Action of 31 March 1800
Encyclopedia
The Action of 31 March 1800 was a naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars
fought between a Royal Navy
squadron and a French Navy
ship of the line
off Malta
in the Mediterranean Sea
. By March 1800 Valletta
, the Maltese capital, had been under siege for eighteen months and food supplies were severely depleted, a problem exacerbated by the interception and defeat
of a French replenishment convoy in mid-February. In an effort to simultaneously obtain help from France and reduce the number of personnel maintained in the city, the naval commander on the island, Contre-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
, ordered his subordinate Contre-Admiral Denis Decrès
to put to sea with the large ship of the line Guillaume Tell, which had arrived in the port shortly before the siege began in September 1798. Over 900 men were carried aboard the ship, which was to sail for Toulon
under cover of darkness on 30 March.
The British had maintained a blockade off Malta since the beginning of the siege, ostensibly led by Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson, who by March 1800 was defying a direct order from his superior officer Lord Keith by remaining in Palermo
with his lover Emma, Lady Hamilton
. In his absence the blockade was under the command of Captain Manley Dixon
of HMS Lion
and Nelson's flag captain Sir Edward Berry, who were notified of Decrés' departure by the patrolling frigate
HMS Penelope
and gave chase. The large ship of the line was initially only attacked by Penelope, which manoeuvered around Guillaume Tell' s stern, causing severe damage and delaying the French ship sufficiently for Berry to bring his squadron into action. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Decrés continued to fight for more than three hours, fighting off two British ships but ultimately unable to resist the combined weight of Berry's attacks. Casualties and damage were severe on both sides, and the defiance of the French ship was celebrated in both countries as a brave defence against overwhelming odds.
Mediterranean Sea
, sailing for Egypt
. Pausing at Malta
on 9 June, Bonaparte landed soldiers and seized the island leaving a sizeable French garrison at Valletta
under General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois
while the rest of the fleet continued on to Alexandria
. After the successful landing in Egypt, Bonaparte marched inland at the head of his army. The fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay to support the troops ashore and was surprised and almost completely destroyed on 1 August by a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson. Only two ships of the line and two frigates escaped the Battle of the Nile
from the 17 French ships that participated in the action. Of the survivors, the ship of the line Généreux sailed for Corfu
while Guillaume Tell, under Contre-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
, reached Malta with the two frigates.
When Villeneuve arrived at Malta in September 1798, the island was already in turmoil: the dissolution of the Roman Catholic Church
on the island under French rule had been highly unpopular with the Maltese population
, who forced the French garrison to retreat into the fortress of Valletta on 2 September. By the start of October, British and Portuguese troops had supplemented the Maltese irregulars, while a naval squadron watched Valletta harbour, to prevent any French effort to resupply and reinforce the garrison. Although small quantities of material reached Valletta from France in early 1799, by the start of 1800 no ship had arrived for more than seven months, and the garrison was near starvation. In an effort to resupply the garrison, the French sent a convoy from Toulon
in February 1800, but the ships were intercepted off Malta by a squadron under Nelson on 17 February and in the ensuing battle
the flagship Généreux was captured and Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée
was killed.
Without Perrée's supplies, the garrison faced continued food shortages, and by March Vaubois and Villeneuve decided to send an urgent request for support to France. For this operation they chose the 80-gun Guillaume Tell under Captain Saulnier, partly because the condition and size of the ship enabled Vaubois to embark over 900 men aboard, many of whom were sick or wounded. Contre-Admiral Denis Decrès
had command of the ship and Vaubois and Villeneuve confirmed the date of departure for 30 March. While the French prepared this expedition, the British maintained their blockade, although without their commander. Nelson, in defiance of specific orders from his commanding officer Lord Keith, had retired to Palermo
on Sicily
to be with Emma, Lady Hamilton
, the wife of the British ambassador Sir William Hamilton
with whom Nelson was conducting an adulterous affair. In his absence, command had passed to Captain Sir Thomas Troubridge
on HMS Culloden
and then to Captain Manley Dixon
on HMS Lion
.
under Captain Henry Blackwood
. At 23:55, Blackwood's lookouts spotted Guillaume Tell and the captain gave chase, ordering the brig
HMS Minorca under Commander George Miller to convey the message to Dixon, whose ships were just visible in the distance. Blackwood also attempted to signal his discovery to his commanding officer as Penelope gave chase.
