'During the autumn of this year [1804], after various attempts to
destroy the French flotillas in their own harbours had failed, Lord
Keith was directed to make an experiment with the catamaran
flotilla.
The catamaran's were copper vessels filled with combustibles, and so
constructed as to explode at a given time by clock-work. They were
to be fastened to the bows of the vessels by the aid of a small raft
rowed by one man who, being up to the chin in water, was expected in
the darkness of the night to escape discovery.
Sir Sidney Smith with other able officers were selected for this
perilous enterprise; and the attack was to be covered by Lord
Keith's squadron.
The expedition anchored about a league and a half from Boulogne on
the 2nd of October; and soon after nine at night a detachment of
fire-ships was launched. But this enterprise proved signally
abortive. The catamarans sent exploded with an awful noise, and
created a great alarm, not only in the French flotilla, but also in
the shore batteries; but the explosion only wounded some half-dozen
Frenchmen, while they blew up nothing but themselves.
In the whole affair, which lasted till four o'clock in the morning,
the French had only fourteen killed and seven wounded, while the
English had not a single man hurt.
This catamaran expedition, indeed, from which mighty things were
expected by the whole nation, ended only in laughter and
derision. It brought disgrace not only on the projectors, but to our
national character, it being a plan unworthy of men of valour. It
had been projected by the Addington administration; but as it was
tried under the present cabinet, the admiralty won for themselves
the dishonourable appellation of "The Catamaran Admiralty."
As for Napoleon, it served him for a pretext for disseminating the
most bitter invectives against the English throughout the continent;
and many, even in England, were induced to believe that he had not
adopted his own violent measures without the means of justification.'