The great fleet consisted of 12 ships of the line, 50 frigates, 7 galleys and 26 galiots, 4 brigs, 97 xebecs, several gunboats and bomb vessels, approximately 109 transport ships, and several minor ships and vessels of different classes,[4] in total, the ships of the fleet numbered about 500–600, and the supreme commander of the fleet was the veteran naval officer Don Francisco Javier Cornejo.[4] The fleet caused great astonishment in all Europe, and as a writer of that time, said: