Battle of Pulo Aura
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Pulo Aura was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars
, fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large squadron of Honourable East India Company (HEIC) East Indiamen
, powerful and well armed merchant ships, intimidated, drove off and chased a powerful French naval squadron. Although the French squadron was much stronger than the British squadron, Commodore Nathaniel Dance
's aggressive tactics persuaded Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois
to retire after only a brief exchange of shot. Dance then chased the French warships until his convoy was out of danger, whereupon he resumed his passage towards British India. Linois later claimed that the unescorted British merchant fleet was defended by eight ships of the line
, a claim criticised by contemporary officers and later historians.
The battle occurred during an extended commerce raiding
operation by a French squadron led by Linois in the ship of the line
Marengo
. Linois had sailed to the Indian Ocean
in 1803 before the declaration of war, under orders to install garrisons in the French and Dutch colonies in the region and to prey on lightly defended British merchant shipping. One of the richest and most significant targets was the "China Fleet", an annual convoy of East Indiamen from China and other Far Eastern ports that carried millions of pounds
worth of trade goods. Although these large vessels were accompanied by numerous smaller merchant ships, news of the outbreak of war had only just arrived in the Pacific and the only warship available to defend the fleet was the small HEIC armed brig
Ganges. Dutch informants notified Linois of the fleet's destination and date of departure from Canton
while he was anchored at Batavia on Java
, and he sailed in search of the convoy on 28 December 1803, eventually discovering it in early February.
Although no warships protected the convoy, Commodore Dance knew that lookouts could, from a distance, mistake a large East Indiaman for a ship of the line. He raised flags that indicated that his fleet included part of the Royal Navy squadron operating in the Indian Ocean at the time and formed into a line of battle. Although Linois's ships were clearly superior, the British reaction unnerved him and he quickly broke off combat. Dance continued his ruse, pursuing Linois for two hours until the body of the convoy was safe. King George III
knighted
Dance for his courage and various mercantile and patriotic organisations awarded him large sums of money, while both Linois's own officers and the Emperor Napoleon personally castigated the French admiral for his failure to press the attack against a weaker and extremely valuable enemy. Although he remained in command of the squadron for another two years and had some minor success against undefended merchant ships, he suffered a string of defeats and inconclusive engagements against weaker British naval forces. Ironically, Linois was captured at the Action of 13 March 1806
by a numerically superior British battle squadron that he mistook for a merchant convoy.
, the British economy depended on its ability to trade with the British Empire
, particularly the valuable colonies in British India. The intercontinental trade was conducted by the governors of India, the Honourable East India Company (HEIC), using their fleet of large, well armed merchant vessels known as East Indiamen
. These ships weighed between 500 and 1200 LT (508 and 1,219.3 t) and could carry up to 36 guns for defence against pirates, privateer
s and small warships. They were not, however, capable under normal circumstances of fighting off an enemy frigate
or ship of the line
. Their guns were usually of inferior design, and their crew smaller and less well trained than those on a naval ship. The East Indiamen sought to ensure the safety of their cargo and passengers, not defeat enemy warships in battle. Despite these disadvantages, the size of East Indiamen meant that from a distance they appeared quite similar to a small ship of the line, a deception usually augmented by paintwork and dummy cannon
. The East Indiamen would gather at ports in India and the Far East and from there set out for Britain in large convoys, often carrying millions of pounds worth of trade goods. The journey would usually take six months and the ships would subsequently return carrying troops and passengers to augment the British forces stationed in India. "Country ships", smaller merchant vessels chartered for local trade, sometimes independently from the HEIC, would often join the convoys. To protect their ships from the depredations of pirates, the HEIC also operated its own private navy of small armed vessels. In combination, these ships were an effective deterrent against smaller raiders, but were no match for a professional warship.
Understanding the importance of the Indian Ocean trade and seeking to threaten it from the start of the inevitable war, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a squadron to sail for India in March 1803. This force was under the command of Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois
and consisted of the ship of the line Marengo
and three frigates. Linois operated from the island base of Île de France
with orders to attack British shipping once war had begun. Sailing initially to Pondicherry in India, Linois had a close encounter with a British squadron under Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier
during July, but was at Île de France in August when news arrived that the Napoleonic Wars had started on 16 May. Determined to fortify the French raiding bases in the region, Linois landed troops and supplies at Réunion
and Batavia. During the operation he despatched the frigate to Muscat
, captured numerous individual country ships, and burned the British trading post of Bencoolen. On 10 December he anchored at Batavia for the winter. Shortly thereafter, informants passed to Batavia the composition and date of departure of the British "China Fleet", leading Linois to set out to intercept it. On 28 December, Linois's squadron—consisting of Marengo, frigates and , the corvette
and the Dutch brig —departed Batavia. The ships carried six months worth of provisions as Linois had anticipated an extended patrol in the approaches to the Strait of Malacca
in the South China Sea
.
