Duncan’s original plan was the old fashioned ship-to-ship system, but in the actual event, the Dutch line was broken. One of the Dutch fifty-gun ships fell back to avoid the _Lancaster_ (sixty-four), five others for some reason or other following her; the remaining nine fought desperately, till further resistance was impossible. The prizes were:--two seventy-four’s, five sixty-four’s, two fifties, and a couple of frigates. Both the captured fifties were lost; the other ships were with great difficulty got to England. All were found to have been damaged beyond repair, and some of Duncan’s ships were in little better condition. His losses in _personnel_ were over 1,000 in killed and wounded. His crews, it is interesting to note, consisted mostly of Parker’s erstwhile mutineers. During 1797, a few frigates only were lost. These included the _Hermione_, whose crew mutinied and handed her over to the enemy. The brutality of her captain, Pigot, whose idea of efficiency was to flog the last two men down from aloft, was the cause of this particular outbreak.[52] In 1797, a large ninety-eight gun ship, the _Neptune_, was added to the Navy, also a seventy-four and a sixty-four. Private yards launched no less than forty-six frigates and smaller craft, and the total number of warships built, building and projected, was 696.[53] For the year 1798, the _personnel_ voted was 100,000 seamen and 20,000 marines; and the total Naval Estimates amounted to £13,449,388. In France, Buonaparte was forging to the front, and he threw himself into those schemes for the invasion of England which so appealed to the French mind and so terrified the British public. Ireland was selected as the most suitable spot, and two expeditions were prepared, one at Rochefort, the other at Brest. Of these, one, the Rochefort expedition, materialised in August, reached Killala Bay, in Ireland, and soon afterwards had to surrender to the English Army. The Brest expedition, escorted by a line of battle ship and a number of frigates, was more or less annihilated by Admiral Warren, on October 12th. As already stated, the Mediterranean had become a species of Franco-Spanish lake. St. Vincent was outside Gibraltar, and he was still there when Nelson, in the _Vanguard_, arrived to join him as rear-admiral, at the end of April. Nelson, with a small squadron, was at once despatched to discover what the French were doing at Toulon. Rumours of all kinds were current. He found fifteen ships of the line and a great many transports, news of which he sent to the Admiral. On the top of this came a gale, which dismasted the _Vanguard_. She was, however, towed into San Pietro, Sardinia, and hastily re-fitted, and four days later the ships were off Toulon again, only to find that the French had sailed.