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Action of 13 January 1797

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Coordinates: longitude minutes >= 60
Coordinates: longitude seconds >= 60
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Action of 13 January 1797
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars

View of the wreck of the French ship Le Droits D' Homme,
John Fairburn 1796
Date22 February 1812
Location
Brittany coastline, Bay of Biscay.
Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain French Republic
Commanders and leaders
Sir Edward Pellew Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse
Strength
HMS Indefatigable,
HMS Amazon		 Droits de l'Homme
Casualties and losses
3 killed, 34 wounded, 6 drowned, crew of Amazon taken prisonner 103 killed, 150 wounded, ~900 drowned

47°56′29″N -3°86′76″E / 47.94139°N 1.54556°W / 47.94139; -1.54556 Coordinates: longitude degrees < 0 with hemisphere flag
Coordinates: longitude minutes >= 60
Coordinates: longitude seconds >= 60
{{#coordinates:}}: invalid longitude

The Action of 13 January 1797 was a small naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars. The action is notable for its outcome: against expectation, the frigates successfully outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it on shore in heavy seas, resulting in the death of over 900 of the 1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement, running onto a sandbank after failing to escape a lee shore.

The French ship, Droits de l'Homme, had been part of a disastrous attempt by a French expeditionary force to invade Ireland. The French invasion fleet had been beset by poor co-ordination and extremely violent weather and was eventually compelled to return to France without landing a single soldier ashore. The British frigates, HMS Indefatigable and HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the entrance to the harbour at Brest to intercept the returning French force.

The engagement lasted a day and a night in an increasing gale and the constant presence of the rocky shoreline of the Breton coast. The seas were so violent that the French ship was unable to open her lower gun ports during the action and as a result could only fire with her upper deck guns, significantly reducing her advantage over the British frigates. The damage the more nimble British vessels inflicted on the French ship was so severe that as the winds increased, the French crew lost control and Droits de l'Homme was swept onto a sandbar and destroyed.

Background

In December 1796 a French force departed from Brest on an expedition to invade Ireland. This army of 18,000 French soldiers was intended to link up with a secret organisation of Irish nationalists known as the United Irishmen and provoke a widespread uprising throughout the island.[1] The war that would result would, it was hoped, force Britain to make peace with the French Republic or risk losing Ireland altogether.[1] Led by Vice-Admiral Morard de Galles, General Lazare Hoche and leader of the United Irishman Wolfe Tone, the invasion fleet included 17 ships of the line, 27 other warships and transports and carried extensive field artillery, cavalry and military stores to equip the Irish forces they hoped to raise.[2]

Departure from Brest

Sir Edward Pellew
Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1797

Morard de Galles was hoping to sail his fleet from the French naval fortress of Brest under cover of darkness, on the night of the 15–16 December.[3] The British Channel Fleet normally maintained a squadron off Brest to blockade the port, but this force had been driven 40 nautical miles (74 km) off shore by Atlantic winter gales, its commander John Colpoys concerned that his ships might be wrecked on the Britanny coastline.[4] The only British ships within sight of Brest were an inshore squadron of frigates under Sir Edward Pellew in HMS Indefatigable, accompanied by HMS Amazon, HMS Phoebe, HMS Révolutionnaire and the lugger HMS Duke of York. Pellew was already renowned, having been the first British officer of the war to capture a French frigate: the Cléopâtre in 1793. He later captured the frigates Pomone and Virginie in 1794 and 1796, and saved 500 lives following the shipwreck of the East Indiaman Dutton in January 1796.[5] For these actions he had first been knighted and then raised to a baronetcy. Indefatigable was a razee, one of the largest frigates in the Royal Navy, having been cut down to 44 guns from 64 in 1795. This reduction was intended to make her fast and powerful enough to catch and fight the largest of the French frigates.[6] Indefatigable was armed with 24 pounder cannon on the main decks and 42 pounder carronades on the quarterdeck, giving her a stronger armament than any equivalent French frigate.[6]