Blackwood rapidly gained on the ship of the line and by 00:30 the frigate was within range, pulling up under the stern of Guillaume Tell and beginning a steady fire to which Decrés could only respond with his stern-chasers, light cannon situated in the stern of the ship. Decrés recognised that if he stopped to engage Penelope then the rest of Berry's squadron, visible on the horizon to the south, would soon overwhelm him. He therefore continued sailing to the northeast, hoping his heavy ship of the line could outrun light and speedy frigate. However, Penelope was too fast, and Blackwood handled his ship with considerable skill, managing to pass Decrés' stern repeatedly and pour several raking
broadsides into the French ship.
Blackwood's attack was so successful that by dawn on 31 March Guillaume Tell had lost its main and mizen topmasts and its main yard, considerably reducing the speed at which Decrés could travel. The French ship had also suffered heavy casualties in the exchange, but Penelope had lost only one man killed and three wounded, and was almost undamaged. British reinforcements were now arriving from the south: the 64-gun HMS Lion under Captain Dixon had received Minorca' s warning at 01:00 and immediately sailed in pursuit, sending the brig on to Captain Sir Edward Berry in HMS Foudroyant
, who lay some distance to leeward. By 05:00, Dixon was close enough to engage, passing between Penelope and Guillaume Tell and firing a triple-shotted broadside into the port side of the French ship. shooting ahead of the now sluggish Guillaume Tell, Lion crossed its opponent's bows and shot away the jib boom
, allowing Dixon to maintain a position across the bow, raking the French ship from one end while Penelope did the same to the other. During these manoeuvres, Dixon's ship had briefly become entangled with Guillaume Tell' s rigging, and two determined efforts to board the British ship had be driven off as the ships were disentangled.
For half an hour, Lion continued to fire into the larger Guillaume Tell, but Dixon was unable to keep his ship completely out of range of the French broadsides and by 05:30 the subsequent damage showed an effect, Lion dropping back and falling behind the French vessel, although remaining within range alongside Penelope. At 06:00, Guillaume Tell came under attack for the third time, when Berry himself caught up with the battling ships in Foudroyant and pulled along the starboard broadside of the French ship of the line. Berry hailed Decrés to demand his surrender, and accompanied the demand with a triple-shotted broadside, to which Decrés responded with fire from his own guns. Foudroyant was flying a full set of sails and therefore suffered severe damage to its rigging in the opening exchange, the additional speed provided by this rig forcing Foudroyant to move ahead of the French vessel. After working back alongside Guillaume Tell, Berry recommenced fire that rapidly tore away much of the remaining French rigging, allowing Lion and Penelope to return to the battle while Foudroyant dropped back to make urgent repairs.
By 06:30 the badly outnumbered French ship had lost both its main and mizen masts, Foudroyant returning to the battle in time to collapse the foremast by 08:00. At 08:20, with no means of propulsion and wreckage obscuring most of his gun decks, Decrés surrendered to spare any further, fruitless, loss of life. His ship was in danger: the lack of masts and strong winds caused it to rock so severely that the lower deck gun ports had to be closed to prevent the ship from foundering. Casualties on the French ship numbered more than 200, from a crew of over 900, with both Decrés and Saulnier badly wounded. British losses were lighter, with eight killed and 64 wounded, including Berry on Foudroyant, eight killed and 38 wounded on Lion and one killed and three wounded (one fatally) on Penelope. Damage was unevenly spread, Foudroyant suffering most severely, with the hull and all masts damaged, the mizenmast so badly that it collapsed at approximately 12:00, wounding five more men. Lion was badly hit, although not so severely as Foudroyant while Penelope was only lightly damaged in the masts and rigging. The battle, which had begun within sight of Malta, had concluded roughly 21 nautical miles (38.9 km) southwest of Cape Passaro on Sicily.
in 1805.
The British officers were praised for the capture of Guillaume Tell, the last surviving French ship of the line to escape the Battle of the Nile: Nelson, who by his absence had "missed what would indeed have been the crowning glory to his Mediterranean career", wrote to Berry that "Your conduct and character in the late glorious occasion stamps your fame beyond the reach of envy." Despite Nelson's praise however, Berry in particular came in for subsequent criticism, especially from the historian William James
, who wrote in his 1827 history of the conflict that:
James instead attributed most of the praise for the victory to Blackwood and Dixon, whose ships were heavily outmatched by Guillaume Tell, but who successfully pressed their attacks with the intention of delaying the French retreat. He also highly praised Decrés for his conduct in the engagement, stating that "A more heroic defence than that of the Guillaume-Tell is not to be found among the records of naval actions". First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte reached a similar conclusion, and when Decrés was exchanged
soon after the battle he was presented with armes d'honneur, later converted to membership of the Légion d'honneur
. He was also given the position of maritime prefect of the Biscay
port of Lorient
.
Aboard Guillaume Tell, the British found evidence of the severity of the food shortages in Valletta: "the only thing found in La Guillaume Tell was the leg of a mule
, hung for saftey and his especial use of the admiral's stern-galley". News of the capture of Guillaume Tell was immediately passed to Vaubois by the British besiegers, along with a demand that he surrender the island. The French general, despite dwindling food supplies, refused, stating "Cette place est en trop bon état, et je suis moi-même trop jaloux de bien servir men payset de conserver mon honneur, por écouter vos propositions." ("This place is in too good a situation, and I am too conscious of the service of my country and my honour, to listen to your proposals"). Despite Vaubois' defiance, the garrison was rapidly starving, and although the French commander resisted until 4 September, he was eventually forced to surrender Valletta and all of its military equipment to the British.
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
fought between a Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
squadron and a French Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
off Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. By March 1800 Valletta
Valletta
Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,098. The name "Valletta" is traditionally reserved for the historic walled citadel that serves as Malta's...
, the Maltese capital, had been under siege for eighteen months and food supplies were severely depleted, a problem exacerbated by the interception and defeat
Battle of the Malta Convoy (1800)
The Battle of the Malta Convoy was a naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought on 18 February 1800 during the Siege of Malta. The French garrison at the city of Valletta in Malta had been under siege for eighteen months, blockaded on the landward side by a combined force of British,...
of a French replenishment convoy in mid-February. In an effort to simultaneously obtain help from France and reduce the number of personnel maintained in the city, the naval commander on the island, Contre-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and Spanish fleets defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar....
, ordered his subordinate Contre-Admiral Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès, , was an officer of the French Navy and count, later duke of the First Empire.-Early career:...
to put to sea with the large ship of the line Guillaume Tell, which had arrived in the port shortly before the siege began in September 1798. Over 900 men were carried aboard the ship, which was to sail for Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
under cover of darkness on 30 March.
The British had maintained a blockade off Malta since the beginning of the siege, ostensibly led by Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson, who by March 1800 was defying a direct order from his superior officer Lord Keith by remaining in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
with his lover Emma, Lady Hamilton
Emma, Lady Hamilton
Emma, Lady Hamilton is best remembered as the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of George Romney. She was born Amy Lyon in Ness near Neston, Cheshire, England, the daughter of a blacksmith, Henry Lyon, who died when she was two months old...
. In his absence the blockade was under the command of Captain Manley Dixon
Manley Dixon
Admiral Sir Manley Dixon, KCB was a prominent Royal Navy officer during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Born into a military family in the late 1750s or early 1760s, Dixon joined the Navy and served as a junior officer in the American Revolutionary War, gaining an independent...
of HMS Lion
HMS Lion (1777)
HMS Lion was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, of the Worcester class, launched on 3 September 1777 at Portsmouth Dockyard....
and Nelson's flag captain Sir Edward Berry, who were notified of Decrés' departure by the patrolling frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
HMS Penelope
HMS Penelope (1798)
HMS Penelope was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1798 and wrecked in 1815.Under Sir Henry Blackwood, she took part in the battle of 30 March 1800 against the Guillaume Tell. Penelope was credited for engaging and dismantling the masts of Guillaume Tell with two raking broadsides...
and gave chase. The large ship of the line was initially only attacked by Penelope, which manoeuvered around Guillaume Tell
Background
In May 1798, a French fleet under General Napoleon Bonaparte crossed theMediterranean campaign of 1798
The Mediterranean campaign of 1798 was a series of major naval operations surrounding a French expeditionary force sent to Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Republic sought to capture Egypt as the first stage in an effort to threaten British India, and...
Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, sailing for Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Pausing at Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
on 9 June, Bonaparte landed soldiers and seized the island leaving a sizeable French garrison at Valletta
Valletta
Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,098. The name "Valletta" is traditionally reserved for the historic walled citadel that serves as Malta's...
under General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois
Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois
Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. On 20 August 1808 he was created Comte de Belgrand de Vaubois...
while the rest of the fleet continued on to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. After the successful landing in Egypt, Bonaparte marched inland at the head of his army. The fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay to support the troops ashore and was surprised and almost completely destroyed on 1 August by a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson. Only two ships of the line and two frigates escaped the Battle of the Nile
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...
from the 17 French ships that participated in the action. Of the survivors, the ship of the line Généreux sailed for Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
while Guillaume Tell, under Contre-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and Spanish fleets defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar....
, reached Malta with the two frigates.
When Villeneuve arrived at Malta in September 1798, the island was already in turmoil: the dissolution of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
on the island under French rule had been highly unpopular with the Maltese population
Maltese people
The Maltese are an ethnic group indigenous to the Southern European nation of Malta, and identified with the Maltese language. Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea...
, who forced the French garrison to retreat into the fortress of Valletta on 2 September. By the start of October, British and Portuguese troops had supplemented the Maltese irregulars, while a naval squadron watched Valletta harbour, to prevent any French effort to resupply and reinforce the garrison. Although small quantities of material reached Valletta from France in early 1799, by the start of 1800 no ship had arrived for more than seven months, and the garrison was near starvation. In an effort to resupply the garrison, the French sent a convoy from Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
in February 1800, but the ships were intercepted off Malta by a squadron under Nelson on 17 February and in the ensuing battle
Battle of the Malta Convoy (1800)
The Battle of the Malta Convoy was a naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought on 18 February 1800 during the Siege of Malta. The French garrison at the city of Valletta in Malta had been under siege for eighteen months, blockaded on the landward side by a combined force of British,...
the flagship Généreux was captured and Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée
Jean-Baptiste Perrée
Jean-Baptiste Perrée was a French contre-amiral. He was born in Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme in Picardy.Perrée was midshipman in 1793, and was promoted to acting lieutenant de vaisseau in May 1793, taking command of Proserpine and raiding commerce, capturing 63 prizes. His rank was confirmed in late 1793...
was killed.
Without Perrée's supplies, the garrison faced continued food shortages, and by March Vaubois and Villeneuve decided to send an urgent request for support to France. For this operation they chose the 80-gun Guillaume Tell under Captain Saulnier, partly because the condition and size of the ship enabled Vaubois to embark over 900 men aboard, many of whom were sick or wounded. Contre-Admiral Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès, , was an officer of the French Navy and count, later duke of the First Empire.-Early career:...
had command of the ship and Vaubois and Villeneuve confirmed the date of departure for 30 March. While the French prepared this expedition, the British maintained their blockade, although without their commander. Nelson, in defiance of specific orders from his commanding officer Lord Keith, had retired to Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
on Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
to be with Emma, Lady Hamilton
Emma, Lady Hamilton
Emma, Lady Hamilton is best remembered as the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of George Romney. She was born Amy Lyon in Ness near Neston, Cheshire, England, the daughter of a blacksmith, Henry Lyon, who died when she was two months old...
, the wife of the British ambassador Sir William Hamilton
William Hamilton (diplomat)
Sir William Hamilton KB, PC, FRS was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800...
with whom Nelson was conducting an adulterous affair. In his absence, command had passed to Captain Sir Thomas Troubridge
Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1st Baronet
Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1st Baronet was a British naval commander and politician.Troubridge was educated at St Paul's School, London. He entered the Royal Navy in 1773 and, together with Nelson, served in the East Indies in the frigate Seahorse. In 1785 he returned to England in the Sultan as...
on HMS Culloden
HMS Culloden (1783)
HMS Culloden was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 16 June 1783 at Rotherhithe. She took part in some of the most famous battles of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars....
and then to Captain Manley Dixon
Manley Dixon
Admiral Sir Manley Dixon, KCB was a prominent Royal Navy officer during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Born into a military family in the late 1750s or early 1760s, Dixon joined the Navy and served as a junior officer in the American Revolutionary War, gaining an independent...
on HMS Lion
HMS Lion (1777)
HMS Lion was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, of the Worcester class, launched on 3 September 1777 at Portsmouth Dockyard....
