Action of 18 August 1798
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| Action of 18 August 1798 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Mediterranean campaign during the War of the Second Coalition | |||||||
 Action between H.M.S. Leander and the French National Ship Le Genereux, 18 August 1798 Charles Henry Seaforth | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| France | Great Britain | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Louis-Nicolas Lejoille[1] | Thomas Thompson | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1 ship of the line | 1 ship of the line | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
100 killed 188 wounded |
35 killed 57 wounded 1 ship of the line captured | ||||||
The action of 18 August 1798 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought between the British fourth rate ship HMS Leander and the French ship of the line Généreux. Both ships had been engaged at the Battle of the Nile three weeks earlier, in which a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson had destroyed a French fleet at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. Généreux was one of only four French ships to survive the battle, while Leander had been detached from the British fleet by Nelson on 6 August. On board, Captain Edward Berry sailed as a passenger, charged with carrying despatches to the squadron under Earl St Vincent off Cádiz. On 18 August, while passing the western shore of Crete, Leander was intercepted and attacked by Généreux, which had separated from the rest of the French survivors the day before.
Captain Thomas Thompson on Leander initially tried to escape the much larger French ship, but it rapidly became clear that Généreux was faster than his vessel. At 09:00 the ships exchanged broadsides, the engagement continuing until 10:30, when Captain Louis-Jean-Nicolas Lejoille made an unsuccessful attempt to board Leander, suffering heavy casualties in the attempt. For another five hours the battle continued, Thompson successfully raking Généreux at one stage but ultimately being outfought and outmanoeuvred by the larger warship.
Eventually the wounded Thompson surrendered his dismasted ship by ordering his men to wave a French tricolour on a pike. As French sailors took possession of the British ship, Lejoille encouraged systematic looting of the sailors' personal possessions, even confiscating the surgeon's tools in the middle of an operation. Against the established conventions of warfare, he forced the captured crew to assist in bringing Leander safely into Corfu, and denied them food and medical treatment unless they co-operated with their captors.
Lejoille's published account of the action greatly exaggerated the scale of his success, and, although he was highly praised in the French press, he was castigated in Britain for his conduct. Thompson, Berry and most of the British officers were exchanged and acquitted at court martial, and the captains were knighted for their services, while Leander and many of the crew were recaptured in March 1799 by a Russian squadron that seized Corfu, and returned to British control by order of Tsar Paul. Généreux survived another year in the Mediterranean, but was eventually captured off Malta in 1800 by a British squadron under Lord Nelson.
On 1 August 1798 a British fleet of 13 ships of the line and one fourth rate ship under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson discovered a French fleet of 13 ships of the line and four frigates at anchor in Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt.[2] Nelson had been in pursuit of the French for three months, crossing the Mediterranean three times in his efforts to locate the fleet and a convoy under its protection which carried the French army commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte intended for the invasion of Egypt. The convoy successfully eluded Nelson and the army landed at Alexandria on 31 June, capturing the city and advancing inland. The fleet was too large to anchor in Alexandria harbour and instead Bonaparte ordered its commander, Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers to take up station in Aboukir Bay.[3]
On discovering the French Nelson attacked immediately, ordering his ships to advance on the French line and engage, beginning the Battle of the Nile. As he closed with the French line, Captain Thomas Foley on the lead ship HMS Goliath realised that there was a gap at the head of the French line wide enough to allow his ship passage. Pushing through the gap, Foley attacked the French van from the landward side, followed by four ships, while Nelson engaged the van from the seaward side with three more.[4] The remainder of the fleet attacked the French centre, except for HMS Culloden which grounded on a shoal and became stuck. The smaller ships in the squadron, the fourth rate HMS Leander and the sloop HMS Mutine, attempted to assist Culloden, but it was soon realised that the ship was immobile.[5] Determined to participate in the battle, Captain Thomas Thompson of Leander abandoned the stranded Culloden and joined the second wave of attack against the French centre, focusing fire on the bow of the 120-gun French first rate Orient.[6] Within an hour, Orient caught fire under the combined attack of three ships and later exploded, effectively concluding the engagement in Nelson's favour.[7] During the next two days, the lightly damaged Leander was employed in forcing the surrender of several grounded French vessels, and by the afternoon of 3 August Nelson was in complete control of Aboukir Bay. Only four French ships, two ships of the line and two frigates, escaped, sailing north out of the bay on the afternoon of 2 August under the command of Rear-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve.[8]
