The Raid on Saint-Paul was an
amphibious operation
Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conducted u ...
conducted by a combined
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
,
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 F ...
and
Royal Marines
The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
force against the fortified French port of
Saint Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
on
Île Bonaparte (now known as Réunion) 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 operation was launched on 20 September 1809 as both a precursor to a future full-scale invasion of Île Bonaparte and in order to capture the French frigate
''Caroline'' and the
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 ...
she had seized 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 fri ...
which were sheltering in the harbour. The operation was a complete success, with British storming parties capturing the batteries overlooking the port, which allowed a naval squadron under 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 1810 ...
to enter the bay and capture the shipping in the harbour.
The French defenders of the town, despite initially resisting the attack, were unable to prevent the seizure of the port's defensive fortifications. The British force later withdrew under pressure from the main garrison of the island, burning warehouses containing over £500,000 worth of
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
captured from British merchant ships. Ultimately the French were unable to effectively oppose the invasion, the island's governor General
Des Bruslys retreating to
Saint-Denis rather than engage the British and later committing suicide. The transportation of forces from the recently captured island of
Rodrigues
Rodrigues (french: Île Rodrigues, link=yes ; Creole: ) is a autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Islands, which include Mauritius and Réunion. Rodr ...
, the co-ordination of land and naval forces and the failure of the French defenders to co-ordinate an effective response were all features of the subsequent invasion and capture of Île Bonaparte in July 1810.
Background
The French Indian Ocean territories of
Île de France and
Île Bonaparte were heavily fortified island bases from which French
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 ...
were able to launch raids against British trade routes across the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars. In late 1808, a squadron of four frigates departed France for the region under 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 ...
with orders to prey on the convoys of East Indiamen that regularly crossed the Indian Ocean.
[Gardiner, p. 92.] During the late spring of 1809, these frigates dispersed into 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 between ...
, attacking British shipping and coastal harbours around the rim of the Eastern Indian Ocean. The
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 F ...
was also preparing an operation in the region, a staggered campaign intended to blockade, isolate and subsequently capture both Île de France and Île Bonaparte, eliminating the final French territories and bases east of Africa.
To conduct the British operation, Admiral
Albemarle Bertie at the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
organised a squadron under 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 1810 ...
to blockade the islands, capture any French shipping that presented itself and begin preparations for the invasions. Rowley was equipped with the antiquated
ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
and a small squadron of frigates and smaller ships, later reinforced with a force of soldiers from
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
in
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 ...
, with which he seized the nearby island of
Rodriguez to use as a raiding base.
On 14 August, one of Rowley's ships, the 18-gun
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
, attacked a French brig at
Rivière Noire District
Rivière, La Rivière, or Les Rivières (French for "river") may refer to:
Places Belgium
* Rivière, Profondeville, a village
Canada
* La Rivière, Manitoba, a community
* Les Rivières (Quebec City), a borough
France
* La Rivière, Girond ...
on Île de France. Although the attack was ultimately unsuccessful, ''Otter''s captain
Nesbit Willoughby and his landing party were able to break into and out of the harbour without severe difficulties.
This prompted Rowley to consider a larger scale operation against a more heavily fortified French position. Two months earlier, 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 fri ...
, the French frigate ''Caroline'' had captured two East Indiamen, ''Streatham'' and ''Europe'', in the Bay of Bengal. The French captain,
Jean-Baptiste-Henri Feretier, led his prizes back to the French-held islands, arriving off
Île de France on 22 July. Feretier was prevented from attempting to reach
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 ec ...
by Rowley's blockading squadron and instead put his ships into Saint-Paul on Île Bonaparte to unload his captured vessels and replenish his supplies.
[Gardiner, p. 93]
Raid
Preparation
Rowley became aware of Feretier's presence at Saint-Paul during the following month and determined to attack the port and recapture the valuable ships in the harbour. The operation was also to be a prelude to an eventual invasion attempt, giving the squadron experience of an amphibious landing operation.
Conferring with Lieutenant Colonel
Henry Keating on Rodriguez, Rowley determined that Keating's men would land behind the gun batteries that defended the town and storm them. This would allow Rowley to bring his squadron directly into the harbour, capture the shipping anchored there and possibly seize the town as well.
[Taylor, p. 240] Rowley's planning was directly affected by a failed attack on Saint-Paul on 11 November 1806, when and had attacked the harbour without infantry support. Their target was the frigate
''Sémillante'', but neither British ship had been able to pass the heavy batteries that protected the port and they were forced to withdraw.
[Clowes, p. 393]
On 16 September 1809, the troops were prepared, and 368
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
soldiers were embarked on the British frigate
HMS ''Nereide'' under Captain
Robert Corbett
Robert Alfred Corbett (born 14 December 1938) was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1978 to 1993. His background was in business.