The China Fleet was a large annual British merchant convoy that gathered at Canton
in the Pearl River
during the winter before sailing for Britain, via India. As the convoy passed through the East Indies, it was joined by vessels sailing from other European ports in the region on the route to India, until it often numbered dozens of ships. The 1804 fleet departed in late January, and by the time it reached the approaches to the Strait of Malacca it had swelled to include 16 East Indiamen, 11 country ships, a Portuguese merchant ship from Macau
and a vessel from Botany Bay
in Australia
. Although the HEIC had provided the small, armed brig Ganges as an escort, this vessel could only dissuade pirates; it could not hope to compete with a French warship. There was no military escort: news of the outbreak of war had reached Canton before reinforcements had arrived from the squadron in India. Spies based in Canton had passed the composition and date of departure of the China Fleet to Linois in Batavia, but the Dutch informants at Canton had also passed on false reports that Royal Navy warships were accompanying the convoy, reports that may have been deliberately placed by British authorities. The convoy was an immensely valuable prize, its cargo of tea, silk and porcelain valued at over £8 million in contemporary values (the equivalent of £ as of ). Also on board were 80 Chinese plants ordered by Sir Joseph Banks
for the royal gardens and carried in a specially designed plant room. The HEIC Select Committee in Canton had been very concerned for the safety of the unescorted convoy, and had debated delaying its departure. The various captains had been consulted, including Henry Meriton, who in his ship Exeter had captured a frigate during the Action of 4 August 1800
, a disastrous French attack on a convoy of East Indiamen off Brazil
. Meriton advised that the convoy was powerful enough in both appearance and reality to dissuade any attack. He was opposed by John Farquharson of Alfred, who considered that the crews of East Indiamen were so badly trained that they would be unable to mutually defend one another if faced with a determined enemy. Eventually the Committee decided that it could delay the convoy no longer and awarded command to the most experienced captain, Commodore Nathaniel Dance
–an officer with over 45 years service at sea–in the East Indiaman Earl Camden.
within sight to the south-west near the eastern entrance to the Straits of Malacca, the Indiaman Royal George raised a signal describing three sail approaching the convoy from the direction of the island. This was Linois's squadron, which had been cruising in the area for the previous month in anticipation of the convoy's arrival. Dance ordered the brig Ganges and the Indiamen Alfred, Royal George, Bombay Castle and Hope to approach the strange vessels and investigate, rapidly discovering that they were enemy warships. By 13:00, Dance had readied his guns and reformed his convoy, with the large Indiamen formed up in line of battle
to receive the French attack as if they were warships. During the late afternoon, Linois's squadron fell in behind the slow line of merchant ships and Dance expected an immediate attack, but Linois was cautious and merely observed the convoy, preferring to wait until the following morning before engaging the enemy. Dance made use of the delay to gather the smaller country ships on the opposite side of his line from the French, the brig Ganges shepherding them into position and collecting volunteers from their crews to augment the sailors on board the Indiamen. Linois later excused his delay in attacking the merchant convoy by citing the need for caution:
At dawn on 15 February, both the British and French forces raised their colours. Dance hoped to persuade Linois that his ships included some fully armed warships and he therefore ordered the brig Ganges and the four lead ships to hoist blue ensigns, while the rest of the convoy raised red ensigns. By the system of national flags then in use in British ships, this implied that the ships with blue ensigns were warships attached to the squadron of Admiral Rainier, while the others were merchant ships under their protection. Dance was unknowingly assisted by the information that had reached Linois at Batavia, which claimed that there were 23 merchant ships and the brig in the convoy. Dance had collected six additional ships during his journey, and the identity of these were unknown to the French, who assumed that at least some of the unidentified vessels must be warships, particularly as several vessels had been recently painted at Canton to resemble ships of the line.
At 09:00 Linois was still only observing the convoy, reluctant to attack until he could be sure of the nature of his opponents. Dance responded to the reprieve by reforming the line of battle into sailing formation to increase his convoy’s speed with the intention of reaching the Straits ahead of Linois. With the convoy a less intimidating target, Linois began to slowly approach the British ships. By 13:00 it was clear that Linois's faster ships were in danger of isolating the rear of the convoy, and Dance ordered his lead ships to tack
and come about, so that they would cross in front of the French squadron. The British successfully executed the manoeuvre, and at 13:15 Linois opened fire on the lead ship—Royal George—under the command of John Fam Timmins. The Royal George and the next four ships in line, the Indiaman Ganges, Dance's Earl Camden, the Warley
and the Alfred, all returned the fire, Ganges initially attacking the Royal George in error. Captain James Prendergrass in Hope, the next in line, was so eager to join the battle that he misjudged his speed and collided with Warley, the ships falling back as their crews worked to separate their rigging. Shots were then exchanged at long range for 43 minutes, neither side inflicting severe damage.
