Action of 18 September 1810
Encyclopedia
The Action of 18 September 1810 was a naval battle fought between British
Royal Navy
and French
Navy
frigates in the Indian Ocean
during the Napoleonic Wars
. The engagement was one of several between rival frigate squadrons contesting control of the French island base of Île de France
, from which French frigates had raided British trade routes during the war. The action came in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Grand Port
, in which four British frigates had been lost, and just four days after a fifth British frigate had been captured and subsequently recaptured in the Action of 13 September 1810
. In consequence of the heavy losses the British force had suffered, reinforcements were hastily rushed to the area and became individual targets for the larger French squadron blockading the British base at Île Bourbon.
HMS Ceylon
had been despatched by the British authorities at Madras after the Battle of Grand Port to reinforce the remains of the squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley
on Île Bourbon. Searching for Rowley off Île de France, Ceylon was spotted by French Commodore Jacques Hamelin who gave chase in his flagship Vénus
, supported by a corvette
. Vénus was faster than Ceylon, and although Captain Charles Gordon
almost reached the safety of Île Bourbon, he was run down and forced to engage the French ship during the night, both frigates inflicting severe damage on one another before the wounded Gordon surrendered to the approaching corvette. As dawn broke, Rowley's flagship HMS Boadicea
arrived, recaptured Ceylon, drove off the corvette and forced the battered French flagship to surrender, capturing Hamelin. This was the last ship-to-ship action in the region before the successful invasion of Île de France
in December 1810: without Hamelin the French squadron, short on supplies and low on morale, did not contest British control of the region and failed to even attempt to disrupt the invasion fleet.
island bases of Île de France
and Île Bonaparte had been ideal positions from which French cruisers could raid the valuable trade routes from Britain to India since the start of the war in 1803. However, it was not until 1808 that the French authorities spared a significant force to operate from the region, providing a squadron of four frigates under Commodore Jacques Hamelin. In 1809 and early 1810, these frigates operated with impunity along British trade routes, capturing seven valuable East Indiamen
, a number of smaller merchant ships and several small warships. In response, the British admiral at the Cape of Good Hope
, Albemarle Bertie
, provided a small force of British warships to blockade the islands under Commodore Josias Rowley
. Rowley knew that it would be almost impossible find and defeat the French ships out in the wider ocean with his limited resources, but he was able to limit French effectiveness by attacking their bases, raiding Saint Paul harbour in 1809 and capturing Île Bonaparte
in 1810, renaming it Île Bourbon.
In August 1810, a squadron of four of Rowley's frigates, making up the majority of the forces under his command and led by Captain Samuel Pym
, were despatched to Île de France to blockade Grand Port
on the south-eastern coast. The arrival of a French squadron under Captain Guy-Victor Duperré
on 20 August prompted Pym into ordering an inadequately planned attack on the harbour on 23 August and two of his vessels were wrecked on the reefs that protected the harbour entrance. Pym was unable to withdraw his remaining ships and the entire squadron was lost, leaving Rowley with only his flagship HMS Boadicea
and two small brig
s to conduct his campaign against six large French frigates. Urgent reinforcements were requested, as French ships under Captain Pierre Bouvet blockaded Île Bourbon.
The first ship to arrive was HMS Africaine under the Captain Robert Corbet
. In the Action of 13 September 1810
, Corbet engaged Bouvet's two frigates alone and was defeated, dying of his wounds shortly after the battle. Rowley in Boadicea was able to recapture Africaine later in the day, but the frigate was severely damaged and unable to provide any reinforcement to the British squadron. Bouvet retired to Grand Port several days later for repairs, and thus was not on blockade duty on 17 September when HMS Ceylon
arrived. Ceylon was an unusual ship, constructed by the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) in Bombay as an East Indiaman merchant ship designed to operate as a 32–gun frigate during wartime. In 1805 she was purchased by the British government and commissioned into the Royal Navy
for service in the Indian Ocean. In 1810, her commander was Captain Charles Gordon
, who had been ordered to sail to Rowley's aid when word of the losses suffered at Grand Port reached Madras. In his haste to depart, Gordon had been unable to obtain any Royal Marines
, whose place was taken by 100 men of the 69th Regiment and the 86th Regiment from the Madras garrison. Also embarked was General John Abercromby and his staff, who were to lead a planned assault on Île de France.