Corbett was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, was the son of James Ross Corbett and Helen Elma Yea ...
, Willoughby's ''Otter'' and the
Honourable 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 Southea ...
schooner ''Wasp''. This troop convoy was joined off Saint-Paul on 18 September by the rest of Rowley's squadron, the flagship ''Raisonnable'' and the frigates under Captain
Samuel Pym
Admiral Sir Samuel Pym KCB (1778–1855) was a British admiral, brother of Sir William Pym.
In June 1788, Pym joined the Royal Navy as captain's servant of the frigate ''Eurydice''. He was promoted to lieutenant of the sloop ''Martin'', under ...
, and under Captain
John Hatley :
Captain John Hatley, RN (c. 1762 – 12 December 1832) was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Hatley is most noted for being one of the junior officers on board Captain James Cook's ...
.
These ships mustered an additional 236 seaman volunteers and
Royal Marines
The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
who would join the assault. The entire invasion force was then embarked on ''Nereide'', as Corbett had experience with the Île Bonaparte coastline, with the assault designated for the early morning of 21 September.
[Woodman, p. 283]
Assault
![Réunion, 1809 RCIN 735153](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/R%C3%A9union%2C_1809_RCIN_735153.jpg)
At 05:00 on 21 September 1809, ''Nereide'' entered the bay of Saint-Paul under the cover of darkness and successfully landed the British force, without any sign they had been sighted from the shore, at the
Pointe des Galets.
The Pointe des Galets was north of Saint-Paul, the distance allowing the force, divided into Keating's soldiers from Rodriguez and the naval force led by Nesbit Willoughby, to approach the heavy gun batteries that guarded the port unobserved. Storming the strongest batteries, Lambousière and la Centière, at 07:00, the British force surprised the garrisons, captured the fortifications and turned their
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 ...
onto the shipping moored in the harbour, firing
grape shot
Grapeshot is a type of artillery round invented by a British Officer during the Napoleonic Wars. It was used mainly as an anti infantry round, but had other uses in naval combat.
In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of ammunition that consists of ...
at the decks of the frigate ''Caroline''.
[Taylor, p. 241]
A detachment of the British landing force then separated from the main body and seized a third battery named la Neuf, routing a force of local militia that attempted to block their advance with artillery assistance from the British squadron in the bay.
The militia had come down from their garrisons in the surrounding hills and been joined by 110 French soldiers who had disembarked from ''Caroline'', but the small French force was easily brushed aside by the British landing party.
Keating and Willoughby then destroyed the guns in the first two captured batteries and stormed the remaining two fortifications, once again capturing them and using their own cannon to fire on the shipping in the harbour.
[James, p. 197]
While the landing force drove off the defenders and captured the fortifications, the naval squadron entered the harbour and opened up an overwhelming fire on the outnumbered ''Caroline''. Shot was also fired at the captured East Indiamen, various other vessels in the harbour and any small batteries or shore positions that remained in French hands.
Feretier and the other French naval officers, recognising that their position was hopeless, cut the anchor cables of their ships and allowed them to drift ashore, where they abandoned ship to escape capture. The British squadron then anchored in the harbour as their crews set about refloating the grounded French ships on the beach. In addition to ''Caroline'' and the East Indiamen and , Rowley's squadron captured a 14-gun
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...
named , which the French had captured in 1806 from the Bombay Marine, the East India Company's navy, and five or six smaller ships. With the harbour and fortifications in British hands, Keating and Willoughby entered the town of Saint-Paul without further combat.
Withdrawal
On the night of 21 September, the landing party embarked on the British ships in the bay having destroyed all of the fortified positions that surrounded the harbour.
During 22 September, French forces were seen gathering in the hills around the town, brought from outlying garrisons to join the main garrison from the capital
Saint-Denis by the island's governor General
Des Bruslys. Rowley and Keating anticipated that this force, which outnumbered their own, would recapture the town on 23 September and accordingly ordered Willoughby to land with his marines and sailors to burn French government property along the waterfront.
[Taylor, p. 243] The most obvious and significant target of Willoughby's force was a warehouse on the docks that was stocked with the captured silk from the East Indiamen captured by ''Caroline''. Willoughby ordered this building to be burned, destroying over £500,000 worth of captured textiles,
[Woodman, p. 284] (the equivalent of £ as of ). Other nearby warehouses were not destroyed as it was not possible to rapidly determine their ownership. Although the French force had reached the outskirts of the town, Willoughby was able to land and reembark his troops without a single shot being fired.
On 22 September, Rowley received a petition from a body of slaves in the town who had escaped during the fighting and demanded arms with which to attack the French. They also offered to burn the town to the ground. Rowley, who sought to cultivate good relations with the powerful elements of society with a view to capturing the island in the near future, refused their demands and had the slaves returned to their owners, where eight were executed for plotting rebellion.
