quelqu’un est peut-être confus avec les dates
Do they mean 2 weeks earlier on the 21st of Feb and who were these friendly fleet of ships not a lot of content in here is there is there could have been more interesting.