The action of 18 November 1809 was the major engagement of a six-month cruise by a French
frigate squadron in the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
, during the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. The French commander, Commodore
Jacques Hamelin
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
, was engaged in
commerce raiding
Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than en ...
across the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line betwee ...
. His squadron achieved local superiority, capturing numerous merchant ships and minor warships. On 18 November 1809, off the
Nicobar Islands, three warships (two frigates and a corvette) under Hamelin's command encountered a convoy of three
East Indiamen
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...
merchant vessels bound for
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
, mainly carrying recruits for
the army of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
(EIC).
The largest British merchant ship, ''Windham'' commanded by John Stewart, took advantage of a disrupted French formation to attack the frigate
''Manche''. The two ships fought for an hour before ''Manche'' disengaged and ''Windham'' fled. The other two Indiamen declined to join the action and offered only token resistance to the more powerful French warships before surrendering. ''Windham'' evaded the French pursuit for five days before also being captured by the French
flagship,
''Vénus''.
Hamelin's force began transporting their captured
prizes
A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements. back to the distant French base on
Île de France. A month after the battle, the squadron encountered a winter
hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
that heavily damaged several ships. ''Vénus'' only survived with the co-operation of the British prisoners she was carrying, including Stewart, who helped bring the ship safely to port. With the ships scattered after the storm, ''Windham'' was recaptured by a patrolling British frigate within a few miles of the French island. The other French ships and two East Indiamen successfully reached Île de France. Stewart and his crew were subsequently released in recognition of their assistance during the hurricane.
The action was one of three losses of East Indiamen convoys during 1809, which prompted the British to substantially increase their naval presence in the Indian Ocean during 1810.
Background
Following the decisive
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...
in 1805, the British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
held
naval superiority
Command of the sea (also called control of the sea or sea control) is a naval military concept regarding the strength of a particular navy to a specific naval area it controls. A navy has command of the sea when it is so strong that its rivals ...
in the seas around Europe. The few remaining French
ships of the line were
blockade
A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force.
A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are leg ...
d in their ports. Faster French
frigates could sometimes evade the blockades; their combination of speed and firepower made them ideal for
commerce raiding
Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than en ...
. The British economy relied upon
sea trade
Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people ( passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used throu ...
with
its distant empire, which was impossible for the Royal Navy to defend everywhere. Particularly profitable was the EIC's shipping to and from
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. To protect this trade, the EIC carried it in
East Indiamen
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...
, a type of large armed merchant vessel. East Indiamen had enough resilience, firepower and crew to fight off
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
s or
small naval vessels, but were not
warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...
s and could not match a frigate in combat.
In late 1808, the
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
despatched a
naval squadron
A squadron, or naval squadron, is a significant group of warships which is nonetheless considered too small to be designated a fleet. A squadron is typically a part of a fleet. Between different navies there are no clear defining parameters t ...
of four large frigates from France to attack British trade routes in the
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...
, particularly with India. The goal was to damage the British economy and force the Royal Navy to send more ships to the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
, thereby weakening their forces elsewhere. Command of the squadron was given to Commodore
Jacques Hamelin
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
, a skilled officer with substantial experience in frigate actions and commerce raiding.
The ships were to be maintained and supplied from two French islands in the western
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
:
Île de France (modern Mauritius) and
Île Bonaparte (Réunion).
[Gardiner, p. 92] These bases were thousands of miles from India and surrounded by open ocean, so Hamelin would need to sail substantial distances to find his targets.
After arriving in the Indian Ocean, Hamelin dispersed his frigates in the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line betwee ...
, ordering them to hunt merchant vessels. In spring 1809, the most successful of the French frigates was
''Caroline'', which intercepted a convoy of East Indiamen in the
action of 31 May 1809
The action of 31 May 1809 was a naval skirmish in the Bay of Bengal during the Napoleonic Wars. During the action, an Honourable East India Company convoy carrying goods worth over £500,000 was attacked and partially captured by the French fr ...
. After a brief resistance by the larger vessels, one of the East Indiamen escaped, but two others were captured and brought to Île Bonaparte.