[Taylor, p. 244] There was however a noted example of a slave displaying loyalty to his owner: The painter
Jean-Joseph Patu de Rosemont
Jean-Joseph Patu de Rosemont (1767 – 11 July 1818) was a French painter. He is mostly known for watercolours depicting landscapes from La Réunion, where he lived from 1788. Some of his paintings show the Piton de la Fournaise, whose he was on ...
had served in the militia forces with the journalist
Nicole Robinet de La Serve
Jean-Pierre-François Nicole Robinet de La Serve (1791, Isle Bourbon – 20 December 1842, Salazie) was a French journalist, lawyer and politician.''Robinet de La Serve : l'énergumène créole'', Patrick Imhaus, Océan Éditions – .
Biograph ...
and was captured when Keating's troops entered Saint-Paul. Taken aboard the British squadron, Rosemont's son Amédée applied to exchange himself for his father as a prisoner but was refused. Shortly before the squadron departed, Rosemont's personal slave Félix swam to the squadron to serve his owner in captivity. For his loyalty, Félix was
manumitted
Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...
when Rosemont was freed in 1810.
[Imhaus, p. 40]
On 23 September, Rowley and Keating planned another landing under cover of the guns of the ''Nereide'' to drive off the French reinforcements. On landing, however, it was discovered that the French force had disappeared. Lacking support for a counterattack from the local landowners, who favoured a return to the monarchy,
[Imhaus, p. 39] Des Bruslys was unwilling to order an assault which he deemed would have inevitably led to an unnecessary bloodbath.
[Charles Mullié, ''Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850'', 1852.] Instead, he ordered his forces to abandon Saint-Paul and retire to Saint-Denis during the night.
Without support from his commanding officer, Captain St-Michel, commandant of Saint-Paul, agreed to surrender the town entirely, withdrawing his remaining forces under a flag of truce. The agreed truce lasted five days, during which the British force loaded their ships with French government provisions, equipment, military and naval stores and those cargoes from captured British ships that had not been burnt by Willoughby.
The French made no effort to prevent this, Des Bruslys having committed suicide some days before, torn between his refusal to surrender the island to the British and his reluctance to order a bloody battle for what he regarded to be an "open island".
Rowley also seized the East Indiamen ''Streatham'' and ''Europe'' and restored their previous captains and crews, who had been released as part of the truce. A number of smaller merchant ships were captured and all were refitted for the journey to Britain, to be convoyed there by the newly captured ''Caroline''.
This 40-gun frigate, only three years old and very large and powerfully built, was given to Corbett in recognition of his services in the operation and renamed
HMS ''Bourbonaise'', reflecting the British name for Île Bonaparte, Île Bourbon.
Willoughby was promoted to
post captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy.
The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:
* Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) ...
and immediately took command of Corbett's former ship ''Nereide''. Late on 28 September, Rowley led his force to sea from Saint-Paul having burnt or seized all government shipping, stores and buildings in the town and surrounding areas.
Aftermath
Casualties of the operation were not high on either side. British losses in the landing party amounted to 15 killed and 58 wounded, with an additional three missing.
[James, p. 198] The naval squadron suffered no known casualties in the engagement, principally because they did not come under heavy fire. French losses have not been calculated, but apart from General Des Bruslys were probably a similar figure to the British. In contrast, the damage to the morale of the French defenders of Île Bonaparte was severe: the death of Des Bruslys and the failure to properly defend the town undermined their efforts to such a degree that the eventual invasion of the island in 1810 was carried out without significant fighting or loss. This invasion force was similar in size to the raiding party and was once again led by Rowley and Keating.
''Caroline'' was a "tolerably fine frigate" and her capture was a blow to the French squadron based on Île de France under Hamelin.
[James, p. 199] The recapture of the East Indiamen was an important success, reducing the impact of French operations in the region during 1809. The raid also provided the British forces with vital experience in conducting amphibious landings staged from Rodriguez and gave an indication of the quality of French shore defences and defensive formations throughout the islands, which would have an important effect on future operations, especially the
Invasion of Île Bonaparte
The Invasion of Île Bonaparte was an amphibious operation in 1810 that formed an important part of the British campaign to blockade and capture the French Indian Ocean territories of Île Bonaparte (now Réunion) and Isle de France (now Mauri ...
in 1810.
[Gardiner, p. 94]
''
Lloyd's List
''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...
'' (''LL'') reported on 9 January 1811 that the captured vessels, except for ''Europe'', which had been sent to Bombay, had all arrived at the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
.
''LL'' №4421.
/ref>
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Paul
Conflicts in 1809
Naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars
Battles involving France
Battles involving the United Kingdom
1800s in Réunion
1809 in Africa
Military raids
Amphibious operations involving the United Kingdom
September 1809 events