Action of 12 May 1796

Part of the French Revolutionary Wars

Date	12 May 1796
Location	Off the Texel, North Sea
Result	British victory

Belligerents

Great Britain

Batavian Republic

Commanders and leaders

Captain Lawrence Halstead

Strength

Fifth rate HMS Leopard, frigates HMS Phoenix, HMS Pegasus and brig-sloop HMS Sylph

Frigate Argo, brigs Echo, Gier, Mercury and cutter Duke of York

Casualties and losses

1 killed, 3 wounded

6 killed, 28 wounded
Argo, Mercury and Duke of York captured, Echo and Gier driven ashore.

The Action of 12 May 1796 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars between a squadron of British Royal Navy frigates and a frigate and four smaller ships of the Navy of the Batavian Republic. The British squadron had been detached on the previous day from the British North Sea fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan, which was cruising off the Batavian fleet anchorage at the Texel, while the Batavian squadron was returning to the Netherlands from the Norwegian coast where it had been sheltering since suffering defeat at the Action of 22 August 1795 the previous year. As the Batavian squadron neared the Batavian coast, the British squadron under Captain Lawrence Halstead attacked.

In his frigate HMS Phoenix, Halstead was able to cut the Batavian frigate Argo off from the shore and bring it to battle, forcing it to surrender in just 20 minutes as other British ships closed with the combat. The remainder of the Batavian squadron had dispersed eastwards away from the frigates and Duncan's fleet, pursued by the frigate HMS Pegasus and brig-sloop HMS Sylph. After a lengthy chase, Phoenix caught the cutter Duke of York, Sylph seized the brig Mercury, while Pegasus succeeded in driving the other brigs, Echo and Gier ashore, where both were believed wrecked. Duncan's blockade of the Texel was instrumental in British control of the North Sea, and a year later it would achieve a decisive victory at the Battle of Camperdown.

In February 1793, the French Republic declared war on the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, drawing both into the ongoing French Revolutionary Wars. Less than two years later, in the winter of 1794–1795, the Dutch Republic was overrun by the French Army, French cavalry charging the Dutch Navy across the ice that blocked its winter anchorages, capturing it intact. The French reorganised the country into a client state named the Batavian Republic, and ordered the Dutch Navy to operate in the North Sea against British maritime trade routes. The British government did not immediately declare war on the Batavian Republic, but did take steps to seize Dutch shipping in British ports and established a new fleet to combat Batavian operations in the North Sea. The North Sea Fleet, as it was known, was composed mainly of older and smaller vessels not considered suitable for service in the Channel Fleet, and command of this force was given to the 66–year old Admiral Adam Duncan.

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