Plate I. After a long and anxious search through the Mediterranean, Nelson's fleet discovered the French warships covering Napoleon's invasion of Egypt at anchor in Aboukir Bay, near Alexandria at the mouth of the River Nile. With a perfect application of the initiative that comes from exactly knowing their admiral's wishes and intentions, the British captains attacked without hesitation, some ships taking the French on the unprotected landward side, where the French thought no ship could pass. Only two major French ships escaped capture or destruction in the night-long battle. Nelson had set a new standard by which to judge a victory.