Action of 24 October 1798

Part of the French Revolutionary Wars and
the Irish Rebellion of 1798

Capture of the Furie & Waakzaamheid, Oct. 23rd 1798
Thomas Whitcombe, 1816

Date	24 October 1798
Location	North Sea, 30 nautical miles (56 km) northwest of the Texel.
Result	British victory

Belligerents

Great Britain

Batavian Republic

Commanders and leaders

Captain Richard King

Captain Meindert van Neirop

Strength

frigate HMS Sirius

frigate Furie and corvette Waakzaamheid

Casualties and losses

1 wounded

8 killed, 14 wounded, 550 men and Furie and Waakzaamheid captured.

The Action of 24 October 1798 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought between a British Royal Navy frigate and two ships of the Batavian Republic. The Dutch ships were intercepted in the North Sea within hours of leaving port, 30 nautical miles (56 km) northwest of the Texel, by the British ship HMS Sirius. Both Dutch vessels were carrying large quantities of military supplies and French soldiers, reinforcements for the French and Irish forces participating in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Although the rebellion had been defeated a month earlier, word of the British victory had not yet reached the European continent, and the Dutch force was intended to supplement a larger French squadron sent earlier in October. The French had already been defeated at the Battle of Tory Island and the Dutch suffered a similar outcome, both ships defeated in turn by the larger and better armed British vessel.

Captain Richard King on Sirius discovered the Dutch ships early on 24 October, when they were separated by 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) and thus unable to mutually support one another. Targeting the smaller ship, Waakzaamheid, King was able to outrun her in an hour and force her to surrender without a fight. Turning his attention on the larger vessel, Furie, King rapidly overhauled her as well and opened a heavy fire, to which Furie was only able to ineffectively reply. Within half an hour she too had surrendered. Both ships were taken to Britain, repaired and commissioned in the Royal Navy. The defeat ended the last effort by the continental nations to land soldiers in Ireland, and signified the last action of the Irish Rebellion.

Following the French Revolution in 1789, a political organisation was formed in Ireland named the Society of United Irishmen. Crossing social and religious boundaries, this organisation embraced republican principles with the stated goal of removing British government control from Ireland. When Britain went to war with the French Republic in 1793, the organisation was declared illegal and driven under cover, many of its senior members going into exile in Europe or America. These men continued to call for armed resistance to the British government, and in 1796 persuaded the French Directory to launch the Expédition d'Irlande, a large scale invasion of Ireland. The expedition was a disaster, with thousands of French soldiers drowned without a single man successfully landed. Subsequently, the French-controlled government of the Batavian Republic, formerly the Dutch Republic, was persuaded to make an attempt on Ireland in October 1797, but their fleet was intercepted and defeated by Admiral Adam Duncan at the Battle of Camperdown.

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Wikipedia