Action of 27 February 1809

Action of 27 February 1809
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
Capture of HMS Proserpine by Pénélope and Pauline. Watercolour by Antoine Roux.
Date 27 February 1809 Location 12 nautical miles (22 km) off Cape Sicié, near Toulon Result French victory
Belligerents
First French Empire	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Captain Bernard Dubourdieu Captain François-Gilles Montfort	Captain Charles Otter
Strength
Pénélope Pauline	HMS Proserpine
Casualties and losses
None	one killed, one mortally wounded, 11 lightly wounded. Proserpine captured

The Action of 27 February 1809 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars. Two 44-gun frigates, Pénélope and Pauline, sortied from Toulon harbour to chase a British frigate, HMS Proserpine, which was conduction surveillance of French movements. First sneaking undetected and later trying to pass herself as a British frigate coming to relieve Proserpine, Pénélope approached within gun range before being identified. With the help of Pauline, she subdued Proserpine and forced her to surrender after a one-hour fight.

Proserpine was sailed to Toulon and commissioned in the French Navy, where she served until 1865. Captain Otter remained a prisonner in France until the end of the war; he was court martialed for the loss of his ship on 30 May 1814, and honourably acquitted.

By 1809, the French fleet in Toulon was blockaded by several British squadrons of powerful ships of the line; direct surveillance of the harbour, however, had to be conducted by smaller and more agile frigates. Threatening intervention from the battle squadrons against ships putting out to sea, the presence of the British frigates constricted the liberty of manoeuver of the French ships, preventing not only an all-out sortie, but also navigation of individual ships or small squadrons, and even the training manoeuvers necessary to maintain the fleet. Consequently, French commanders tried to drive off British ships in order to disrupt the surveillance.

In February, the 32-gun frigate HMS Proserpine, under Captain Charles Otter, was patrolling off Toulon. Having noticed that she tended to sail very close to Toulon, up to Cape Sicié, and learning from fishermen who had been in contact with her crew that she would be relieved at her station around the 27th, Captain Dubourdieu requested from Admiral Ganteaume the authorization to give chase; although under order to avoid engaging the British squadrons, Ganteaume authorised the sortie, joining Pauline, under François-Gilles Montfort, to Dubourdieu's Pénélope. He furthermore ordered two 74-guns, Suffren and Ajax, under Rear-admiral Baudin, to cover the frigates.

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