Raid on Dunkirk (1800)
Encyclopedia
The Raid on Dunkirk of 7 July 1800 was an attack by a British Royal Navy
force on the well defended French anchorage of Dunkirk in the English Channel
during the French Revolutionary Wars
. French naval forces had been blockade
d in their harbours during the conflict, and often the only method of attacking them was through fireships or "cutting-out" expeditions, in which boats would carry boarding parties into the harbour at night, seize ships at anchor and bring them out. The attack on Dunkirk was a combination of both of these types of operation, aimed at a powerful French frigate
squadron at anchor in Dunkirk harbour. The assault made use of a variety of experimental weaponry, some of which was tested in combat for the first time with mixed success.
Although assault by the heavily armed sloop
HMS Dart proved successful, the fireships achieved little and various other British craft involved in the operation had little effect on the eventual outcome. The French response was disorganised and ineffectual, losing one frigate captured. Three others were almost destroyed, only escaping by cutting their anchor cables and fleeing into the coastal shoals where they ran aground. Although all three frigates were refloated and returned to service, the operation had cost the French heavy casualties. The British force suffered minimal losses, although the exact totals are uncertain. Many of the British officers involved were highly praised and rewarded with promotions and prize money
.
(1793–1802), a string of victories at sea ensured that the Royal Navy
was dominant. The French Navy
in particular had suffered heavy losses, and in Northern European waters had been forced back into its own harbours by British blockade
squadrons. Although large ports were watched by fleets of ships of the line, small ports had their own blockade squadrons too, including the shallow French ports on the English Channel
. These harbours could not accommodate ships of the line but were well situated for frigates that attacked shipping in British waters whenever they could escape the blockade. One such port was Dunkirk in French Flanders
, which contained a squadron of four French frigates: the 44-gun Poursuivante under Commodore Jean-Joseph Castagnier, the 40-gun Carmagnole and the 36-gun Désirée
and Incorruptible
. Dunkirk was well defended, with gun batteries and gunboats overlooking the harbour. In addition, the port was surrounded by complicated coastal shoals into which the frigates could retreat if attacked.
The port was closely watched, it was determined that an attack by a squadron of smaller vessels on the frigates stood a chance of success and a number of ships were instructed to gather off the coast. Captain Henry Inman
of the frigate HMS Andromeda, had overall command; the force included HMS Nemesis
under Captain Thomas Baker
and 15 smaller vessels. The small craft included four fireships, small brig
s designed to operate as minor warships until such time as they were deemed expendable in an attack on an anchored target, and the sloop
HMS Dart under Commander Patrick Campbell
. Dart was a highly unusual ship: her size meant that she was unrated
even though her armament included 30 32-pounder
carronades. The carronades were mounted to a new design that minimised recoil
and made them faster and easier to load.
The squadron had assembled by 17 June 1800, but for ten days the winds and tides prevented the operation. The French prepared for any attack by anchoring their frigates in a line running across the harbour from east to west, supported by gunboats that patrolled the harbour. The western-most ships were positioned so that they could make their escape into the channels of the Braak Sands if they came under concerted attack. Inman knew that his largest ships, Andromeda and Nemesis, would prove liabilities in the narrow harbour. Both remained offshore, their crews dispersed into the smaller ships that would lead the attack, including the fireships HMS Wasp, HMS Falcon, HMS Comet and HMS Rosario, the brigs HMS Biter and HMS Boxer, and the hired ships Kent
, Ann
and Vigilant (on which Inman sailed). The entire squadron was led by Dart, under Campbell, whose target was the eastern end of the French line, the frigate Désirée.
from smugglers ships, and these men acted as guides for the British force. At midnight the shapes of the French frigates appeared from the darkness ahead and Dart gradually passed down their line, until a hail from one of the frigates demanded to know where Dart had come from. A French speaking officer replied "De Bordeaux" ("from Bordeaux
") and was then asked what the little ships behind Dart were, to which the officer replied "Je ne sais pas" ("I do not know"). Apparently satisfied with this reply, there were no more questions from the frigate and Dart continued its passage until it came alongside the last French frigate but one. Lookouts on this ship recognised the shape of the strange vessel that had appeared out of the night and immediately opened fire, to which Dart swiftly responded. Campbell knew that his heavy carronades were devastating at close range, and had ordered them to be double-shotted, meaning that each carronade carried twice the ordinary number of missiles. The effect was immediate, with heavy casualties and severe damage inflicted on the French vessel. The fast loading abilities of the carronades allowed the sloop's 15 guns to keep up a steady fire as Dart swept on to the last ship in line, Désirée.