Royal George had a sailor named Hugh Watt killed, another man wounded, and suffered some damage to her hull. None of the other British ships or any of the French reported anything worse than superficial damage in the engagement. At 14:00, Linois abandoned the action and ordered his squadron to haul away with the wind and sail eastwards, away from the convoy, under all sail. Determined to maintain the pretence of the presence of warships, Dance ordered the ships flying naval ensigns, including his flagship Earl Camden, to chase the French. None of the merchant ships could match the French speed, but an attempt at a chase would hopefully dissuade the French from returning. For two hours, Dance's squadron followed Linois, Hope coming close to catching Aventurier but ultimately unable to overtake the brig. At 16:00, Dance decided to gather his scattered ships and return to his former heading rather than risk attack from other raiders or lose sight of his convoy in the darkness. By 20:00, the entire British convoy had anchored at the entrance to the Straits of Malacca. On 28 February, the British ships of the line and joined them in the Strait and conducted them safely to Saint Helena
in the South Atlantic, from where the convoy returned to Britain without further incident.
Linois's squadron reached Batavia several days after the action without encountering any British ships. He was there joined by Atalante and, after taking on supplies, made sail for Île de France, arriving on 2 April. The Dutch brig Aventurier was left at Batavia and remained there until a raid on the port
by a British force in November 1806, when it was destroyed. The French admiral later attempted to explain his conduct during the engagement:
from likely financial ruin, the repercussions of which would have had profound effects across the British Empire. The various commanders and their crews were presented with a £50,000 prize fund to be divided among them, and the Patriotic Fund and other national and mercantile institutions made a series of awards of ceremonial swords, silver plate and monetary gifts to individual officers. Dance was specifically rewarded, receiving royal recognition when he was made a Knight Bachelor
by King George III
. He was also personally presented with the sum of £5,000 by the Bombay Insurance Company and an additional £500 a year for life by the HEIC. Dance immediately retired from the sea to Enfield Town
, where he died in 1827. He refused to take full credit for the survival of the convoy, writing in reply to the award from the Bombay Insurance Company:
Among the passengers on the Indiamen were a number of Royal Navy personnel, survivors of the shipwreck of the exploratory vessel off the coast of New South Wales
the previous year. This party—carried aboard Ganges, Royal George and Earl Camden—volunteered to assist the gun teams aboard their ships and were specifically thanked by Dance in his account of the action. Some of the party had influential careers in the Navy, including the naval architect James Inman
who sailed on Warley, and John Franklin
, who later became a polar explorer. Also aboard was Indian businessman Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy
returning from the second of his five voyages to China. The battle has subsequently been fictionalised twice, in Captain Frederick Marryat
's 1832 novel Newton Forster; or, the Merchant Service, and in Patrick O'Brian
's novel HMS Surprise
, published in 1973.
Linois continued his raiding, achieving some success against individual sailing ships, but failing to successfully press his numerical superiority against British naval forces; most notably at the Battle of Vizagapatam
on 15 September 1804 and the Action of 6 August 1805. Ironically, Linois was eventually captured at the Action of 13 March 1806
after mistaking a squadron of British ships of the line for a merchant convoy in the mid-Atlantic. Linois was concerned throughout the engagement for the safety of his ships: with the nearest dockyard over 3000 nmi (3,452.3 mi; 5,556 km) away at Île de France, he could not afford to suffer severe damage to his rigging or masts which would leave his squadron crippled. He also sought to defend his behaviour off Pulo Aura with the claim that the British convoy was protected by as many as eight ships of the line, and that he had performed heroically in saving his squadron from this overwhelming force. Subsequent historians have ridiculed this latter statement: William James
wryly commented in his account of the action, written in 1827, that "it would be uncharitable to call into question the courage of Rear-admiral Linois" and William Laird Clowes
stated in 1900 that "his timidity and want of enterprise threw away a great opportunity". Nicholas Rodger
, writing in 2004, was even more critical, insisting that "his [Linois's] officers do not seem to have been fooled, and it is extremely difficult to believe that he was." He goes on to suggest that no experienced seaman could possibly have mistaken a poorly manned and poorly trained merchant crew for the crew of a real Royal Navy ship of the line, concluding that "Linois had thrown away a prize worth at least £8 million through mere timidity". The most scathing criticism of Linois's conduct came from Napoleon himself, who wrote to Minister of Marine Denis Decrès
on the subject, stating:
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...
, fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large squadron of Honourable East India Company (HEIC) 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...
, powerful and well armed merchant ships, intimidated, drove off and chased a powerful French naval squadron. Although the French squadron was much stronger than the British squadron, Commodore Nathaniel Dance
Nathaniel Dance
Sir Nathaniel Dance was an officer of the Honourable East India Company who had a long and varied career on merchant vessels, making numerous voyages to India and back with the fleets of East Indiamen...
's aggressive tactics persuaded Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, Comte de Linois was a French admiral during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. He won a victory over the British at the Battle of Algeciras in 1801 and was reasonably successful in a campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea in...
to retire after only a brief exchange of shot. Dance then chased the French warships until his convoy was out of danger, whereupon he resumed his passage towards British India. Linois later claimed that the unescorted British merchant fleet was defended by eight ships 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...
, a claim criticised by contemporary officers and later historians.
The battle occurred during an extended commerce raiding
Commerce raiding
Commerce raiding or guerre de course is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt the logistics of an enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them.Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by...
operation by a French squadron led by Linois in the 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...
Marengo
French ship Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1795)
The Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.In October 1796, under captain Racord, she was part of the Villeneuve's squadron that sailed from Toulon to Brest...
. Linois had sailed to 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...
in 1803 before the declaration of war, under orders to install garrisons in the French and Dutch colonies in the region and to prey on lightly defended British merchant shipping. One of the richest and most significant targets was the "China Fleet", an annual convoy of East Indiamen from China and other Far Eastern ports that carried millions of pounds
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
worth of trade goods. Although these large vessels were accompanied by numerous smaller merchant ships, news of the outbreak of war had only just arrived in the Pacific and the only warship available to defend the fleet was the small HEIC armed 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...
Ganges. Dutch informants notified Linois of the fleet's destination and date of departure from Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
while he was anchored at Batavia on Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, and he sailed in search of the convoy on 28 December 1803, eventually discovering it in early February.
Although no warships protected the convoy, Commodore Dance knew that lookouts could, from a distance, mistake a large East Indiaman for a ship of the line. He raised flags that indicated that his fleet included part of the Royal Navy squadron operating in the Indian Ocean at the time and formed into a line of battle. Although Linois's ships were clearly superior, the British reaction unnerved him and he quickly broke off combat. Dance continued his ruse, pursuing Linois for two hours until the body of the convoy was safe. King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
Dance for his courage and various mercantile and patriotic organisations awarded him large sums of money, while both Linois's own officers and the Emperor Napoleon personally castigated the French admiral for his failure to press the attack against a weaker and extremely valuable enemy. Although he remained in command of the squadron for another two years and had some minor success against undefended merchant ships, he suffered a string of defeats and inconclusive engagements against weaker British naval forces. Ironically, Linois was captured at the Action of 13 March 1806
Action of 13 March 1806
The Action of 13 March 1806 was a naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought when a British and a French squadron met unexpectedly in the mid-Atlantic. Neither force was aware of the presence of the other prior to the encounter and were participating in separate campaigns...
by a numerically superior British battle squadron that he mistook for a merchant convoy.
Background
During the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic 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 British economy depended on its ability to trade with the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, particularly the valuable colonies in British India. The intercontinental trade was conducted by the governors of India, the Honourable East India Company (HEIC), using their fleet of large, well armed merchant vessels known as 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...
. These ships weighed between 500 and 1200 LT (508 and 1,219.3 t) and could carry up to 36 guns for defence against pirates, privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
s and small warships. They were not, however, capable under normal circumstances of fighting off an enemy 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"...
or 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...
. Their guns were usually of inferior design, and their crew smaller and less well trained than those on a naval ship. The East Indiamen sought to ensure the safety of their cargo and passengers, not defeat enemy warships in battle. Despite these disadvantages, the size of East Indiamen meant that from a distance they appeared quite similar to a small ship of the line, a deception usually augmented by paintwork and dummy cannon
Quaker Gun
A Quaker Gun is a deception tactic that was commonly used in warfare during the 18th and 19th centuries. Although resembling an actual cannon, the Quaker Gun was simply a wooden log, usually painted black, used to deceive an enemy. Misleading the enemy as to the strength of an emplacement was an...
