Navigation - Home>>Battle Honours - Alpha>>
Navigation - Home>>Battle Honours - Date>> 

On 28-November  at 0700hrs Captain Murray Maxwell commanded a small squadron of four ships in Port St George harbour when he received a signal from the telegraph station on a nearby hill that three suspicious sail had been sighted to the south of the island.

Leaving HMS Acorn together with 30 seamen and the marine contingent from all four ships  to guard the harbour, Alceste Active and Unite left harbour and sailed to the south. Due to adverse winds it was not until 1900hrs that they were at sea.

Next morning at 0920hrs they sighted 3 sail to the north east, which at 1000hrs were seen to be French frigates, so the 3 British ships gave chase.

In fact they were not the three sail sighted the previous morning by the signal station, but the Pauline (40-gun), Pomone (40-gun) and Persanne (26-gun) sailing to join the French squadron at Trieste.

At 1400hrs Active began a close action against the Pomone and a running battle began. This lasted until 1530hrs when Pomone struck her colours just as Alceste was about to join in.

Meantime, about 1200hrs Unite has closed with Persanne sufficiently that they exchanged fire from stern and bow guns in a running fight. By 1600hrs they had closed to the point where Unite was able to open fire  with part of her main guns. Persanne replied with a broadside and then struck her colours.

Pauline was able to escape.

The British lost 18 killed and 43 wounded. The French lost at least 50 captured.

Copyright © Ian M King, except where otherwise indicated.