Using an anchor to steady his ship, Campbell placed Dart alongside the French frigate, with his bows between the French ship's masts. This allowed a boarding party led by Lieutenant James M'Dermeit to leap aboard Désirée and drive the French off the frigate's deck in hand-to-hand combat. M'Dermeit was wounded in the fighting, and called across for reinforcements as the French regrouped in the stern of the ship. Campbell used his anchors to swing Dart alongside the French frigate and a second boarding party under Lieutenant William Isaac Pearce charged aboard, routing the French reinforcements that were emerging from below decks. With the upper deck secure, Pearce severed the anchor cables, steered Désirée out of the harbour and over the sandbars that were rapidly being exposed by the receding tide. With his target captured, Campbell turned Dart towards the second British attack, against the head of the French line.
As Dart and Désirée fought at the southern end of the line, the British fireships attacked the van. The fireships had been stripped of all useful materials and been converted into their original role. Small crews of volunteers set alight to the vessels and all four bore down on the three northern French ships with supporting fire coming from Dart and the brigs. The smaller vessels, accompanied by a number of ship's boats from the British frigates outside the harbour, attended the fireships and removed their crews once they were alight. Although all four fireships were well-handled, the French were prepared for the tactic and the squadron severed its anchor cables and sailed into the channels around the Braak Sands. This manoeuvre took them past Biter and Boxer and also exposed them to continued fire from Dart, but, despite the damage, all three made the safety of the channel, into which the British could not follow without fear of grounding. One of the French ships did become stuck at low tide, but out of the range of the British ships and it suffered no serious damage. The fireships drifted aimlessly before exploding uselessly, succeeding only in wounding two British sailors whose boat was too close to Comet. While the frigates and fireships fought, a host of small French gunboats emerged from Dunkirk and were met by the hired ships, armed as brig
s. In a sharp engagement the hired ships lost four wounded but successfully held back the gunboats during the battle.
' s attack. Recognising that he had no room for prisoners and that many of the French wounded required urgent treatment, Inman ordered the wounded men to be sent back to Dunkirk, although it appears this amnesty was subsequently extended to all the prisoners. By midday on 8 July 1800 the British squadron had returned to its position off the coast while Désirée was sent to Britain, later commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Desiree under the command of Captain Inman. Prize money
was paid for the captured frigate, but head money, an award made for enemy servicemen killed, wounded or captured, was not paid, probably due to the return of the prisoners. For their services, Commander Campell and Lieutenant M'Dermeit were promoted, the former transferring from Dart into the much smaller sixth rate HMS Aridane. The French ships returned from the Braak Sand during the morning and repairs were conducted in Dunkirk.
In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "CAPTURE OF THE DESIREE" to all surviving claimants from the action.
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...
force on the well defended French anchorage of Dunkirk in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
during the French Revolutionary Wars
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...
. French naval forces had been blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
d in their harbours during the conflict, and often the only method of attacking them was through fireships or "cutting-out" expeditions, in which boats would carry boarding parties into the harbour at night, seize ships at anchor and bring them out. The attack on Dunkirk was a combination of both of these types of operation, aimed at a powerful French 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"...
squadron at anchor in Dunkirk harbour. The assault made use of a variety of experimental weaponry, some of which was tested in combat for the first time with mixed success.
Although assault by the heavily armed sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
HMS Dart proved successful, the fireships achieved little and various other British craft involved in the operation had little effect on the eventual outcome. The French response was disorganised and ineffectual, losing one frigate captured. Three others were almost destroyed, only escaping by cutting their anchor cables and fleeing into the coastal shoals where they ran aground. Although all three frigates were refloated and returned to service, the operation had cost the French heavy casualties. The British force suffered minimal losses, although the exact totals are uncertain. Many of the British officers involved were highly praised and rewarded with promotions and prize money
Prize money
Prize money has a distinct meaning in warfare, especially naval warfare, where it was a monetary reward paid out to the crew of a ship for capturing an enemy vessel...
.
Background
By the late French Revolutionary WarsFrench 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...