. The East Indiamen would gather at ports in India and the Far East and from there set out for Britain in large convoys, often carrying millions of pounds worth of trade goods. The journey would usually take six months and the ships would subsequently return carrying troops and passengers to augment the British forces stationed in India. "Country ships", smaller merchant vessels chartered for local trade, sometimes independently from the HEIC, would often join the convoys. To protect their ships from the depredations of pirates, the HEIC also operated its own private navy of small armed vessels. In combination, these ships were an effective deterrent against smaller raiders, but were no match for a professional warship.
Understanding the importance of the Indian Ocean trade and seeking to threaten it from the start of the inevitable war, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a squadron to sail for India in March 1803. This force was under the command of Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, Comte de Linois was a French admiral during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. He won a victory over the British at the Battle of Algeciras in 1801 and was reasonably successful in a campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea in...
and consisted of the ship of the line Marengo
French ship Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1795)
The Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.In October 1796, under captain Racord, she was part of the Villeneuve's squadron that sailed from Toulon to Brest...
and three frigates. Linois operated from the 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...
with orders to attack British shipping once war had begun. Sailing initially to Pondicherry in India, Linois had a close encounter with a British squadron under Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier
Peter Rainier, junior
Peter Rainier, Jr. was a British naval officer. Mount Rainier in Washington, USA, was named after him.-Biography:Rainier was born in England, the grandson of Daniel Regnier, a Huguenot refugee, and the son of Peter Rainier of Sandwich. He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1756 at the age of 15. He...
during July, but was at Île de France in August when news arrived that the Napoleonic Wars had started on 16 May. Determined to fortify the French raiding bases in the region, Linois landed troops and supplies at Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
and Batavia. During the operation he despatched the frigate to Muscat
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, captured numerous individual country ships, and burned the British trading post of Bencoolen. On 10 December he anchored at Batavia for the winter. Shortly thereafter, informants passed to Batavia the composition and date of departure of the British "China Fleet", leading Linois to set out to intercept it. On 28 December, Linois's squadron—consisting of Marengo, frigates and , 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...
and the Dutch brig —departed Batavia. The ships carried six months worth of provisions as Linois had anticipated an extended patrol in the approaches to the Strait of Malacca
Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow, stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is named after the Malacca Sultanate that ruled over the archipelago between 1414 to 1511.-Extent:...
in the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
.
The China Fleet was a large annual British merchant convoy that gathered at Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
in the Pearl River
Pearl River (China)
The Pearl River or less commonly, the "Guangdong River" or "Canton River" etc., , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name Pearl River is usually used as a catchment term to refer to the watersheds of the Xi Jiang , the Bei Jiang , and the Dong Jiang...
during the winter before sailing for Britain, via India. As the convoy passed through the East Indies, it was joined by vessels sailing from other European ports in the region on the route to India, until it often numbered dozens of ships. The 1804 fleet departed in late January, and by the time it reached the approaches to the Strait of Malacca it had swelled to include 16 East Indiamen, 11 country ships, a Portuguese merchant ship from Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
and a vessel from Botany Bay
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Although the HEIC had provided the small, armed brig Ganges as an escort, this vessel could only dissuade pirates; it could not hope to compete with a French warship. There was no military escort: news of the outbreak of war had reached Canton before reinforcements had arrived from the squadron in India. Spies based in Canton had passed the composition and date of departure of the China Fleet to Linois in Batavia, but the Dutch informants at Canton had also passed on false reports that Royal Navy warships were accompanying the convoy, reports that may have been deliberately placed by British authorities. The convoy was an immensely valuable prize, its cargo of tea, silk and porcelain valued at over £8 million in contemporary values (the equivalent of £ as of ). Also on board were 80 Chinese plants ordered by Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
for the royal gardens and carried in a specially designed plant room. The HEIC Select Committee in Canton had been very concerned for the safety of the unescorted convoy, and had debated delaying its departure. The various captains had been consulted, including Henry Meriton, who in his ship Exeter had captured a frigate during the Action of 4 August 1800
Action of 4 August 1800
The Action of 4 August 1800 was a highly unusual naval engagement that took place off the Brazilian coast during the French Revolutionary Wars. A French frigate force that had been raiding British commerce off West Africa approached and attempted to attack a large convoy of valuable East Indiamen,...
, a disastrous French attack on a convoy of East Indiamen off Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Meriton advised that the convoy was powerful enough in both appearance and reality to dissuade any attack. He was opposed by John Farquharson of Alfred, who considered that the crews of East Indiamen were so badly trained that they would be unable to mutually defend one another if faced with a determined enemy. Eventually the Committee decided that it could delay the convoy no longer and awarded command to the most experienced captain, Commodore Nathaniel Dance
Nathaniel Dance
Sir Nathaniel Dance was an officer of the Honourable East India Company who had a long and varied career on merchant vessels, making numerous voyages to India and back with the fleets of East Indiamen...
