Action of 24 June 1801

Action of 24 June 1801
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
The capture of HMS Swiftsure
Date 24 June 1801 Location 21 nautical miles (39 km) northeast of Cape Derna Result French victory
Belligerents
French Republic	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Contre-Amiral Honoré Ganteaume	Captain Benjamin Hallowell
Strength
Two ships of the line and one frigate engaged. Two more ships of the line in support.	Ship of the line HMS Swiftsure
Casualties and losses
33 killed and wounded	2 killed 8 wounded Swiftsure captured

The Action of 24 June 1801 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars. A British ship of the line, HMS Swiftsure under Captain Benjamin Hallowell was passing westwards through the Southern Mediterranean near Cape Derna when it encountered a much larger French squadron under Contre-Amiral Honoré Ganteaume that was also returning westwards after a failed attempt to reinforce the besieged French garrison in Egypt. Although Hallowell immediately recognised the danger his vessel was in and turned to flee, the French ships were much faster and soon closed with his ship. At 14:00, three French vessels were within long gunshot and Hallowell decided that his only hope of escape lay in disabling the three ships before the rest of the French squadron could join the engagement. Turning towards the enemy, Hallowell found that his sluggish ship was unable to respond rapidly to French manoeuvres and within two hours Swiftsure was surrounded. Threatened with complete destruction and unable to escape, the British captain surrendered.

The action was a rare victory for the French in the Mediterranean Sea, which had been largely under British control since the French Mediterranean Fleet had been destroyed in 1798 at the Battle of the Nile. This had trapped the French army in Egypt on the African side of the Mediterranean, and all efforts to reinforce and resupply them had ended in failure, including three separate expeditions by Ganteaume's squadron. Swiftsure was later commissioned into the French Navy and fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where the ship was recaptured by the British and rejoined the Royal Navy. Hallowell was subsequently court martialed for the loss of his ship, but was honourably acquitted and returned to naval service.

On 1 August 1798, during the Battle of the Nile, a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson destroyed the French Mediterranean Fleet at Aboukir Bay on the Egyptian coast. The battle completely reversed the strategic situation in the Mediterranean: British forces had evacuated the region in 1796 after the Treaty of San Ildefonso brought Spain into the war on the French side, but they were now able to return in large numbers. As French maritime lines of communication were cut, the French Armée d'Orient under General Napoleon Bonaparte became trapped in Egypt. Unable to return to Europe by sea, the army attempted and failed to pass overland through Palestine and was subsequently abandoned by Bonaparte, who returned to France with his closest advisors in the frigates Muiron and Carrère in November 1799, promising to send reinforcements to the forces that remained in North Africa.

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Wikipedia