D’Estaing was twelve weeks in coming from Toulon to Cape May, but Howe knew nothing of his sailing until three weeks after he had started.  Then orders were received to abandon Philadelphia and concentrate upon New York.  The naval forces were scattered, and had to be collected; the supplies of the army, except those needed for the march across Jersey, were to be embarked at Philadelphia, and the great train of transports and ships of war moved over a hundred miles down a difficult river, and thence to New York.  Despite every effort, a loss of ten days was incurred, through calms, in the mere transit from Philadelphia to the sea; but during this momentous crisis D’Estaing did not appear.  Two days more sufficed to bring the fleet into New York Bay on June 29th; but yet the grave admiral, roused to the full tension of his great abilities, rested not.  With a force little more than half that coming against him, he knew that all depended upon the rapidity with which his squadron took the imposing position he had in mind.  Still D’Estaing tarried, giving to his untiring enemy twelve more precious days, during which the army of Sir Henry Clinton, reaching Navesink beach the day after the fleet, was snatched by it from the hot pursuit of the disappointed Washington, and carried safely to New York.

In the expected French squadron were eight ships of seventy-four guns or over, with three sixty-fours.  To confront these, for the defence of the port, Howe disposed of six, none heavier than a sixty-four; but they were ranged to command the entrance of the harbor upon a tactical plan that evinced both a careful study of the ground and the resources of a thorough seaman.  This instance alone, had Howe never done anything else, would have established his reputation as a tactician.  The ships, placed in echelon, and enabled to turn their batteries in any direction, by the provision of springs and adaptation to the tide conditions at the moment when alone attack would be possible, could concentrate their entire force of guns upon the enemy, raking them as they advanced up channel; while, if they succeeded in coming abreast, then also the broadsides would be turned upon them.  When D’Estaing at last came, all was ready; the energy that had improved every fleeting moment then gave place to the imperturbable resolution which was Howe’s greatest attribute, and against which, seconded by his careful preparation, success could be won only by a desperate and sanguinary struggle.  The attempt was not made.  Ten days after arriving, the French admiral again put to sea, heading to the southward.  By combined energy and skill Howe had won the first move in the game.  Clinton’s army and New York were saved.