The British fleet is shown to become confused because their semaphore codes were deliberately confounded by the printer/barkeep/spy Robert Townsend. Historically, confusion did occur but is attributed to Admiral Thomas Graves raising two contradictory signals rather than because the code books had been corrupted. The more important reason for the British loss in the naval Battle of the Chesapeake was that the French fleet was slightly larger, its ships were in better condition, and they were more heavily armed. In the end, only two French ships were damaged compared to six British ships, one of which sank. The British also suffered more casualties. The great coulda, woulda, shoulda for the British is that their large fleet in the West Indies had recently gone home to England, leaving only 14 ships to participate in the Battle of the Chesapeake. Had that entire fleet been in the Chesapeake Bay in September 1781, the French fleet would have been no match for it, and the Franco-American Siege of Yorktown would likely have failed to force a British surrender.