.
Battle
At 23:00 on 30 March, with a strong wind from the south, Guillaume Tell sailed from Valletta, Decrés hoping to use the cover of darkness to escape the British blockade. Dixon had deployed his ships around the island, with Valletta watched by the frigate HMS PenelopeHMS Penelope (1798)
HMS Penelope was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1798 and wrecked in 1815.Under Sir Henry Blackwood, she took part in the battle of 30 March 1800 against the Guillaume Tell. Penelope was credited for engaging and dismantling the masts of Guillaume Tell with two raking broadsides...
under Captain Henry Blackwood
Henry Blackwood
Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, 1st Baronet, GCH, KCB , whose memorial is in the St. John's Church, Killyleagh, was a British sailor....
. At 23:55, Blackwood's lookouts spotted Guillaume Tell and the captain gave chase, ordering the brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
HMS Minorca under Commander George Miller to convey the message to Dixon, whose ships were just visible in the distance. Blackwood also attempted to signal his discovery to his commanding officer as Penelope gave chase.
Blackwood rapidly gained on the ship of the line and by 00:30 the frigate was within range, pulling up under the stern of Guillaume Tell and beginning a steady fire to which Decrés could only respond with his stern-chasers, light cannon situated in the stern of the ship. Decrés recognised that if he stopped to engage Penelope then the rest of Berry's squadron, visible on the horizon to the south, would soon overwhelm him. He therefore continued sailing to the northeast, hoping his heavy ship of the line could outrun light and speedy frigate. However, Penelope was too fast, and Blackwood handled his ship with considerable skill, managing to pass Decrés' stern repeatedly and pour several raking
Raking fire
In naval warfare, raking fire is fire directed parallel to the long axis of an enemy ship. Although each shot is directed against a smaller target profile than by shooting broadside and thus more likely to miss the target ship to one side or the other, an individual cannon shot that hits will pass...
broadsides into the French ship.
Blackwood's attack was so successful that by dawn on 31 March Guillaume Tell had lost its main and mizen topmasts and its main yard, considerably reducing the speed at which Decrés could travel. The French ship had also suffered heavy casualties in the exchange, but Penelope had lost only one man killed and three wounded, and was almost undamaged. British reinforcements were now arriving from the south: the 64-gun HMS Lion under Captain Dixon had received Minorca
HMS Foudroyant (1798)
HMS Foudroyant was an 80-gun third rate of the Royal Navy. She was built at Plymouth Dockyard and launched on 31 March 1798.Goodwin gives the launch date for Foudroyant as 31 March, 25 May, and 31 August. The text highlights this discrepancy and attributes the August date to Lyon's Sailing Navy...
, who lay some distance to leeward. By 05:00, Dixon was close enough to engage, passing between Penelope and Guillaume Tell and firing a triple-shotted broadside into the port side of the French ship. shooting ahead of the now sluggish Guillaume Tell, Lion crossed its opponent's bows and shot away the jib boom
Jib
A jib is a triangular staysail set ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bow, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast...
, allowing Dixon to maintain a position across the bow, raking the French ship from one end while Penelope did the same to the other. During these manoeuvres, Dixon's ship had briefly become entangled with Guillaume Tell
For half an hour, Lion continued to fire into the larger Guillaume Tell, but Dixon was unable to keep his ship completely out of range of the French broadsides and by 05:30 the subsequent damage showed an effect, Lion dropping back and falling behind the French vessel, although remaining within range alongside Penelope. At 06:00, Guillaume Tell came under attack for the third time, when Berry himself caught up with the battling ships in Foudroyant and pulled along the starboard broadside of the French ship of the line. Berry hailed Decrés to demand his surrender, and accompanied the demand with a triple-shotted broadside, to which Decrés responded with fire from his own guns. Foudroyant was flying a full set of sails and therefore suffered severe damage to its rigging in the opening exchange, the additional speed provided by this rig forcing Foudroyant to move ahead of the French vessel. After working back alongside Guillaume Tell, Berry recommenced fire that rapidly tore away much of the remaining French rigging, allowing Lion and Penelope to return to the battle while Foudroyant dropped back to make urgent repairs.