and Manche
with the corvette
Victor. Recognising that he was heavily outnumbered, Gordon sailed westwards towards Île Bourbon to meet with Rowley and pass on the location of Hamelin's squadron. French lookouts on shore spotted Ceylon but mistook her for a troopship
due to her unusual construction. The sighting was rapidly passed on to Hamelin, who immediately gave chase with Vénus and Victor.
At 14:00, Ceylon spotted Hamelin's ships in pursuit and her crew increased their efforts to escape, mistaking Victor, which carried three masts
, for a larger ship and therefore considering themselves significantly outnumbered. As night fell, Gordon slowed Ceylon by shortening sail in the hope of meeting Vénus (which had outdistanced Victor) alone. However, the French flagship also slowed to allow the corvette to catch up and so Gordon increased sail once more, leading Hamelin southwest towards Île Bourbon. At 00:15 on the morning of 18 September, Vénus caught up with Ceylon, which began firing on the larger French frigate as she passed. Hamelin, recognising that his vessel had the advantage in size and weight of shot, did not wait for Victor but attacked immediately, passing Ceylon and tuning across her bows to open a raking fire
.
The French corvette had been struggling to catch up during the night and did not arrive until dawn approached, revealing the flagship in a damaged state and the British vessel even more stricken. Sailing directly at Ceylon, the corvette was able to manoeuvre around the frigate and place herself in a raking position, from which her cannon
could cause heavy damage and casualties to Ceylon without reply. Rather than have his ship destroyed, the wounded Gordon surrendered (although it is not clear whether Victor opened fire or not before the British surrender). Victor' s men boarded Ceylon and Gordon and his officers, including Abercromby, were taken to Vénus as prisoners of war.
As dawn broke and visibility cleared, the sailors on Ceylon, Vénus and Victor realised that they were within sight of Saint Denis on Île Bourbon, and thus vulnerable to counter attack from Rowley's flagship Boadicea. Despite hasty repairs, neither Ceylon nor Vénus were seaworthy by 07:30, when British lookouts on the island spotted the three ships and sent word to Rowley. Within ten minutes, Rowley was at sea, taking 50 volunteers from Africaine to augment his crew. Hamelin made desperate efforts to limp back to Île de France, ordering Victor to tow Ceylon, but progress was slow and strong winds, which did not help the dismasted Ceylon and Vénus, repeatedly broke the tow rope.
During the day, Boadicea continued to close until Victor was forced to abandon Ceylon and sail in support of Vénus at 15:30. As soon as the French prize crew was removed, Lieutenant Philip Fitz Gibbon, the remaining officer on Ceylon, rehoisted British colours and assumed control of the ship. This allowed Boadicea to sail past the recaptured frigate and engage the French ships directly, reaching Vénus at 16:40. Hamelin recognised that the battered state of his flagship meant that he would not be able to adequately defend against Rowley's attack and ordered Victor to take news of his defeat back to Port Napoleon. Readying his ship for a token action, Hamelin fired at Boadicea as she came up but was forced to surrender within ten minutes.
, which had followed Boadicea from Saint Denis, Rowley was able to return his prize and the battered Ceylon to Île Bourbon without significant difficulty. British casualties had been relatively minor for such a difficult engagement, Ceylon suffering 10 men killed and 31 wounded and Boadicea just 2 wounded. French losses were also comparatively light, with only 9 dead and 15 wounded on Vénus and none at all on Victor. Rowley repaired Ceylon and restored Gordon in command. Vénus was also repaired, and entered British service as HMS Nereide to replace the Nereide lost at Grand Port. Nearly four decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by the clasps "BOADICEA 18 SEPT. 1810", "OTTER 18 SEPT. 1810" and "STAUNCH 18 SEPT. 1810" attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.
With the British squadron bolstered and the French commander and best frigate in British hands, the campaign stalemated. The French were no longer able to repair or maintain their ships due a lack of naval stores on Île de France, and so remained in port and prepared for the inevitable invasion. Rowley meanwhile was busy preparing troops, stores and his squadron for the coming attack
, which was led by Admiral Bertie in November 1810. The French squadron made no attempt to disrupt the invasion forces and were captured intact in their harbours. Bertie was credited with the final defeat of Île de France and was made a baronet
as reward for the successful campaign, sending Rowley back to Britain with despatches. A court martial, held on HMS Illustrious
in the aftermath of the invasion cleared Gordon of any blame in the defeat of his ship, although historian William James
criticised Gordon's assumption during the battle that Victor was a French frigate rather than a much smaller corvette, and identified discrepancies between Gordon's published account and the ship's log.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
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...
and French
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
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...
frigates in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. The engagement was one of several between rival frigate squadrons contesting control of the French island base of Île de France
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
, from which French frigates had raided British trade routes during the war. The action came in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Grand Port
Battle of Grand Port
The Battle of Grand Port was a naval battle between squadrons of frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy. The battle was fought during 20–27 August 1810 over possession of the harbour of Grand Port on Île de France during the Napoleonic Wars...
, in which four British frigates had been lost, and just four days after a fifth British frigate had been captured and subsequently recaptured in the Action of 13 September 1810
Action of 13 September 1810
The Action of 13 September 1810 was an inconclusive frigate engagement during the Napoleonic Wars between British Royal Navy and French Navy frigates during which a British frigate was defeated by two French vessels near Île de France, but British reinforcements were able to recapture the ship...
. In consequence of the heavy losses the British force had suffered, reinforcements were hastily rushed to the area and became individual targets for the larger French squadron blockading the British base at Île Bourbon.
HMS Ceylon
HMS Bombay (1805)
HCS Bombay, later HMS Bombay and HMS Ceylon, was a 672 ton fifth rate, 38-gun wooden warship built in the Bombay Dockyard for the Honourable East India Company and launched in 1793. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1805 and renamed her HMS Bombay. She served with the Royal Navy under that name...
had been despatched by the British authorities at Madras after the Battle of Grand Port to reinforce the remains of the squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley
Josias Rowley
Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, 1st Baronet GCB, GCMG , known as "The Sweeper of the Seas", was a naval officer who commanded the campaign that captured the French Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius in 1810.-Naval career:...
on Île Bourbon. Searching for Rowley off Île de France, Ceylon was spotted by French Commodore Jacques Hamelin who gave chase in his flagship Vénus
French frigate Vénus (1808)
The Vénus was a Junon class frigate of the French Navy.On 10 November 1808, she departed Cherbourg, bound for Île de France, where she served as Hamelin's flagship, leading a squadron also comprising the frigate Manche and the sloop Créole....
, supported by a corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
. Vénus was faster than Ceylon, and although Captain Charles Gordon
Charles Gordon (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Charles Gordon, CB was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the nineteenth century. Gordon's most notable action was the Action of 18 September 1810, when he was seriously wounded in battle and his frigate HMS Ceylon captured by the French frigate Vénus...
almost reached the safety of Île Bourbon, he was run down and forced to engage the French ship during the night, both frigates inflicting severe damage on one another before the wounded Gordon surrendered to the approaching corvette. As dawn broke, Rowley's flagship HMS Boadicea
HMS Boadicea (1797)
HMS Boadicea was a frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the Channel and in the East Indies during which service she captured many prizes. She participated in one action for which the Admiralty would award the Naval General Service Medal...
arrived, recaptured Ceylon, drove off the corvette and forced the battered French flagship to surrender, capturing Hamelin. This was the last ship-to-ship action in the region before the successful invasion of Île de France
Invasion of Île de France
The Invasion of Île de France was a complicated but successful amphibious operation in the Indian Ocean, launched in November 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. During the operation, a substantial British military force was landed by the Royal Navy at Grand Baie on Île de France...
in December 1810: without Hamelin the French squadron, short on supplies and low on morale, did not contest British control of the region and failed to even attempt to disrupt the invasion fleet.
Background
The French Indian OceanIndian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
island bases of Île de France
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
and Île Bonaparte had been ideal positions from which French cruisers could raid the valuable trade routes from Britain to India since the start of the war in 1803. However, it was not until 1808 that the French authorities spared a significant force to operate from the region, providing a squadron of four frigates under Commodore Jacques Hamelin. In 1809 and early 1810, these frigates operated with impunity along British trade routes, capturing seven valuable East Indiamen
East Indiamen
An East Indiaman was a ship operating under charter or license to any of the East India Companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries...
, a number of smaller merchant ships and several small warships. In response, the British admiral at the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
, Albemarle Bertie
Sir Albemarle Bertie, 1st Baronet
Admiral Sir Albemarle Bertie, 1st Baronet, KCB, was a long-serving and at time controversial officer of the British Royal Navy who saw extensive service in his career but also courted controversy with several of his actions....
, provided a small force of British warships to blockade the islands under Commodore Josias Rowley
Josias Rowley
Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, 1st Baronet GCB, GCMG , known as "The Sweeper of the Seas", was a naval officer who commanded the campaign that captured the French Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius in 1810.-Naval career:...
. Rowley knew that it would be almost impossible find and defeat the French ships out in the wider ocean with his limited resources, but he was able to limit French effectiveness by attacking their bases, raiding Saint Paul harbour in 1809 and capturing Île Bonaparte
Invasion of Île Bonaparte
The Invasion of Île Bonaparte was an amphibious operation in 1810 that formed an important part of the British campaign to blockade and capture the French Indian Ocean territories of Île Bonaparte and Île de France during the Napoleonic Wars...
in 1810, renaming it Île Bourbon.
In August 1810, a squadron of four of Rowley's frigates, making up the majority of the forces under his command and led by Captain Samuel Pym
Samuel Pym
Sir Samuel Pym KCB was a British admiral, brother of Sir William Pym.In June 1788, Pym joined the Royal Navy as captain's servant of the frigate Eurydice...
, were despatched to Île de France to blockade Grand Port
Grand Port
Grand Port is a district encompassing much of the south-eastern part of the island of Mauritius. Its capital is Rose-Belle but the most important town of the district is Mahebourg...
on the south-eastern coast. The arrival of a French squadron under Captain Guy-Victor Duperré
Guy-Victor Duperré
Guy-Victor Duperré was a French admiral, Peer of France and thrice Naval Minister....
on 20 August prompted Pym into ordering an inadequately planned attack on the harbour on 23 August and two of his vessels were wrecked on the reefs that protected the harbour entrance. Pym was unable to withdraw his remaining ships and the entire squadron was lost, leaving Rowley with only his flagship HMS Boadicea
HMS Boadicea (1797)
HMS Boadicea was a frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the Channel and in the East Indies during which service she captured many prizes. She participated in one action for which the Admiralty would award the Naval General Service Medal...
and two 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 to conduct his campaign against six large French frigates. Urgent reinforcements were requested, as French ships under Captain Pierre Bouvet blockaded Île Bourbon.
The first ship to arrive was HMS Africaine under the Captain Robert Corbet
Robert Corbet
Captain Robert Corbet RN , often spelled Corbett, was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who was killed in action in highly controversial circumstances...
. In the Action of 13 September 1810
Action of 13 September 1810
The Action of 13 September 1810 was an inconclusive frigate engagement during the Napoleonic Wars between British Royal Navy and French Navy frigates during which a British frigate was defeated by two French vessels near Île de France, but British reinforcements were able to recapture the ship...
, Corbet engaged Bouvet's two frigates alone and was defeated, dying of his wounds shortly after the battle. Rowley in Boadicea was able to recapture Africaine later in the day, but the frigate was severely damaged and unable to provide any reinforcement to the British squadron. Bouvet retired to Grand Port several days later for repairs, and thus was not on blockade duty on 17 September when HMS Ceylon
HMS Bombay (1805)
HCS Bombay, later HMS Bombay and HMS Ceylon, was a 672 ton fifth rate, 38-gun wooden warship built in the Bombay Dockyard for the Honourable East India Company and launched in 1793. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1805 and renamed her HMS Bombay. She served with the Royal Navy under that name...
arrived. Ceylon was an unusual ship, constructed by the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) in Bombay as an East Indiaman merchant ship designed to operate as a 32–gun frigate during wartime. In 1805 she was purchased by the British government and commissioned into 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...
for service in the Indian Ocean. In 1810, her commander was Captain Charles Gordon
Charles Gordon (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Charles Gordon, CB was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the nineteenth century. Gordon's most notable action was the Action of 18 September 1810, when he was seriously wounded in battle and his frigate HMS Ceylon captured by the French frigate Vénus...
, who had been ordered to sail to Rowley's aid when word of the losses suffered at Grand Port reached Madras. In his haste to depart, Gordon had been unable to obtain any Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
, whose place was taken by 100 men of the 69th Regiment and the 86th Regiment from the Madras garrison. Also embarked was General John Abercromby and his staff, who were to lead a planned assault on Île de France.
Pursuit
Gordon arrived off Port Napoleon on 17 September, hoping to find Rowley maintaining the blockade off the port in Boadicea. Rowley was however off Île Bourbon, sparring with Bouvet's frigates, and therefore Gordon only found Hamelin's squadron in the harbour. This force consisted of the frigates VénusFrench frigate Vénus (1808)
The Vénus was a Junon class frigate of the French Navy.On 10 November 1808, she departed Cherbourg, bound for Île de France, where she served as Hamelin's flagship, leading a squadron also comprising the frigate Manche and the sloop Créole....
and Manche
French frigate Manche (1803)
The Manche was a 40-gun Hortense Class frigate of the French Navy.She took part in operations at Île de France under Captain François-Désiré Breton....
with the corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
Victor. Recognising that he was heavily outnumbered, Gordon sailed westwards towards Île Bourbon to meet with Rowley and pass on the location of Hamelin's squadron. French lookouts on shore spotted Ceylon but mistook her for a troopship
Troopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...
due to her unusual construction. The sighting was rapidly passed on to Hamelin, who immediately gave chase with Vénus and Victor.
At 14:00, Ceylon spotted Hamelin's ships in pursuit and her crew increased their efforts to escape, mistaking Victor, which carried three masts
Mast (sailing)
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall, vertical, or near vertical, spar, or arrangement of spars, which supports the sails. Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship...
, for a larger ship and therefore considering themselves significantly outnumbered. As night fell, Gordon slowed Ceylon by shortening sail in the hope of meeting Vénus (which had outdistanced Victor) alone. However, the French flagship also slowed to allow the corvette to catch up and so Gordon increased sail once more, leading Hamelin southwest towards Île Bourbon. At 00:15 on the morning of 18 September, Vénus caught up with Ceylon, which began firing on the larger French frigate as she passed. Hamelin, recognising that his vessel had the advantage in size and weight of shot, did not wait for Victor but attacked immediately, passing Ceylon and tuning across her bows to open a raking fire
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...
.