(1793–1802), a string of victories at sea ensured that the 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...
was dominant. The 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...
in particular had suffered heavy losses, and in Northern European waters had been forced back into its own harbours by British blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
squadrons. Although large ports were watched by fleets of ships of the line, small ports had their own blockade squadrons too, including the shallow French ports on the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
. These harbours could not accommodate ships of the line but were well situated for frigates that attacked shipping in British waters whenever they could escape the blockade. One such port was Dunkirk in French Flanders
French Flanders
French Flanders is a part of the historical County of Flanders in present-day France. The region today lies in the modern-day region of Nord-Pas de Calais, the department of Nord, and roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Lille, Douai and Dunkirk on the Belgian border.-Geography:French...
, which contained a squadron of four French frigates: the 44-gun Poursuivante under Commodore Jean-Joseph Castagnier, the 40-gun Carmagnole and the 36-gun Désirée
French frigate Désirée (1796)
The Désirée was a Romaine class frigate of the French Navy.She was captured in a Raid on Dunkirk by HMS Dart, under Patrick Campbell, on 8 July 1800.-References:...
and Incorruptible
French frigate Incorruptible (1795)
The Incorruptible was a Romaine class frigate of the French Navy.On 15 July 1796, under captain Bescond, she fought against the 56-gun HMS Glatton.In 1800, she was involved in the battle of Dunkirk....
. Dunkirk was well defended, with gun batteries and gunboats overlooking the harbour. In addition, the port was surrounded by complicated coastal shoals into which the frigates could retreat if attacked.
The port was closely watched, it was determined that an attack by a squadron of smaller vessels on the frigates stood a chance of success and a number of ships were instructed to gather off the coast. Captain Henry Inman
Henry Inman (Royal Navy officer)
Captain Henry Inman was a British Royal Navy officer during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, serving in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars...
of the frigate HMS Andromeda, had overall command; the force included HMS Nemesis
HMS Nemesis (1780)
HMS Nemesis was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The Nemesis was first commissioned in January 1780 under the command of Captain Richard Bligh.- References :...
under Captain Thomas Baker
Thomas Baker (Royal Navy officer)
Sir Thomas Baker KCB, KWN was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...
and 15 smaller vessels. The small craft included four fireships, small 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...
s designed to operate as minor warships until such time as they were deemed expendable in an attack on an anchored target, and the sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
HMS Dart under Commander Patrick Campbell
Patrick Campbell (Royal Navy officer)
Vice-Admiral Sir Patrick Campbell, KCB was a senior British Royal Navy officer of the early nineteenth century who was distinguished by his service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...
. Dart was a highly unusual ship: her size meant that she was unrated
Rating system of the Royal Navy
The rating system of the Royal Navy and its predecessors was used by the British Royal Navy between the beginning of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century to categorise sailing warships, initially classing them according to their assigned complement of men, and later according to the...
even though her armament included 30 32-pounder
Naval artillery in the Age of Sail
Naval artillery in the Age of Sail encompasses the period of roughly 1571-1863: when large, sail-powered wooden naval warships dominated the high seas, mounting a bewildering variety of different types and sizes of cannon as their main armament. By modern standards, these cannon were extremely...
carronades. The carronades were mounted to a new design that minimised recoil
Recoil
Recoil is the backward momentum of a gun when it is discharged. In technical terms, the recoil caused by the gun exactly balances the forward momentum of the projectile and exhaust gasses, according to Newton's third law...
and made them faster and easier to load.
The squadron had assembled by 17 June 1800, but for ten days the winds and tides prevented the operation. The French prepared for any attack by anchoring their frigates in a line running across the harbour from east to west, supported by gunboats that patrolled the harbour. The western-most ships were positioned so that they could make their escape into the channels of the Braak Sands if they came under concerted attack. Inman knew that his largest ships, Andromeda and Nemesis, would prove liabilities in the narrow harbour. Both remained offshore, their crews dispersed into the smaller ships that would lead the attack, including the fireships HMS Wasp, HMS Falcon, HMS Comet and HMS Rosario, the brigs HMS Biter and HMS Boxer, and the hired ships Kent
Hired armed cutter Kent
The Royal Navy employed two vessels described as the Hired armed cutter Kent.-First Hired armed cutter Kent:The first Kent served the Royal Navy from 22 December 1798 until 19 October 1801 when she was returned to her owners...