–an officer with over 45 years service at sea–in the East Indiaman Earl Camden.
Battle
At 08:00 on 14 February 1804, with the island of Pulo AuraPulau Aur
Pulau Aur, known locally as Aur Island, lies about 65 km east of Mersing, Johor, Malaysia. It is part of the Johor Marine Park.Its corals, lagoons and offshore pools make it a tourist attraction...
within sight to the south-west near the eastern entrance to the Straits of Malacca, the Indiaman Royal George raised a signal describing three sail approaching the convoy from the direction of the island. This was Linois's squadron, which had been cruising in the area for the previous month in anticipation of the convoy's arrival. Dance ordered the brig Ganges and the Indiamen Alfred, Royal George, Bombay Castle and Hope to approach the strange vessels and investigate, rapidly discovering that they were enemy warships. By 13:00, Dance had readied his guns and reformed his convoy, with the large Indiamen formed up in line of battle
Line of battle
In naval warfare, the line of battle is a tactic in which the ships of the fleet form a line end to end. A primitive form had been used by the Portuguese under Vasco Da Gama in 1502 near Malabar against a Muslim fleet.,Maarten Tromp used it in the Action of 18 September 1639 while its first use in...
to receive the French attack as if they were warships. During the late afternoon, Linois's squadron fell in behind the slow line of merchant ships and Dance expected an immediate attack, but Linois was cautious and merely observed the convoy, preferring to wait until the following morning before engaging the enemy. Dance made use of the delay to gather the smaller country ships on the opposite side of his line from the French, the brig Ganges shepherding them into position and collecting volunteers from their crews to augment the sailors on board the Indiamen. Linois later excused his delay in attacking the merchant convoy by citing the need for caution:
At 09:00 Linois was still only observing the convoy, reluctant to attack until he could be sure of the nature of his opponents. Dance responded to the reprieve by reforming the line of battle into sailing formation to increase his convoy’s speed with the intention of reaching the Straits ahead of Linois. With the convoy a less intimidating target, Linois began to slowly approach the British ships. By 13:00 it was clear that Linois's faster ships were in danger of isolating the rear of the convoy, and Dance ordered his lead ships to tack
Tacking (sailing)
Tacking or coming about is a sailing maneuver by which a sailing vessel turns its bow through the wind so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side to the other...
and come about, so that they would cross in front of the French squadron. The British successfully executed the manoeuvre, and at 13:15 Linois opened fire on the lead ship—Royal George—under the command of John Fam Timmins. The Royal George and the next four ships in line, the Indiaman Ganges, Dance's Earl Camden, the Warley
Warley (East Indiaman)
The Warley was a 1475-ton East Indiaman and one of the East India Company's larger and more famous vessels. She made nine voyages to the East between 1796 and 1816, most direct to China. In 1804 she participated in the Battle of Pulo Aura...
and the Alfred, all returned the fire, Ganges initially attacking the Royal George in error. Captain James Prendergrass in Hope, the next in line, was so eager to join the battle that he misjudged his speed and collided with Warley, the ships falling back as their crews worked to separate their rigging. Shots were then exchanged at long range for 43 minutes, neither side inflicting severe damage.
Royal George had a sailor named Hugh Watt killed, another man wounded, and suffered some damage to her hull. None of the other British ships or any of the French reported anything worse than superficial damage in the engagement. At 14:00, Linois abandoned the action and ordered his squadron to haul away with the wind and sail eastwards, away from the convoy, under all sail. Determined to maintain the pretence of the presence of warships, Dance ordered the ships flying naval ensigns, including his flagship Earl Camden, to chase the French. None of the merchant ships could match the French speed, but an attempt at a chase would hopefully dissuade the French from returning. For two hours, Dance's squadron followed Linois, Hope coming close to catching Aventurier but ultimately unable to overtake the brig. At 16:00, Dance decided to gather his scattered ships and return to his former heading rather than risk attack from other raiders or lose sight of his convoy in the darkness. By 20:00, the entire British convoy had anchored at the entrance to the Straits of Malacca. On 28 February, the British ships of the line and joined them in the Strait and conducted them safely to Saint Helena
Saint Helena
Saint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha...
in the South Atlantic, from where the convoy returned to Britain without further incident.