The Royal Navy forces in the region were under the command of Admiral
Albemarle Bertie, based at the
Cape of Good Hope Station
The Commander-in-Chief, Africa was the last title of a Royal Navy's formation commander located in South Africa from 1795 to 1939. Under varying titles, it was one of the longest-lived formations of the Royal Navy. It was also often known as the C ...
(located at
Simon's Town
Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern ...
, now in South Africa). Bertie gathered a squadron of frigates, led by Commodore
Josias Rowley
Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, 1st Baronet, (1765 – 10 January 1842), known as "The Sweeper of the Seas", was an Anglo-Irish naval officer who commanded the campaign that captured the French Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius in ...
in
HMS ''Raisonnable'', in roughly equivalent numbers to Hamelin's force.
[Woodman, p. 283] Bertie ordered Rowley to blockade the two French islands and reconnoitre them for weaknesses that could be exploited in a future invasion. Rowley's first significant operation was the
Raid on Saint Paul
The Raid on Saint-Paul was an amphibious operation conducted by a combined British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Marines force against the fortified French port of Saint Paul on Île Bonaparte (now known as Réunion) during the Napoleonic Wars. Th ...
(a port on Île Bonaparte) on 21 September 1809, which captured ''Caroline'', recovered her two East Indiamen prizes, and burned their cargoes in the French warehouses.
[Gardiner, p. 93]
Hamelin's cruise and Stewart's convoy
In July 1809, Hamelin departed Île de France in the frigate ''
Vénus'', accompanied the frigate
''Manche'' (under Captain
Jean Dornal de Guy) and the
corvette ''
Créole
Creole may refer to:
Anthropology
* Creole peoples, ethnic groups which originated from linguistic, cultural, and often racial mixing of colonial-era emigrants from Europe with non-European peoples
* Criollo people, the historic name of people ...
''. The frigates both carried at least 40
cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
and the corvette carried 14. All three ships were crewed by a full complement of experienced sailors, reinforced from the pool of unemployed men stranded on Île de France by the British blockade.
[James, p. 262] The frigate
''Bellone'' departed a month later and operated separately.
Hamelin led his small squadron towards the Bay of Bengal. On the way there, ''Vénus'' captured the EIC armed ship ''Orient'' on 26 July. Hamelin then turned east in search of more British shipping to attack, capturing several small merchant vessels off the
Nicobar Islands.
[James, p. 200] He then turned south, towards the small trading port of Tappanooly (modern
Sibolga
Sibolga (formerly sometimes Siboga) is a city and a port located in the natural harbor of Sibolga Bay on the west coast of North Sumatra province, in Indonesia.
It is located on the western side of North Sumatra, facing the Indian Ocean and is ...
) on
Sumatra. On 10 October, the squadron raided Tappanooly, capturing its small British population and razing the town.
Hamelin then turned north, back towards the Bay of Bengal.
Months earlier, a convoy of three East Indiamen – ''
Windham'' under captain John Stewart, ''
Charlton'' under captain Charles Mortlock and ''
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
'' under captain William D'Esterre – had departed Britain on a voyage to
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, with Stewart in overall command.
They were to pick up a valuable cargo of trade goods in India before returning to Britain. On this outwards journey, their main cargo was over 200 passengers, primarily soldiers for the
army of the EIC.
Stewart's three vessels had cargo capacities of approximately 800
tons burthen
Builder's Old Measurement (BOM, bm, OM, and o.m.) is the method used in England from approximately 1650 to 1849 for calculating the cargo capacity of a ship. It is a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity. It estimated the tonnage of a ship bas ...
. They carried between 20 and 30 small cannon each, but were not warships: their crews were not trained to military standards and their guns were not as powerful as those carried on naval vessels. A large proportion of the crews were
lascars
A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the ...
, who were considered unreliable in combat.
[Brenton, p. 398] On 11 November, these ships encountered
HMS ''Rattlesnake'', a British
sloop, which warned them that French naval vessels were operating in the area. Stewart began rehearsing ''Windham''s gunnery in case he should meet them.
