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| Action off Brittany 13th January 1797 |
In December 1796, eager to exploit rebellious sentiment in
Ireland against British rule, and urged on by Irish exiles, the French
Revolutionary Government sent a huge naval and military expedition to open a
new theatre of war in Britain’s own backyard. The choice of December may seem a
strange one, due to the poor weather that could be expected, but the French relied
on this to allow their ships to slip past the blockading Royal Navy squadrons.
The French force left their base at Brest, in Brittany, on December
16th 1796 – seventeen ships-of the-line, thirteen frigates, six corvettes,
seven transports, and a store ship. They carried some 20,000 troops under the
command of the renowned General Hoche. Overall commander was Admiral Morard de
Galles, who had established his reputation as one of the great Admiral Suffren's
most successful captains.
Brest was under observation by the Royal Navy’s inshore
squadron, under Captain Sir Edward Pellew. It consisted of four frigates,
Pellew himself in the Indefatigable,
a 44-gun heavy frigate, as well as the Revolutionnaire
(a French prize taken into British service), the Phoebe, and the Amazon. When
Pellew saw the French emerge he sent off the Revolutionnaire to alert Admiral Sir John Colpoys, who with fifteen
of the line would have normally been closer inshore, but who had been blown off
station by the same strong easterly winds that facilitated the French departure.
The Revolution had deprived the French Navy of many of its
most experienced officers and indiscipline was rampant. Insufficient attention
had been paid to training and the presence of strong British forces offshore
limited opportunities for building ship-handling experience. The result was
that even in the absence of strong Royal Navy forces de Galles’ fleet, badly
handled in strong wind, lost cohesion on its first day at sea.
As darkness came on, Pellew edged down among the mob of French
ships. When de Galles signalled with guns, rockets, and blue lights, Pellew did
the same, with variations of his own, completely confusing the French captains.
Amid the general disorder that followed, one of the French 74's, the Seduisant, drove on to a rock and became
a total wreck. From 1300 on board only some 600 were saved.
Despite this setback the French evaded Colpoys’ squadron and
reached Bantry Bay, in South-West Ireland, in late December. Here storms and
fog made landing impossible and the decision was taken to abandon the
expedition and return to France.
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| A contemporary British view of the failure of the Bantry Bay Expedition - Cartoon by Gillray |
The French straggled home in ones and twos and
threes, no longer a fleet. On the January 13th, one of the French 74's, the Droits de l’Homme, commanded by a Captain
Raymond de Lacrosse, found herself alone off the Britany coast. Visibility was
poor and Lacrosse decided to approach no nearer but to sail southward under
easy sail, the wind on his starboard beam. In mid-afternoon two sails were
spotted on the lee bow, between the Droits
de l'Homme and the land. These proved to be Pellew’s Indefatigable, in company with a 36-gun 18-pounder frigate, the Amazon,
commanded by a Captain Reynolds. Pellew immediately signalled to the Amazon to give chase, and steered
towards the enemy, sailing considerably faster than his smaller consort in the
heavy sea.
On this winter day dusk fell early, about four-thirty and
the wind, which had been fresh all day, blew a full gale. As darkness came on
the Droits de l'Homme lost her fore
and main topmasts in a violent squall. Fearing that there might be yet more
British ships about, Lacrosse altered course to eastward, and ran straight
before the gale, hoping to reach the channel leading to Brest. It was a
dangerous decision, as he cannot have been certain about his exact position,
and should he have mistaken his landfall, there would be no chance for a
crippled ship on a lee shore in such conditions.
At five-thirty the Indefatigable,
in near darkness and under close-reefed topsails, surged across the Droits de l'Homme’s stern and raked her.
The French ship had nearly a thousand troops on board and they peppered the Indefatigable with musket fire as she
passed. Pellew's manoeuvre brought the two vessels
so close together that the ensign staff of the French ship fouled the Indefatigable's
mizzen rigging and British seamen
dragged the tattered remains of the French tricolour on to their own quarterdeck.
Lacrosse now tried to bring his vessel alongside, possibly with a view to
boarding, difficult as the high seas running would make it, but Pellew managed
to sheer away. The Droits de l'Homme's
bowsprit actually grazed Indefatigable's
spanker boom, and she in turn suffered raking fire as she turned away.
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| Indefatigable (on right) engages, mid-afternoon Amazon seen coming up on the horizon |
For the next hour and more the Indefatigable engaged the French ship-of-the-line single-handedly.
In her favour was the fact that in the heavy sea that was running Lacrosse
hardly dared open his lower deck gun-ports, and thus lost use of his 36-pounders,
his most formidable weapons. The Droits
de l'Homme carried 18-pounders in her upper tier, while the Indefatigable had an unusually powerful armament
for a frigate – 24-pounders on the gun-deck and 42-pounder carronades on the
poop and forecastle. In spite of the sea she fought her 24-pounders right
through the action. The loss of his topmasts made it impossible for Lacrosse to
steady his ship, and she rolled so furiously that her gunners and small-arms
men found aiming difficult.