By 06:30 the badly outnumbered French ship had lost both its main and mizen masts, Foudroyant returning to the battle in time to collapse the foremast by 08:00. At 08:20, with no means of propulsion and wreckage obscuring most of his gun decks, Decrés surrendered to spare any further, fruitless, loss of life. His ship was in danger: the lack of masts and strong winds caused it to rock so severely that the lower deck gun ports had to be closed to prevent the ship from foundering. Casualties on the French ship numbered more than 200, from a crew of over 900, with both Decrés and Saulnier badly wounded. British losses were lighter, with eight killed and 64 wounded, including Berry on Foudroyant, eight killed and 38 wounded on Lion and one killed and three wounded (one fatally) on Penelope. Damage was unevenly spread, Foudroyant suffering most severely, with the hull and all masts damaged, the mizenmast so badly that it collapsed at approximately 12:00, wounding five more men. Lion was badly hit, although not so severely as Foudroyant while Penelope was only lightly damaged in the masts and rigging. The battle, which had begun within sight of Malta, had concluded roughly 21 nautical miles (38.9 km) southwest of Cape Passaro on Sicily.
Aftermath
Both Foudroyant and Lion were too battered to provide an effective tow to the dismasted French ship, and as a result Penelope was left to bring the shattered Guillaume Tell into Syracuse on Sicily. Eventually the ship was repaired sufficiently for the journey to Britain, and there was added to the Royal Navy under the name HMS Malta. Malta was, with HMS Tonnant captured two years earlier at the Nile, the most powerful third rate in the British fleet, and served for many years, participating at the Battle of Cape FinisterreBattle of Cape Finisterre (1805)
In the Battle of Cape Finisterre off Galicia, Spain, the British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder fought an indecisive naval battle against the Combined Franco-Spanish fleet which was returning from the West Indies...
in 1805.
The British officers were praised for the capture of Guillaume Tell, the last surviving French ship of the line to escape the Battle of the Nile: Nelson, who by his absence had "missed what would indeed have been the crowning glory to his Mediterranean career", wrote to Berry that "Your conduct and character in the late glorious occasion stamps your fame beyond the reach of envy." Despite Nelson's praise however, Berry in particular came in for subsequent criticism, especially from the historian William James
William James (naval historian)
William M. James was a British lawyer turned naval historian who wrote important naval histories of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815.-Career:...
, who wrote in his 1827 history of the conflict that:
James instead attributed most of the praise for the victory to Blackwood and Dixon, whose ships were heavily outmatched by Guillaume Tell, but who successfully pressed their attacks with the intention of delaying the French retreat. He also highly praised Decrés for his conduct in the engagement, stating that "A more heroic defence than that of the Guillaume-Tell is not to be found among the records of naval actions". First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte reached a similar conclusion, and when Decrés was exchanged
Prisoner exchange
A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners. These may be prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc...
soon after the battle he was presented with armes d'honneur, later converted to membership of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
. He was also given the position of maritime prefect of the Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...
port of Lorient
Lorient
Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...
.
Aboard Guillaume Tell, the British found evidence of the severity of the food shortages in Valletta: "the only thing found in La Guillaume Tell was the leg of a mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
, hung for saftey and his especial use of the admiral's stern-galley". News of the capture of Guillaume Tell was immediately passed to Vaubois by the British besiegers, along with a demand that he surrender the island. The French general, despite dwindling food supplies, refused, stating "Cette place est en trop bon état, et je suis moi-même trop jaloux de bien servir men payset de conserver mon honneur, por écouter vos propositions." ("This place is in too good a situation, and I am too conscious of the service of my country and my honour, to listen to your proposals"). Despite Vaubois' defiance, the garrison was rapidly starving, and although the French commander resisted until 4 September, he was eventually forced to surrender Valletta and all of its military equipment to the British.