The Battle of Tellicherry was a naval action fought off the
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
port of
Tellicherry
Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karnat ...
between British and French warships on 18 November 1791 during the
Third Anglo-Mysore War
The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792) was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, the Kingdom of Travancore, the Maratha Empire, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was the third of four Angl ...
. Britain and France were not at war at the time of the engagement, but French support for the
Kingdom of Mysore in the conflict with the British
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 ...
had led to
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 ...
patrols stopping and searching French ships sailing for the Mysorean port of
Mangalore
Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ke ...
. When a French convoy from
Mahé passed the British port of Tellicherry in November 1791, Commodore
William Cornwallis
Admiral of the Red Sir William Cornwallis, (10 February 17445 July 1819) was a Royal Navy officer. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, the 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British commander at the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis took part in a n ...
sent a small squadron to intercept the French ships.
As the British force under Captain
Sir Richard Strachan approached the convoy, the escorting frigate
''Résolue'' opened fire. A general action followed, with Strachan succeeding in forcing the French ship to surrender within twenty minutes and both sides suffering damage and casualties. All of the French vessels were searched and subsequently returned to Mahé, the local French authorities reacting furiously at what they perceived as a violation of their
neutral
Neutral or neutrality may refer to:
Mathematics and natural science Biology
* Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity
Chemistry and physics
* Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...
position. Messages were sent back to France reporting the action from Commodore
Saint-Félix but they evoked little response. Although under normal circumstances the battle might have provoked a diplomatic incident, the upheavals of the ongoing
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
meant that the despatches had little effect.
Background
In December 1789, after five years of diplomatic wrangling about the terms of the
Treaty of Mangalore that had ended the
Second Anglo-Mysore War
The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the conflict between Britain against the French and Dutch in ...
, the ruler of
Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He i ...
again declared war on the British
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 ...
and their allies in Southern
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. For the next two years the war continued as British forces and their allies drove the Mysore armies back towards the capital of
Seringapatam
Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city wa ...
.
[Brenton 1823, p. 208.] Both sides were reliant on supply by sea to maintain their campaigns inland: the British forces were supported from their major ports at
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
and
Madras, later stationing additional forces at the small port of
Tellicherry
Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karnat ...
inside Mysore territory. The Mysorean forces were supplied through
Mangalore
Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ke ...
by French ships. France had been an ally of the Tipu Sultan's father
Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali ( حیدر علی, ''Haidarālī''; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the at ...
during the Second Anglo-Mysore War and although the political instability caused by the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
in Europe prevented active involvement, they ensured that their ships kept up a supply of equipment to Mysore throughout the war.
In an effort to eliminate French support Commodore
William Cornwallis
Admiral of the Red Sir William Cornwallis, (10 February 17445 July 1819) was a Royal Navy officer. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, the 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British commander at the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis took part in a n ...
, the British naval commander in the region, stationed a squadron of
frigates
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
at Tellicherry, where they were ideally situated to
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 ...
Mangalore and prevent the passage of shipping into Mysorean territory. The squadron consisted of Cornwallis in
HMS ''Minerva'', Captain
Sir Richard Strachan in
HMS ''Phoenix'' and
HMS ''Perseverance'' under Captain
Isaac Smith.
[James 1827, p. 118.] The French operated a squadron of their own on the coast, led by Commodore
Saint-Félix and consisting of two frigates based at
Mahé, a small French port south of Tellicherry. The French had communicated to the British at Tellicherry that they would not submit to any attempts to search their vessels, but Strachan and Cornwallis replied that they would enforce the blockade of Mangalore whatever the consequences.
Battle
In November 1791, a French convoy sailed from Mahé on the short journey to Mangalore. The convoy included two merchant vessels and the frigate
''Résolue'', a 36-gun warship under Captain Callamand.
Passing northwards, the convoy soon passed Tellicherry and Cornwallis sent Strachan with ''Phoenix'' and ''Perseverance'' to stop and inspect the French ships to ensure they were not carrying military supplies.
[Brenton 1823, p. 209.] As Smith halted the merchant ships and sent boats to inspect them, Strachan did the same to ''Résolue'', hailing the French captain and placing an officer in a small boat to board the frigate. The French captain was outraged at this violation of his neutrality, and responded by opening fire: British sources suggest that his initial target was the small boat, although ''Phoenix'' was the ship most immediately damaged.
Strachan was unsurprised at the French reaction, and returned fire immediately, the proximity of the ships preventing any manoeuvres. Within twenty minutes the combat was decided, the French captain
hauling down his colours with his ship battered and more than 60 men wounded or dead. The French ship carried significantly weaker
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 ...
than ''Phoenix'', with 6- and 12-pounder guns to the 9- and 18-pounders aboard the British squadron. In addition, ''Résolue'' was heavily outnumbered: no other French warships were in the area, while the British had three large frigates within sight. French losses eventually totalled 25 men killed and 60 wounded, Strachan suffering just six killed and 11 wounded in return.
[James 1827, p. 119.]
Aftermath
With the enemy subdued, Strachan ordered a thorough search of the captured vessels, but could find no contraband and returned control to the French commander. The French officer however refused, insisting that he and his ship were treated as
prisoners of war.
[Parkinson 1954, p. 58.] Cornwallis ordered the merchant ships released to continue their journey and for the frigate to be towed back to Mahé, where it was anchored in the roads with its sails and topmasts struck.
Provision was subsequently made at Mahé by Strachan for the wounded French sailors. Soon afterwards Saint-Félix arrived at Mahé in his frigate
''Cybèle'' and reacted furiously at the discovery that one of his neutral ships had been attacked and captured by the British. When Cornwallis insisted that his ships had been acting within their orders, Saint-Félix promised reprisals if any of his vessels were attacked again and withdrew with both ''Cybèle'' and ''Résolue'' later in the day, followed by ''Minerva'' and ''Phoenix''. One account reported that Saint-Félix actually ordered his crew to fire on Cornwallis but that they refused.
The British shadowed the French for several days, openly stopping and searching French merchant ships but without provoking a response from Saint-Félix. ''Résolue'' and ''Phoenix'' were subsequently detached by their commanders, Cornwallis and Saint-Félix remaining in contact for several more days before finally separating.
News of the encounter was conveyed back to France, but the country was at this time in one of the most turbulent eras of the ongoing Revolution and little notice was taken of events in India. Historian
William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
notes that under normal political circumstances the action would have had more significant ramifications,
while
Edward Pelham Brenton
Captain Edward Pelham Brenton (20 July 1774 – 13 April 1839) was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who military career was relatively quiet, apart from involvement in the capture of ...
claims that the French deliberately ignored the report out of fear of antagonising Britain.
[Brenton 1823, p. 210.] In Britain, the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
approved of Cornwallis' actions, suggesting that the French were deliberately using the guise of trade to support Mysore against Britain.
The action had no effect on the ongoing war in India, which was now centred on the inland city of Seringapatam. As British forces
closed on the city in February 1792, the Tipu Sultan initiated peace talks which
brought the war to an end in exchange for concessions to the company and its Indian allies.
See also
*
Mysore invasion of Kerala
The Mysorean invasion of Malabar (1766 –1792) was the military invasion of the Malabar region of Kerala, including the territories of the Zamorin of Calicut, by the then-''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, Hyder Ali. After the invas ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tellicherry
Conflicts in 1791
Mysorean invasion of Malabar
Battles of the Third Anglo-Mysore War
Naval battles involving France
Naval battles involving Great Britain
Thalassery
1791 in India