Battle of Pirano

Battle of Pirano by Giovanni Luzzo
(Municipal Museum, Perast, Montenegro)

Date	22 February 1812
Location	Adriatic Sea, south of Venice near Pirano.
Result	British victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

France

Commanders and leaders

John Talbot

Jean-Baptiste Barré

Strength

HMS Victorious, brig-sloop HMS Weazel

Rivoli, brigs Mercure, Memeluck and Iéna, 2 gunboats

Casualties and losses

27 killed, 99 wounded

Over 400 casualties
Rivoli captured,
brig Mercure destroyed

The Battle of Pirano (also known as the Battle of Grado) on 22 February 1812 was a minor naval action of the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars fought between a British and a French ship of the line in the vicinity of the towns of Piran and Grado in Adriatic Sea. The French Rivoli, named for Napoleon's victory 15 years earlier, had been recently completed at Venice. The French naval authorities intended her to bolster French forces in the Adriatic, following a succession of defeats in the preceding year.

To prevent this ship challenging British dominance in the theatre, the Royal Navy ordered a ship of the line from the Mediterranean fleet to intercept and capture Rivoli on her maiden voyage. Captain John Talbot of HMS Victorious arrived off Venice in mid-February and blockaded the port. When Rivoli attempted to escape under cover of fog, Talbot chased her and forced her to surrender in a five-hour battle, Rivoli losing over half her crew wounded or dead.

The Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 had resulted in a Russian withdrawal from the Adriatic and the French takeover of the strategic island fortress of Corfu. The Treaty of Schönbrunn with the Austrian Empire in 1809 had further solidified French influence in the area by formalising their control of the Illyrian Provinces on the Eastern shore. To protect these gains, the French and Italian governments had instigated a shipbuilding program in Venice and other Italian ports in an effort to rebuild their Mediterranean fleet and challenge British hegemony. These efforts were hampered by the poverty of the Italian government and the difficulty that the French Navy had in manning and equipping their ships. As a result, the first ship of the line built in the Adriatic under this program was not launched until 1810 and not completed until early 1812.

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Wikipedia