[Taylor, p. 251]
Engagement
At 06:00 on 18 November 1809, with the sailing season almost at an end, Hamelin sighted Stewart's convoy travelling northwards and gave chase. Ship for ship, the East Indiamen were outclassed by the French frigates, which were faster, stronger, more powerful, better armed and better trained for military action. In convoy, however, the British were still a tough target which could damage the French ships, which were thousands of miles from any friendly port. Four years earlier, at the
Battle of Pulo Aura
The Battle of Pulo Aura was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large convoy of Honourable East India Company (HEIC) East Indiamen, well-armed merchant ships, intimidated, drove off and chase ...
, a convoy of 29 East Indiamen had driven off a powerful French squadron by pretending to be ships of the line. However that ruse had been widely reported on both sides, so was unlikely to work again.
[Adkins, p. 185]
The French squadron became disorganised in its initial pursuit of the British, with ''Manche'' falling substantially to
leeward of ''Vénus'' and ''Créole''.
Seeing this, Stewart decided to concentrate the fire of his three vessels in an attack on ''Manche'', hoping to cause enough damage to drive the frigate away. ''Vénus'' might then be reluctant to attack alone. Signalling his intentions to the captains of ''Charlton'' and ''United Kingdom'', Stewart turned towards ''Vénus'' and bore down on her. Hamelin, realising the threat to his scattered squadron, signalled for his ships to join up. Given the wind direction, it was obvious that ''Windham'' would reach ''Manche'' before the French ships could unite.
By 08:00, it was clear that Stewart's plan was going to fail: ''Charlton'' and ''United Kingdom'' had not joined his attack, falling far behind ''Windham'' as their captains deliberately checked the advance towards the French.
[Taylor, p. 252] Although Stewart now faced a superior foe alone, he had no option but to continue the attack: his ship was now too close to attempt to flee from the French frigate.
''Manche''s commander, Captain Dornal de Guy, opened fire at 09:30, repeatedly hitting ''Windham'' as she approached. Stewart, aware of his gunners' poor accuracy, held fire until his ship was as close as he could get to the more nimble French ship. When ''Windham'' finally opened fire the results were disappointing: the entire
broadside
Broadside or broadsides may refer to:
Naval
* Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare
Printing and literature
* Broadside (comic ...
fell far short of the French ship.
The more manoeuvrable ''Manche'' now approached ''Windham'' at close range, with the two ships firing at one another for over an hour. The other two East Indiamen did not move to support ''Windham'', instead firing occasional shots at extreme range, to no effect.
[James, p. 201]
Hamelin ordered ''Manche'' to leave the battered ''Windham'' and rejoin the rest of the French squadron. Dornal de Guy pulled his ship away at 12:00; Stewart used the break in the action to effect rudimentary repairs. Hamelin sent ''Manche'' and ''Créole'' after the slow ''Charlton'' and ''United Kingdom'', while his own ship ''Vénus'' closed with ''Windham''. Stewart now decided that the battle was hopeless; with the agreement of his officers, he determined to abandon the other ships and attempt to escape alone.
[Taylor, p. 253] ''Manche'' and ''Créole'' rapidly overhauled and captured ''Charlton'' and ''United Kingdom'', whose captains made no attempt to escape and surrendered after only a token resistance. However, ''Vénus'' struggled to catch ''Windham'', as Stewart threw all non-essential stores overboard in an effort to make his ship lighter and faster. The two ships became separated from the other vessels and continued the chase for five days. At 10:30 on 22 November Hamelin finally caught the British ship, which surrendered.
Return to Île de France
''Bellone'', under Captain
Guy-Victor Duperré
Guy-Victor Duperré (20 February 1775 – 2 November 1846) was a French naval officer and Admiral of France.
He is known for commanding French naval forces in the Mauritius campaign of 1809–11 and was victorious in the Battle of Grand Port ...
, had been sailing independently of Hamelin's squadron and had also had a successful cruise, capturing the small British warship
HMS ''Victor'' on 2 November and the 48-gun Portuguese frigate
''Minerve'' on 22 November in the northern Bay of Bengal, before sailing back to Île de France.
To the south, Hamelin and Dornal de Guy reunited with their prizes on 6 December and also determined to return to Île de France as the cyclone season, in which any ship in the Indian Ocean would be at serious risk of destruction by a sudden
tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depen ...