Observing the French fleet leaving the harbour at dusk, Pellew immediately dispatched Phoebe to Colpoys and Amazon to the main fleet at Portsmouth with warnings, before approaching the entrance to Brest in Indefatigable with the intention of disrupting French movements.[7] Believing that the frigates in the bay must be the forerunners of a larger British force, Morard de Galles attempted to pass his fleet though the Raz de Sein. The Raz de Sein was a narrow, rocky and dangerous passage, so de Galles used corvettes as temporary light ships shining blue lights and firing fireworks to direct his main fleet through the channel in the darkness.[3] Pellew observed this, and sailed the Indefatigable right through the French fleet, launching rockets and shining lights at random. This confused the French officers, causing the Séduisant to strike the Grand Stevenent rock and sink with the loss of over 680 from her complement of 1,300.[8] Séduisant's distress flares added to the confusion and delayed the fleet's passage until dawn.[7] His task of observing the enemy completed, Pellew took his remaining squadron to Falmouth to personally telegraph a report to the Admiralty and refit his ships.[3]

Failure of the expedition

Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse

During December 1796 and early January 1797, the French fleet repeatedly attempted to land in Ireland. Early in the voyage, the frigate Fraternité carrying de Galles and Hoche became separated from the fleet, failing to make the rendezvous at Mizen Head. Admiral Bouvet and General Grouchy decided to attempt the landing at Bantry Bay without their commanders, but extremely bad weather descended and made any landing impossible.[9] For more than a week the fleet waited for a break in the storm without success, until on 29 December Bouvet abandoned the invasion and, after a brief and unsuccessful effort to land at the mouth of the River Shannon, ordered his scattered ships to return to Brest.[10] During the operation and subsequent retreat a further 11 ships were wrecked or captured, with the loss of thousands of soldiers and sailors.[11]

By the 13 January most of the survivors of the fleet had limped back to Brest in a state of disrepair. One ship of the line that remained at sea, the 74-gun Droits de l'Homme, was commanded by Commodore Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse and carried over 1,300 sailors and soldiers. Detached from the main body of the fleet during the retreat from Bantry Bay, Lacrosse made his way to the mouth of the Shannon alone.[9] Recognising that the weather was still too violent for a landing to be made, Lacrosse acknowledged the failure of the operation and ordered the ship to return to France, capturing the British privateer Cumberland en route.[12]

Chase

Pellew too was on his way back to Brest in Indefatigable, accompanied by Amazon under the command of Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds. While the rest of the Channel Fleet had been in unsuccessful pursuit of the French, Pellew had had his ships refitted and resupplied at Falmouth so that both frigates were at full complement, well armed and prepared for action. At 13:00 on 13 January, the British ships were approaching the island of Ushant in a heavy fog when they spied another ship through the gloom ahead.[13] This ship, clearly much larger than either of the British vessels, was the Droits de l'Homme. Lookouts on the French ship spotted the British at the same time and Lacrosse was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to engage the enemy. Lacrosse knew that his ship was far larger than either of his opponents, but he had earlier spotted sails to westwards he believed to be British and thus considered himself outnumbered and possibly surrounded. British records, in fact, show that no other vessels were in the vicinity at the time and it is likely that these were actually the French ships Révolution and Fraternité returning to Brest from Bantry Bay.[12][14] In addition, the increasing gale and rocky shoreline posed considerable threats to his over-laden vessel, which was damaged from its winter voyage and carried a regiment of the French Army and General Jean Humbert, neither of which could be placed at risk in an inconsequential naval action.[14]

Determined to avoid battle, Lacrosse turned south east, hoping to use his wider spread of sail to outrun his opponent in the strong winds. Pellew, however, manoeuvred to cut the Droits de l'Homme off from the French coast, at this stage still unsure of the nature of his opponent.[13] As the chase developed, the weather, which had been violent for the entire preceding month, again began to break. An Atlantic gale swept the Ushant headland, driving a blizzard eastwards and whipping the sea into a turbulent state, making steering and aiming more difficult. At 16:15, two of Droits de l'Homme's topmasts broke in the strong winds. This dramatically slowed the French ship and allowed Pellew, who had recognised his opponent as a French ship of the line, to close with the Droits de l'Homme.[15]

Battle

Battle between the French warship Droits de l'Homme and the frigates HMS Amazon and Indefatigable, 13 & 14 January 1797, Leopold Le Guen

