Action of 10 February 1809

Action of 10 February 1809
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
Date 8–10 February 1809 Location Northeast of the Leeward Islands Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	French Empire
Commanders and leaders
George Scott Hugh Pigot	Jean-Baptiste-Augustin Rousseau  †
Strength
frigates HMS Horatio and HMS Latona, supported by brigs HMS Driver and HMS Superieure	frigate Junon
Casualties and losses
7 killed, 33 wounded	130 casualties, Junon and her surviving crew captured

Coordinates: 19°50′N 61°30′W / 19.833°N 61.500°W / 19.833; -61.500

The Action of 10 February 1809 was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, in which a British Royal Navy squadron chased and captured the French frigate Junon in the Caribbean Sea. Junon was on a mission to carry trade goods from the Îles des Saintes near Guadeloupe back to France and was part of a succession of French warships sent during 1808 and the early months of 1809 in an effort to break the British blockade of the French Caribbean, which was destroying the economies and morale of the islands. Having landed supplies, Junon's return cargo was intended to improve the economic situation on Guadeloupe with much needed oceanic trade.

The patrolling British warships first sighted Junon in the Virgin Islands on 8 February. They then chased her north into the Atlantic Ocean for two days until the frigates HMS Horatio and HMS Latona were able to bring her to action. In a bitterly contested running engagement, Junon was badly damaged and suffered heavy casualties before surrendering to the numerically superior British force. She was later commissioned into the Royal Navy under the same name and remained in the Caribbean. Less than a year after her capture, a French convoy to Guadeloupe recaptured and destroyed Junon; the British subsequently intercepted and defeated the convoy in turn.

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