, Ann
Hired armed cutter Ann
The hired armed cutter Ann served the Royal Navy from 9 May 1795 to 19 October 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars. She was of 104 91/94 tons burthen and carried twelve 3-pounder guns.-Service:...
and Vigilant (on which Inman sailed). The entire squadron was led by Dart, under Campbell, whose target was the eastern end of the French line, the frigate Désirée.
Battle
Inman's squadron entered Dunkirk harbour on the late evening of 7 July 1800, Dart slowly leading the way and the rest of the squadron sailing in a line behind the heavily armed sloop. Inman had crewed the hired ships Vigilant and Nile with men impressedImpressment
Impressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...
from smugglers ships, and these men acted as guides for the British force. At midnight the shapes of the French frigates appeared from the darkness ahead and Dart gradually passed down their line, until a hail from one of the frigates demanded to know where Dart had come from. A French speaking officer replied "De Bordeaux" ("from Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
") and was then asked what the little ships behind Dart were, to which the officer replied "Je ne sais pas" ("I do not know"). Apparently satisfied with this reply, there were no more questions from the frigate and Dart continued its passage until it came alongside the last French frigate but one. Lookouts on this ship recognised the shape of the strange vessel that had appeared out of the night and immediately opened fire, to which Dart swiftly responded. Campbell knew that his heavy carronades were devastating at close range, and had ordered them to be double-shotted, meaning that each carronade carried twice the ordinary number of missiles. The effect was immediate, with heavy casualties and severe damage inflicted on the French vessel. The fast loading abilities of the carronades allowed the sloop's 15 guns to keep up a steady fire as Dart swept on to the last ship in line, Désirée.
Using an anchor to steady his ship, Campbell placed Dart alongside the French frigate, with his bows between the French ship's masts. This allowed a boarding party led by Lieutenant James M'Dermeit to leap aboard Désirée and drive the French off the frigate's deck in hand-to-hand combat. M'Dermeit was wounded in the fighting, and called across for reinforcements as the French regrouped in the stern of the ship. Campbell used his anchors to swing Dart alongside the French frigate and a second boarding party under Lieutenant William Isaac Pearce charged aboard, routing the French reinforcements that were emerging from below decks. With the upper deck secure, Pearce severed the anchor cables, steered Désirée out of the harbour and over the sandbars that were rapidly being exposed by the receding tide. With his target captured, Campbell turned Dart towards the second British attack, against the head of the French line.
As Dart and Désirée fought at the southern end of the line, the British fireships attacked the van. The fireships had been stripped of all useful materials and been converted into their original role. Small crews of volunteers set alight to the vessels and all four bore down on the three northern French ships with supporting fire coming from Dart and the brigs. The smaller vessels, accompanied by a number of ship's boats from the British frigates outside the harbour, attended the fireships and removed their crews once they were alight. Although all four fireships were well-handled, the French were prepared for the tactic and the squadron severed its anchor cables and sailed into the channels around the Braak Sands. This manoeuvre took them past Biter and Boxer and also exposed them to continued fire from Dart, but, despite the damage, all three made the safety of the channel, into which the British could not follow without fear of grounding. One of the French ships did become stuck at low tide, but out of the range of the British ships and it suffered no serious damage. The fireships drifted aimlessly before exploding uselessly, succeeding only in wounding two British sailors whose boat was too close to Comet. While the frigates and fireships fought, a host of small French gunboats emerged from Dunkirk and were met by the hired ships, armed as 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...
s. In a sharp engagement the hired ships lost four wounded but successfully held back the gunboats during the battle.
Aftermath
With his principal targets out of reach, Inman called off the attack during the early morning and withdrew his ships. He had lost one man killed and 17 wounded, all but six of the latter coming from Dart (some sources only record the men wounded on Dart in the total). French casualties were far more severe, with more than 100 men killed or wounded, mostly on Désirée, which had taken the brunt of DartPrize money
Prize money has a distinct meaning in warfare, especially naval warfare, where it was a monetary reward paid out to the crew of a ship for capturing an enemy vessel...
was paid for the captured frigate, but head money, an award made for enemy servicemen killed, wounded or captured, was not paid, probably due to the return of the prisoners. For their services, Commander Campell and Lieutenant M'Dermeit were promoted, the former transferring from Dart into the much smaller sixth rate HMS Aridane. The French ships returned from the Braak Sand during the morning and repairs were conducted in Dunkirk.
In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "CAPTURE OF THE DESIREE" to all surviving claimants from the action.