The Amazon arrived
out of the darkness shortly before seven o’clock. She blasted a broadside into
the Droits de l'Homme but swift
action by Lacrosse avoided raking through the stern. The Amazon's manoeuvre had brought both British frigates on the same
side of the French ship, masking each other’s fire, so at seven-thirty they
both pulled ahead of the enemy. Pellew seems to have been particularly concerned
to repair damage to his rigging.
The Droits
de l'Homme also needed a respite badly
– heavy casualties had been sustained and poor discipline and training had
resulted in considerable confusion – but it proved a short one. An hour later
Pellew’s two frigates resumed their attack,
stationing themselves one on either bow of the enemy, and manoeuvring so as to
rake her alternately. The Droits de
l'Homme attempted to yaw first one way and then the other in order to
return their fire, but without much success.
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| The height of the action, night of 13/14th January Le Droits de l'Homme sandwiched between Pellew's two frigates |
It is hard to visualise just how ghastly the scene must have
been – the high waves, the screaming wind, the crashing guns, the cries of the
injured and dying, the enveloping darkness and choking clouds of smoke
illuminated by the deafening gunfire. This continued for over two hours.
At ten-thirty the Droits
de l'Homme’s mizzen-mast went
overboard, and the frigates now positioned themselves off her port and
starboard quarter, firing grapeshot so
as to hinder any attempt at rigging a jury-mast. Both British ships were
rolling so violently that their guns' breechings – their restraining ropes –
were parting and iron ring-bolts in the deck, to which they were fastened were being
torn free. The brutal pounding march continued through the night, so heavy that
by midnight the French vessel’s store of roundshot was exhausted. And still the
British ships blasted without let-up.
At four in the morning, long before daylight, a look-out on the
Indefatigable reported land directly ahead.
Pellew immediately signalled the danger to the Amazon, and hauled his wind southwards, while the Amazon bore away to the north. The Droits de l'Homme, possibly oblivious to
the danger, held straight on.
All three ships were now in extreme peril. Attack had proved
the best form of defence for the Indefatigable
– her crew’s superior gunnery skills has seen to that. Almost miraculously, no
one had been killed and fewer than twenty were wounded, half of them only
slightly. She had however suffered severe damage aloft – the French were known
for aiming for masts, spars and rigging. The most significant damage was that the
shrouds of the maintop-mast had been severed. Should this mast fall then Indefatigable could not hope to beat off
a lee shore in strong wind under her fore and mizzen topsails only. The hero of
the hour proved to be the seaman who was captain of the maintop. He went aloft
and somehow reached the lurching topmast-head. The end of a hawser was passed
up to him and he managed to secure it around the head of the mast. The other end
was made fast below and the mast was stabilised. This was perhaps the most heroic
exploit of the battle for it was accomplished in darkness, and in a gale, with
the swaying topmast threatening to go over at every moment, taking the seaman
with it.
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| All three ships fighting for survival in Audierne Bay |
The Indefatigable
stood to the south, close-hauled. Then, in the light of dawn, breakers were seen
ahead, astern and to starboard. Blindly running before the gale during the
night action, all three ships had been entrapped in Brittany’s Audierne Bay.
Pellew wore ship – he “jibed”, a difficult manoeuvre for a
square-rigged ship at any time and a daunting one for a damaged one and in the
teeth of a gale. Superb professionalism by officers and men alike proved it
successful and through the morning Pellew worked towards the safety of the open sea.
The Amazon was
less lucky. She had taken higher casualties - three killed and fifteen badly
wounded – and her masts and spars were badly damaged. Her mizzen topmast, gaff,
spanker -boom, and main-topsail yard were gone, and her sails were in shreds.
She ran on shore and broke up, but not before all but six of her disciplined
crew all came safely ashore on rafts. They were immediately surrounded by
French troops and marched off into captivity. It is pleasing to learn that they
were well treated. Amazon’s Captain
Reynolds was later honourably acquitted by a court martial for the loss of his
ship, and his two lieutenants were promoted.
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| The destruction of Le Droits de l'Homme Indefatigable seen escaping seawards on the left |
A worse fate awaited the Droits
de l'Homme. She too ran on to rocks but discipline seems to have broken
down and officers proved incapable or regaining control. For the next four days the survivors clung, cold
and starving, to the remains of the wreck until a French brig managed to reach
them and get them ashore. Among the survivors was General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert, who the following year
was successful in landing a small French army in Ireland. Humbert’s life was a
fascinating – and unlikely – one and worthy of a separate blog in the future.
In the action the Droits
de l’Homme lost over 100 killed, and 150 wounded, from the gunfire of Pellew’s
frigates. A British naval officer who was a prisoner on board, and survived, though
barely, claimed that after she had run on the rocks about 1000 men drowned or
died of starvation and exposure. Just over 400 were saved.
Pellew’s reputation and fame, already great, reached new
levels after this action which was perhaps the only instance of a ship-of-the-line
being destroyed by frigates. The circumstances were however exceptional and few captains other than
Pellew would have dared turn storm and darkness into weapons against the larger
ship.
Few more desperate actions were fought in the Age of Sail
Great story.
ReplyDeleteExcellent take of British duty and skill!
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