During 1802, tensions rose again between Britain and France, the latter country now under the rule of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. Aware that a return to war was almost inevitable, Napoleon ordered the French Navy to prepare a force for extended service in the Indian Ocean, a force that would be capable of inflicting significant losses on the British trade from the region. The flagship of the squadron was to be the fast ship of the line "Marengo", a 74-gun vessel commanded by Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois. Linois was a highly experienced officer who had been engaged with the British on a number of occasions during the French Revolutionary Wars: in May 1794, he was captured when his frigate "Atalante" was run down in the mid-Atlantic by . Rapidly exchanged, his next ship "Formidable" was captured after a fierce defence at the Battle of Groix, and the following year he was captured again in his new frigate "Unité" and subsequently participated in the disastrous "Expédition d'Irlande" in the ship of the line "Nestor" after a third prisoner exchange. His most important battle was in July 1801, when he commanded the French squadron during their victory at the First Battle of Algeciras, where was captured. He was also in partial command at the defeat in the Second Battle of Algeciras four days later, but the action enhanced his reputation within the French Navy as a successful commander. "Marengo" was accompanied by the frigates "Atalante", "Sémillante" and and the transports "Côte d'Or" and "Marie Françoise". Ostensibly this squadron was despatched to the Indian Ocean to take possession of Pondicherry and install a new governor in the French Indian Ocean colonies, General Charles Decaen. The convoy carried 1,350 soldiers and a significant quantity of supplies for both the four-month journey to India and the anticipated extended operations that were to follow it.