Linois's squadron reached Batavia several days after the action without encountering any British ships. He was there joined by Atalante and, after taking on supplies, made sail for Île de France, arriving on 2 April. The Dutch brig Aventurier was left at Batavia and remained there until a raid on the port
Raid on Batavia (1806)
The Raid on Batavia of 27 November 1806 was an attempt by a large British naval force to destroy the Dutch squadron based on Java in the Dutch East Indies that posed a threat to British shipping in the Straits of Malacca...
by a British force in November 1806, when it was destroyed. The French admiral later attempted to explain his conduct during the engagement:
Orders of battle
| Honourable East India Company China Fleet | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship | Commander | Notes | ||||||||
| Earl Camden | Commodore Nathaniel Dance Nathaniel Dance Sir Nathaniel Dance was an officer of the Honourable East India Company who had a long and varied career on merchant vessels, making numerous voyages to India and back with the fleets of East Indiamen... |
Flagship of the convoy. Engaged for 25 minutes | ||||||||
| Warley Warley (East Indiaman) The Warley was a 1475-ton East Indiaman and one of the East India Company's larger and more famous vessels. She made nine voyages to the East between 1796 and 1816, most direct to China. In 1804 she participated in the Battle of Pulo Aura... |
Captain Henry Wilson | Engaged for 15 minutes. | ||||||||
| Alfred | Captain James Farquharson | Engaged for 15 minutes. | ||||||||
| Royal George | Captain John Fam Timmins | Engaged for 40 minutes. Suffered light damage, with one man killed and one wounded. | ||||||||
| Coutts | Captain Robert Torin | |||||||||
| Wexford | Captain William Stanley Clarke | |||||||||
| Ganges | Captain William Moffat | Engaged for 35 minutes. | ||||||||
| Exeter | Captain Henry Meriton | |||||||||
| Earl of Abergavenny Earl of Abergavenny (East Indiaman) The Earl of Abergavenny was an East Indiaman that was wrecked in Weymouth Bay, England in 1805. She was one of the largest built and William Wordsworth's brother John was her captain her last two successful voyages to China. He was also her captain on her fifth voyage and lost his life when she... |
Captain John Wordsworth | |||||||||
| Henry Addington | Captain John Kirkpatrick | |||||||||
| Bombay Castle | Captain Archibald Hamilton | |||||||||
| Cumberland | Captain William Ward Farrer | |||||||||
| Hope | Captain James Prendergrass | |||||||||
| Dorsetshire | Captain Robert Hunter Brown | |||||||||
| Warren Hastings | Captain Thomas Larkins | |||||||||
| Ocean | Captain John Christian Lochner | |||||||||
| The convoy was accompanied by 11 country ships, named Lord Castlereagh, Carron, David Scott, Minerva, Ardeseer, Charlotte, Friendship, Shaw, Kissataw, Tahaungeer, Gilwall and Neptune, none of which were engaged. They were joined by one Portuguese vessel from Macau Macau Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China... , a ship from Botany Bay Botany Bay Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay... in Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... and the HEIC armed brig named Ganges, commanded by naval Lieutenant Robert Fowler, who had volunteered for the position. |
||||||||||
| Source: James, Vol. 3, p. 248, Clowes, p. 336 | ||||||||||
| Admiral Linois's squadron | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship | Guns | Commander | Notes | |||||||
| Marengo French ship Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1795) The Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.In October 1796, under captain Racord, she was part of the Villeneuve's squadron that sailed from Toulon to Brest... |
74 | Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, Comte de Linois was a French admiral during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. He won a victory over the British at the Battle of Algeciras in 1801 and was reasonably successful in a campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea in... Captain Joseph-Marie Vrignaud |
||||||||
| 40 | Captain Alain-Adélaïde-Marie Bruilhac | |||||||||
| 36 | Captain Léonard-Bernard Motard Léonard-Bernard Motard Léonard-Bernard Motard was a French naval officer and eventually contre-amiral.Motard enlisted in the French Navy in 1786. He was promoted to ensign in 1791, to lieutenant in 1793, and to capitaine de frégate in 1797... |
|||||||||
| 20 | Captain Emmanuel Halgan Emmanuel Halgan Emmanuel Halgan was a French Navy officer and admiral.- Biography :Born to the family of a bailiff, Halgan joined the French Royal Navy aged 16. He then served as a lieutenant and first officer on merchantmen.... |
|||||||||
| align= left | | 16 | Lieutenant Harang | ||||||||
| Source: James, Vol. 3, p. 248, Clowes, p. 336 | ||||||||||
Aftermath
Nathaniel Dance and his fellow captains were highly praised in the aftermath of the battle: in saving the convoy they had prevented both the HEIC and Lloyd's of LondonLloyd's of London
Lloyd's, also known as Lloyd's of London, is a British insurance and reinsurance market. It serves as a partially mutualised marketplace where multiple financial backers, underwriters, or members, whether individuals or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk...
from likely financial ruin, the repercussions of which would have had profound effects across the British Empire. The various commanders and their crews were presented with a £50,000 prize fund to be divided among them, and the Patriotic Fund and other national and mercantile institutions made a series of awards of ceremonial swords, silver plate and monetary gifts to individual officers. Dance was specifically rewarded, receiving royal recognition when he was made a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
by King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
. He was also personally presented with the sum of £5,000 by the Bombay Insurance Company and an additional £500 a year for life by the HEIC. Dance immediately retired from the sea to Enfield Town
Enfield Town
Enfield Town is the historic town centre of Enfield, formerly in the county of Middlesex and now in the London Borough of Enfield. It is north north-east of Charing Cross...