Battle
For an hour the frigates exchanged broadsides, until 01:15 when Hamelin, who had realised that he was fighting a warship not a troopship or East Indiaman, dropped back to effect repairs after suffering damage to his rigging. Ceylon was more severely damaged than the French ship and when Hamelin returned at 02:15, her repairs were not complete, preventing her escape. The battle began again, both frigates suffering serious damage in the second encounter. By 03:00, Vénus had lost her mizzenmast and two topmasts, while Ceylon had lost all of her topmasts, which had destroyed much of the ship's rigging as they fell. With both ships now unable to manoeuvre, the action continued at close range until 04:00, when Vénus was able to haul herself away to await the arrival of Victor.The French corvette had been struggling to catch up during the night and did not arrive until dawn approached, revealing the flagship in a damaged state and the British vessel even more stricken. Sailing directly at Ceylon, the corvette was able to manoeuvre around the frigate and place herself in a raking position, from which her cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
could cause heavy damage and casualties to Ceylon without reply. Rather than have his ship destroyed, the wounded Gordon surrendered (although it is not clear whether Victor opened fire or not before the British surrender). Victor
As dawn broke and visibility cleared, the sailors on Ceylon, Vénus and Victor realised that they were within sight of Saint Denis on Île Bourbon, and thus vulnerable to counter attack from Rowley's flagship Boadicea. Despite hasty repairs, neither Ceylon nor Vénus were seaworthy by 07:30, when British lookouts on the island spotted the three ships and sent word to Rowley. Within ten minutes, Rowley was at sea, taking 50 volunteers from Africaine to augment his crew. Hamelin made desperate efforts to limp back to Île de France, ordering Victor to tow Ceylon, but progress was slow and strong winds, which did not help the dismasted Ceylon and Vénus, repeatedly broke the tow rope.
During the day, Boadicea continued to close until Victor was forced to abandon Ceylon and sail in support of Vénus at 15:30. As soon as the French prize crew was removed, Lieutenant Philip Fitz Gibbon, the remaining officer on Ceylon, rehoisted British colours and assumed control of the ship. This allowed Boadicea to sail past the recaptured frigate and engage the French ships directly, reaching Vénus at 16:40. Hamelin recognised that the battered state of his flagship meant that he would not be able to adequately defend against Rowley's attack and ordered Victor to take news of his defeat back to Port Napoleon. Readying his ship for a token action, Hamelin fired at Boadicea as she came up but was forced to surrender within ten minutes.
Aftermath
With the assistance of HMS OtterHMS Otter (1805)
HMS Otter was a Royal Navy 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop, launched in 1805 at Hull. She participated in two notable actions in the Indian Ocean and was sold in 1828.-Armament:...
, which had followed Boadicea from Saint Denis, Rowley was able to return his prize and the battered Ceylon to Île Bourbon without significant difficulty. British casualties had been relatively minor for such a difficult engagement, Ceylon suffering 10 men killed and 31 wounded and Boadicea just 2 wounded. French losses were also comparatively light, with only 9 dead and 15 wounded on Vénus and none at all on Victor. Rowley repaired Ceylon and restored Gordon in command. Vénus was also repaired, and entered British service as HMS Nereide to replace the Nereide lost at Grand Port. Nearly four decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by the clasps "BOADICEA 18 SEPT. 1810", "OTTER 18 SEPT. 1810" and "STAUNCH 18 SEPT. 1810" attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.
With the British squadron bolstered and the French commander and best frigate in British hands, the campaign stalemated. The French were no longer able to repair or maintain their ships due a lack of naval stores on Île de France, and so remained in port and prepared for the inevitable invasion. Rowley meanwhile was busy preparing troops, stores and his squadron for the coming attack
Invasion of Île de France
The Invasion of Île de France was a complicated but successful amphibious operation in the Indian Ocean, launched in November 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. During the operation, a substantial British military force was landed by the Royal Navy at Grand Baie on Île de France...
, which was led by Admiral Bertie in November 1810. The French squadron made no attempt to disrupt the invasion forces and were captured intact in their harbours. Bertie was credited with the final defeat of Île de France and was made a baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
as reward for the successful campaign, sending Rowley back to Britain with despatches. A court martial, held on HMS Illustrious
HMS Illustrious (1803)
HMS Illustrious was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 September 1803 at Rotherhithe.Illustrious served as a gunnery ship from 1854, and was broken up in 1868....
in the aftermath of the invasion cleared Gordon of any blame in the defeat of his ship, although 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:...
criticised Gordon's assumption during the battle that Victor was a French frigate rather than a much smaller corvette, and identified discrepancies between Gordon's published account and the ship's log.