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Action of 13 January 1797

Action of 13 January 1797
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
An engraving in which two damaged ships are pulling away from land in high seas while in the foreground a third ship, also damaged, is overwhelmed by a huge wave.
View of the wreck of the French ship Le Droits de l'Homme,
John Fairburn
Date 13–14 January 1797
Location Brittany coastline, Bay of Biscay.
47°56′29″N 4°27′16″W / 47.94139°N 4.45444°W / 47.94139; -4.45444Coordinates: 47°56′29″N 4°27′16″W / 47.94139°N 4.45444°W / 47.94139; -4.45444
Result British victory
Belligerents
 Great Britain  France
Commanders and leaders

Kingdom of Great Britain Sir Edward Pellew

Kingdom of Great Britain Robert Carthew Reynolds 		France Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse
Strength
Two frigates:
HMS Indefatigable (44 guns)
HMS Amazon (36 guns)		 One ship of the line:
Droits de l'Homme (74 guns)
Casualties and losses
Amazon wrecked, 3 killed, 34 wounded, 6 drowned, crew of Amazon taken prisoner Droits de l'Homme wrecked, 103 killed, 150 wounded, ~900 drowned

Kingdom of Great Britain Sir Edward Pellew

The Action of 13 January 1797 was a minor naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the action the frigates outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it onto shore in heavy seas, resulting in the deaths of between 400 and 1,000 of the 1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement with six sailors drowned after running onto a sandbank while failing to escape a lee shore.

The French 74-gun ship Droits de l'Homme had been part of the Expédition d'Irlande, an unsuccessful attempt by a French expeditionary force to invade Ireland. During the operation, the French fleet was beset by poor coordination and violent weather, eventually being compelled to return to France without landing a single soldier. Two British frigates, the 44-gun HMS Indefatigable and the 36-gun HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the seas off Ushant in an attempt to intercept the returning French force and sighted the Droits de l'Homme on the afternoon of 13 January.

The engagement lasted for more than 15 hours, in an increasing gale and the constant presence of the rocky Breton coast. The seas were so rough that the French ship was unable to open the lower gun ports during the action and as a result could only fire the upper deck guns, significantly reducing the advantage that a ship of the line would normally have over the smaller frigates. The damage the more manoeuvrable British vessels inflicted on the French ship was so severe that as the winds increased, the French crew lost control and the Droits de l'Homme was swept onto a sandbar and destroyed.


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