Pellew was aware that his frigate was heavily outclassed by his much larger opponent, and that Amazon, which was 8 nautical miles (15 km) distant, was not large enough to redress the balance when she did arrive. Pellew also knew however that the ocean was too disturbed to allow Lacrosse to open his lower gunports without the risk that heavy waves would enter them and cause the Droits de l'Homme to founder.[16] This halved the number of available guns on the French vessel but Lacrosse still held the advantage in terms of size, weight of shot and manpower. Unknown to Pellew, the French ship was in fact totally unable to open her lower deck gunports during the action: an unusual design feature had the ports 14 inches (36 cm) lower than was normal and as a result the sea poured in at any attempt to open them, preventing any gunnery at all from the lower deck.[17] The situation was worsened by the loss of the topmasts: this reduced the stability of the French ship, and caused her to roll so severely in the high winds that it was far more difficult to both steer the ship and aim the cannon than on the British vessels.[15]

To the surprise of Lacrosse and his officers, Indefatigable did not retreat from the ship of the line, nor did she pass the ship of the line at long-range to leeward as expected.[17] Instead, at 17:30, Pellew closed with the stern of the Droits de l'Homme and raked her, Lacrosse turning to meet the threat and opening fire with the guns on the upper deck accompanied with a volley of musket fire from the soldiers on board.[18] Pellew then attempted to pull ahead of Droits de l'Homme and rake her bow, Lacrosse responding by attempting to ram Indefatigable.[15] Neither manoeuvre was successful, Droits de l'Homme raking the British ship but actually causing little damage as most of her shot scattered into the ocean.[17]

Indefatigable and Droits de l'Homme manoeuvred around one another, exchanging fire when possible until 18:45, when Amazon arrived. During this exchange, one of Droits de l'Homme's cannon burst, causing heavy casualties on her packed deck.[19] Approaching the larger French ship with all sail spread, Reynolds closed to within pistol shot before raking the Droits de l'Homme. Lacrosse responded to this new threat by manoeuvring to bring both British ships to face the westward side of his ship of the line, avoiding becoming trapped in a crossfire.[18] The battle continued until 19:30, when both Amazon and Indefatigable pulled away from their opponent in order to make hasty repairs.[19] By 20:30 the frigates had returned to the much slower French ship and began weaving in front of the Droits de l'Homme's bow, repeatedly raking her.[20] Lacrosse's increasingly desperate attempts to ram the British ships were all unsuccessful and what little cannon fire he did manage to deploy was ineffectual as the rolling of the ship of the line prevented reliable aiming.[17]

By 22:30, the Droits de l'Homme was in severe difficulties, with heavy casualties among her crew and passengers and the loss of her mizzenmast to British fire. Observing the battered state of their opponent, Pellew and Reynolds closed on the stern quarters of the French ship, maintaining a high rate of fire that was matched when possible from the Droits de l'Homme.[21] Having used all the cannon balls available, over 4,000, Lacrosse was forced to use shells against the frigates. In the high winds, these proved even less effective than solid shot but did drive the frigates to a further distance.[20] With their opponent almost immobilised, the British frigates were now able to remain outside her arc of fire and affect repairs when necessary and secure guns that had broken loose in the heavy seas.[22] For the rest of the night the three battered ships remained locked in a close range duel, until suddenly, at 04:20, land was spotted just 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) to leeward by Lieutenant George Bell of the Indefatigable.[22]

Shipwrecks

Pellew and Reynolds immediately turned seawards in an effort to escape the shore. Although both ships had suffered severe damage from the battle and weather, both were able to successfully make the turn away from land, Amazon to the north and Indefatigable, at the insistence of its Breton pilot, to the south.[16] Initially it was believed that the land spotted was the island of Ushant, which would have given the ships plenty of sea-room in which to manoeuvre. However at 06:30, with the sky lightening, it became apparent on the Indefatigable that there were breakers to the south and east, indicating that the three ships had drifted during the night into Audierne Bay.[23] On discovering his situation Pellew determined to bring his ship westwards, attempting to fight his ship out of danger against the wind. Due to her northwards turn, Amazon had even less room to manoeuvre than Indefatigable and by 05:00 she had struck upright on a sandbank.[24] Desperate efforts to bring her off failed and at 08:00 Reynolds ordered his men to prepare to abandon the ship.[25]

Droits de l'Homme had been both more seriously damaged than the British frigates and closer to shore at the time land was spotted. As Lacrosse's crew made desperate efforts to turn southwards, the ship's foremast and bowsprit collapsed under the pressure of the wind. With the ship virtually unmanageable, Lacrosse ordered anchors lowered in an attempt to hold the ship in position until repairs could be made. This effort was futile, as all but two anchors had been lost during efforts to hold position in Bantry Bay and British gunfire had snapped one of the remaining anchor's cables, rendering it useless.[26] The final anchor was deployed, but it failed to restrain the ship and at (according to the French account) 07:00, the Droits de l'Homme struck a sandbank close to the town of Plozévet. This broke off the remaining mast and caused the ship to heel over onto her side.[27]

HMS Amazon

As daylight broke over Audierne Bay, crowds of locals gathered on the beach to observe the results of the night's action. The Droits de l'Homme lay on her side directly opposite the town of Plozévet, with large waves breaking over her hull; 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) to the north, Amazon stood upright on a sandbar, her crew launching boats in an effort to reach the shore, while Indefatigable was the only ship still afloat, rounding the Penmarck Rocks at the southern edge of the bay at 11:00.[24] On board the Amazon, Reynolds was able to maintain discipline. Only six men disobeyed orders to launch the boats in an orderly fashion and built rafts in which to bring the entire crew safely off. These six stole a launch and attempted to reach the shore alone but were swept away. Their boat was capsized by the waves, and all six drowned. The remaining crew, including those wounded in the previous night's action, were safely brought ashore by 09:00, where they were made prisoners of war by the French authorities.[28]

Droits de l'Homme

Droits de l'Homme was irreparably damaged. Each successive wave swept more men into the water and desperate attempts to launch boats failed when the small craft were swept away by the waves and broken in the surf. Rafts were constructed, but several were swamped in attempts to carry a rope to the shore and the men on the one the remained upright were forced to cut the rope rather than founder in the heavy seas.[27] Some of the men on this raft reached the beach, the first survivors of the wreck. Subsequent attempts were made by men to swim to shore with ropes, but they were either drowned or driven back to the ship by the force of the sea. With no aid possible from the shore, night fell on the 14 January with most of the crew and passengers still aboard. During the night, the waves stove in the stern of the ship, flooding much of the interior.[27] On the morning of the 15 January, a small boat carrying nine British prisoners from the Cumberland managed to reach shore, which prompted a mass launching of small rafts from the wreck in hopes of gaining the beach. However the waves increased once more, and not one of these small craft survived the passage.[29]

By the morning of 16 January, hunger and panic had taken over on the wreck, and when a large raft carrying the wounded, two women and six children was launched during a lull in the weather, over 120 unwounded men scrambled to board it. This severely overloaded the craft and with minutes a large wave had struck the heavy raft and capsized it, killing all aboard.[30] By the evening the survivors, without food or fresh water, began to succumb to exposure and at least one officer drowned in desperate attempts to swim to shore. Through the night, the survivors gathered on the less exposed parts of the hull and drank sea water, urine or from a small barrel of vinegar that had floated up from the hold in the hope of staving off death by dehydration.[31] The morning of 17 January finally saw a reduction in the storm and the arrival of a small French naval vessel, the Arrogante. This ship could not come too close without risk of destruction, but sent her boats to the wreck in the hope of bringing off survivors.[30]

On the Droits de l'Homme, many survivors were too weak to make the dangerous attempt to reach the boats and a number of men drowned in the attempt. Many more could not find room in the small boats, and as a result only 150 were rescued on the 17 January.[30] The following morning, when the boats returned, they found just another 140 survivors, at least as many again having died during the night. The last people to leave the ship were Jean Humbert and Jean-Baptiste Lacrosse.[31] Taken to Brest, the survivors were fed and clothed and given medical treatment. All the surviving prisoners from the Cumberland were returned to Britain, in recognition of their efforts to save lives following the shipwreck.[32]

Aftermath

French casualties are hard to calculate exactly, but of the 1,300 aboard Droits de l'Homme, 103 are known to have died in the battle and just over 300 were saved from the wreck, indicating the deaths of approximately 900 men on the French ship between the morning of the 14 January and the morning of the 18 January.[33] Amazon lost three in the battle and six subsequently in her wreck, with 15 wounded, while Indefatigable did not lose a single man killed, suffering only 18 wounded.[34] The discrepancy in losses during the action is likely due to the extreme difficulty the French crew had in aiming their guns given their ship's inherent instability in heavy seas.[34]

Reynolds and his officers were exchanged for French prisoners some weeks later and in the court-martial for the loss of their ship were honourably acquitted "with every sentiment of the court's highest approbation."[26] Reynolds was subsequently appointed to the large frigate HMS Pomone. The senior lieutenants of each frigate were promoted to commander and head money (prize money awarded when the defeated ship was destroyed) distributed among the crews.[35] Pellew remained in command of Indefatigable off Brest for another year and seized a number of French merchant ships. He was later promoted several times and by the war's end had become Lord Exmouth, Commander in chief of the Mediterranean Fleet.[5] Reynolds did not survive the war, dying in the wreck of HMS St George in 1811.[25] Lacrosse and Humbert were also commended: the commodore was promoted to admiral and later became ambassador to Spain, while Humbert led the next and equally unsuccessful attempt to invade Ireland in 1798, surrendering at the Battle of Ballinamuck.[36]

The action was lauded at the time and since: First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Spencer described the operation as "an exploit which has not I believe ever before graced our naval Annals";[5] historian James Henderson says of the action: "It was a feat of arms and seamanship such as had never been done before, and never was done again,"[28] and Richard Woodman calls it "a dazzling display of seamanship by all concerned in the alternating darkness and moonlight of a boisterous night".[19]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Pakenham, p. 24
  2. ^ James, p. 5
  3. ^ a b c Henderson, p. 21
  4. ^ Colpoys, Sir John, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, J. K. Laughton, (subscription required), Retrieved 16 October 2008
  5. ^ a b c Pellew, Edward, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Christopher D. Hall, (subscription required), Retrieved 16 October 2008
  6. ^ a b Woodman, p. 65
  7. ^ a b Woodman, p. 84
  8. ^ James, p. 6
  9. ^ a b Henderson, p. 22
  10. ^ Regan, p. 89
  11. ^ James, p. 10
  12. ^ a b Woodman, p. 86
  13. ^ a b James, p. 11
  14. ^ a b Henderson, p. 23
  15. ^ a b c Woodman, p. 87
  16. ^ a b Gardiner, p. 159
  17. ^ a b c d James, p. 12
  18. ^ a b Henderson, p. 24
  19. ^ a b c Woodman, p. 88
  20. ^ a b Henderson, p. 25
  21. ^ James, p. 13
  22. ^ a b Woodman, p. 89
  23. ^ James, p. 16
  24. ^ a b "No. 13972". The London Gazette. 17 January 1797.
  25. ^ a b Reynolds, Robert Carthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, J. K. Laughton, (subscription required), Retrieved 16 October 2008
  26. ^ a b James, p. 17
  27. ^ a b c James, p. 18
  28. ^ a b Henderson, p. 29
  29. ^ Pipon in Tracy, p. 169
  30. ^ a b c James, p. 19
  31. ^ a b Pipon in Tracy, p. 170
  32. ^ James, p. 20
  33. ^ James, pp. 15–19
  34. ^ a b James, p. 15
  35. ^ "No. 14089". The London Gazette. 6 February 1798.
  36. ^ Pakenham, p. 289

References

  • Editor: Gardiner, Robert (2001 [1996]). Fleet Battle and Blockade. Caxton Editions. ISBN 0-84067-363-X. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Henderson CBE, James (1994 [1970]). The Frigates. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-85052-432-6. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • James, William (2002 [1827]). The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 2, 1797–1799. Conway Martime Press. ISBN 0-85177-906-9. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Pakenham, Thomas (2000) [1997]. The Year of Liberty: The Story of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798. London: Abacus. ISBN 978-0349112527. Rev. ed.
  • Regan, Geoffrey (2001). Naval Blunders. Andre Deutsch. ISBN 0-23399-978-7.
  • Editor: Tracy, Nicholas (1998). "Narrative of the dreadful Shipwreck of Les Droits de L'Homme, a French ship, of 74 guns, driven on shore on the 14th February 1797, after a severe Action with the Indefatigable and Amazon Frigates, under the Command of Sir Edward Pellew and Captain Reynolds. By Elias Pipon, Lieutenant. 63rd Regiment.". The Naval Chronicle, Volume 1, 1793-1798. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-091-4. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  • Woodman, Richard (2001). The Sea Warriors. Constable Publishers. ISBN 1-84119-183-3.
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