, was fast approaching. This was a dangerous time to be at sea: the year before seven large East Indiamen had sunk with a thousand lives in two major
hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
s and the year before that, the flagship of
Sir Thomas Troubridge,
HMS ''Blenheim'', had disappeared without a trace in similar circumstances,
[Troubridge, Thomas](_blank)
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', P. K. Crimmin, (subscription required), Retrieved 30 October 2008
On 19 December, the first winter storm struck the French squadron. In the heavy waves and high winds, first ''Windham'' and then ''Vénus'' were separated from the convoy, ''Manche'' marshalling the remaining ships and continuing the southwards journey. ''Windham''
's French prize crew were able to regain control of their ship and continued on to Île de France alone, but ''Vénus'' was struck by an even larger hurricane on 27 December and lost all three topmasts in the gale.
The French crew panicked as the storm began, and refused to attend to the sails or even close the hatches: as a result the vessel almost foundered as huge amounts of water poured into the ship. In desperation, Hamelin called Captain Stewart to his cabin and requested that his men save the ship but demanded that Stewart give his word that his men would not attempt to escape or seize the frigate.
[Taylor, p. 254] Stewart refused to give any such guarantee but agreed to help repair the damage and bring the ship to safety. After securing the weapons lockers aboard, Hamelin agreed and Stewart and his men cut away the wrecked masts and pumped the water out of the hold, repairing the ship so that she was able to continue her journey without fear of foundering.
[James, p. 202]
On 31 December, the battered ''Vénus'' docked in
Rivière Noire and Stewart and his men, who had never had an opportunity to seize their freedom, were marched to
Port Louis
Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's e ...
, where they witnessed the arrival of ''Manche'', accompanied by ''Créole'', ''Charlton'' and ''United Kingdom'' on 1 January 1810.
For their services, Stewart and his fellow prisoners were later released and allowed to sail to the Cape of Good Hope. There they discovered ''Windham'', which had failed to arrive at Île de France. Although her prize crew had retained control of the ship following the storm, they had been sighted, chased, and seized within sight of Île de France on 29 December by the newly arrived British frigate
HMS ''Magicienne'' under Captain
Lucius Curtis. ''Bellone'' and her prizes arrived at Port Louis on 2 January, having slipped past Rowley's blockade during a period of calm weather.
[Woodman, p. 284]
Aftermath
Casualties in the battle were minimal, the British losing four killed and two wounded while the French recorded no casualties at all.
The significance of the action lies in the ease with which French frigates operating from Île de France were able to attack and capture vital trade convoys without facing serious opposition. The action of 18 November was the second occasion in 1809 in which a British East India convoy was destroyed and another would be lost in the
action of 3 July 1810
The action of 3 July 1810 was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, in which a French frigate squadron under Guy-Victor Duperré attacked and defeated a convoy of Honourable East India Company East Indiamen near the Comoros Islands. ...
the following year. These losses were exceptionally heavy, especially when combined with the 12 East Indiamen wrecked during 1809, and would eventually provoke a massive buildup of British forces in late 1810.
[Taylor, p. 267] Despite the French success ''Vénus'' was never again able to operate independently in this manner. Hamelin was needed during 1810 to operate against the strong British frigate squadrons that returned in the spring to harass his cruisers and prepare for the planned invasions of Île Bonaparte and Île de France using the soldiers stationed on
Rodrigues. The French commodore was ultimately unable to prevent these operations and was eventually captured in the
action of 18 September 1810
The action of 18 September 1810 was a naval battle fought between British Royal Navy and French Navy frigates in the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars. The engagement was one of several between rival frigate squadrons contesting control of ...
, a personal engagement with Rowley on
HMS ''Boadicea''.
[Gardiner, p. 96]
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
* {{cite book
, last = Woodman
, first = Richard
, author-link = Richard Woodman
, year = 2001
, title = The Sea Warriors
, publisher = Constable Publishers
, isbn = 1-84119-183-3
Conflicts in 1809
Naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars
Naval battles involving France
Naval battles involving the United Kingdom
November 1809 events