Having won the battle, Nelson needed to send despatches to his commander, Vice-Admiral Earl St. Vincent reporting on the destruction of the French Mediterranean fleet. These messages were entrusted to Captain Edward Berry, who had served as Nelson's flag captain on HMS Vanguard during the battle.[9] Thompson was ordered to escort Berry to St. Vincent, believed to be with the blockade squadron off Cádiz, in Leander. Although Leander had not suffered serious damage in the battle, Thompson had manning problems: casualties from the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in July 1797 had never been replaced, 14 men had been wounded in the battle at Aboukir Bay and two officers and fifty men had been detached to man the captured French prizes. This left Thompson with just 282 men on board Leander.[10] Following Nelson's orders, Thompson sailed on 5 August.[11]
Battle
After fleeing Aboukir Bay, Admiral Villeneuve had been delayed in the Eastern Mediterranean by northeasterly winds, and on 17 August he decided to split his forces, sailing for Malta with his flagship Guillaume Tell and the two frigates while Captain Louis-Jean-Nicolas Lejoille on Généreux was ordered to the French possession of Corfu. Before they departed, a number of men were transferred to Généreux, which was already carrying survivors from Timoléon, one of the ships destroyed in Aboukir Bay, giving Généreux a crew of 936 men.[10] As Généreux rounded the island of Goza off the western tip of Crete (then known as Candia) on the following morning, his lookouts reported a sail to the northwest. This vessel was Leander. Learning of the strange ship to the southeast, Captain Thompson deduced that it must be one of Villeneuve's ships and immediately ordered all sails set in an effort to avoid an unequal combat: Généreux carried 30 more guns than Leander and was more strongly built,[12] carrying a broadside of over 1,000 lbs to Leander's 432 lbs.[13]
Assisted by a strong breeze behind his ship that did not carry to Thompson's vessel,[14] Lejoille rapidly gained on the fourth rate, hoisting Neapolitan and then Ottoman flags in an unsuccessful attempt to confuse Thompson into approaching his ship.[13] By 09:00 it was inevitable that Généreux would catch Leander and Thompson responded by shortening sail and turning northwards to aim his broadside at the French ship. Within minutes Généreux had fired a shot across Leander's bows and Thompson responded to the threat by ordering a full broadside against Généreux.[15] Lejoille replied with his own broadside, and the two ships continued firing as they sailed to the east, Généreux gradually closing the range with Leander. The smaller British vessel took the worst of the damage and at 10:30 the combatants were so close that Lejoille decided to attempt to board the British ship, Thompson unable to manoeuvre the battered Leander out of the way.[16] Généreux's bow collided with the bow of Leander and the French ship swung alongside, Lejoille preparing his men to board. Thompson was prepared for this manoeuvre and mustered his marines and teams of sailors armed with muskets along the rail of the quarterdeck and poop deck.[12] The volleys of musket fire were sufficient to kill any Frenchman who attempted to board the British ship and the tangled ships turned southwards together, their main batteries continuing to exchange broadsides at extreme close range. Gradually the strengthening breeze dragged Généreux free of Leander, the French ship faster as more of its sails and rigging were intact.[15]
As Généreux pulled away to the west, Thompson, who had already been wounded several times, succeeded in turning his battered ship so that his broadside was directed at the stern of Généreux. Despite the collapsed wreckage of the mizzenmast and fore topmast, his gunnery teams managed to cut away enough of the obstruction to fire a raking broadside at the French vessel.[17] Although Leander had inflicted severe damage, the size and power of the French ship was beginning to tell, and Lejoille was able to turn Généreux southwards again.[18] The ships continued exchanging broadsides until 15:30, by which time Leander's crew had run out of regular shot and were firing scrap metal at the French ship.[13] Eventually Lejoille succeeded in bringing Généreux across Leander's bow and hailed the British ship, asking if they had surrendered.[15] Unable to continue fighting due to the wreckage that lay across the forward guns, Thompson ordered a French flag raised on a pike, which was sufficient for Lejoille to cease firing.[18]
The French were initially unable to take possession of the fourth rate as every single one of the boats on board had been smashed by British shot. In the end, a French midshipman and a boatswain dived into the sea and swam to the British ship to take the formal surrender.[14] Leander had lost a third of the crew: 35 men killed and 57 wounded, the latter including Thompson three times and Berry, who had a piece of human skull lodged in his arm.[19] The ship had been completely dismasted except the stubs of the fore and main masts and the bowsprit, and was leaking badly from dozens of shot holes.[20] Généreux had also been damaged, losing the mizzen topmast and almost losing the foremast as well. Losses on the crowded decks had been far more severe than on Leander, with casualties estimated at 100 killed and 188 wounded, again approximately a third of the total.[10]