, where he died in 1827. He refused to take full credit for the survival of the convoy, writing in reply to the award from the Bombay Insurance Company:
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
the previous year. This party—carried aboard Ganges, Royal George and Earl Camden—volunteered to assist the gun teams aboard their ships and were specifically thanked by Dance in his account of the action. Some of the party had influential careers in the Navy, including the naval architect James Inman
James Inman
James Inman was an English mathematician, professor of mathematics at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth.He was born at Tod Hole in Garsdale, the younger son of Richard Inman and Jane Hutchinson. He was educated at Sedbergh Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge, graduating as first...
who sailed on Warley, and John Franklin
John Franklin
Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic...
, who later became a polar explorer. Also aboard was Indian businessman Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy
Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy
Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 1st Baronet , also spelt Jeejeebhoy or Jeejebhoy, was a Parsi-Indian merchant and philanthropist.- Early life and business career :...
returning from the second of his five voyages to China. The battle has subsequently been fictionalised twice, in Captain Frederick Marryat
Frederick Marryat
Captain Frederick Marryat was an English Royal Navy officer, novelist, and a contemporary and acquaintance of Charles Dickens, noted today as an early pioneer of the sea story...
's 1832 novel Newton Forster; or, the Merchant Service, and in Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...
's novel HMS Surprise
HMS Surprise (novel)
HMS Surprise is a 1973 historical naval novel by Patrick O'Brian. It is third in the Aubrey-Maturin series of stories that follow the partnership of Captain Jack Aubrey and the naval surgeon Stephen Maturin...
, published in 1973.
Linois continued his raiding, achieving some success against individual sailing ships, but failing to successfully press his numerical superiority against British naval forces; most notably at the Battle of Vizagapatam
Battle of Vizagapatam
The Battle of Vizagapatam was a minor naval engagement fought in the approaches to Vizagapatam harbour in the Coastal Andhra region of British India on the Bay of Bengal on 15 September 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars...
on 15 September 1804 and the Action of 6 August 1805. Ironically, Linois was eventually captured at the Action of 13 March 1806
Action of 13 March 1806
The Action of 13 March 1806 was a naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought when a British and a French squadron met unexpectedly in the mid-Atlantic. Neither force was aware of the presence of the other prior to the encounter and were participating in separate campaigns...
after mistaking a squadron of British ships of the line for a merchant convoy in the mid-Atlantic. Linois was concerned throughout the engagement for the safety of his ships: with the nearest dockyard over 3000 nmi (3,452.3 mi; 5,556 km) away at Île de France, he could not afford to suffer severe damage to his rigging or masts which would leave his squadron crippled. He also sought to defend his behaviour off Pulo Aura with the claim that the British convoy was protected by as many as eight ships of the line, and that he had performed heroically in saving his squadron from this overwhelming force. Subsequent historians have ridiculed this latter statement: 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:...
wryly commented in his account of the action, written in 1827, that "it would be uncharitable to call into question the courage of Rear-admiral Linois" and William Laird Clowes
William Laird Clowes
Sir William Laird Clowes was a British journalist and historian whose principal work was The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, a text that is still in print. He also wrote numerous technical pieces on naval technology and strategy and was also noted for his articles concerning...
stated in 1900 that "his timidity and want of enterprise threw away a great opportunity". Nicholas Rodger
Nicholas Rodger
Professor Nicholas Andrew Martin Rodger FBA is a historian of the British navy and Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.-Life and academia:...
, writing in 2004, was even more critical, insisting that "his [Linois's] officers do not seem to have been fooled, and it is extremely difficult to believe that he was." He goes on to suggest that no experienced seaman could possibly have mistaken a poorly manned and poorly trained merchant crew for the crew of a real Royal Navy ship of the line, concluding that "Linois had thrown away a prize worth at least £8 million through mere timidity". The most scathing criticism of Linois's conduct came from Napoleon himself, who wrote to Minister of Marine Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès, , was an officer of the French Navy and count, later duke of the First Empire.-Early career:...
on the subject, stating: