A lopsided frigate engagement off Ceuta in which HMS Phoebe destroyed Africaine, killing 200 and halting French reinforcement of Egypt.
Key Facts
- Date
- 19 February 1801
- French dead
- 200 men
- French wounded
- 143 men
- Soldiers aboard Africaine
- more than 400 soldiers
- Engagement duration
- approximately 2 hours
- Captured ship taken to
- Port Mahon, Menorca
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following the defeat of the French Mediterranean Fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, France's Egyptian garrison was cut off from reinforcement. Napoleon Bonaparte, who had returned to France in 1799, pledged aid to the stranded troops, prompting expeditions carrying soldiers southward. Africaine sailed from Rochefort in early 1801 with over 400 troops, hugging the North African coast to evade Royal Navy patrols.
On the afternoon of 19 February 1801, Africaine was spotted by the British frigate HMS Phoebe off Ceuta and rapidly chased down. In a two-hour action, Phoebe's broadsides devastated the overladen French warship, killing 200 men outright and wounding 143 more, many of them soldiers packed on the open decks. Africaine, reduced to a wreck, surrendered to Phoebe.
The captured Africaine was brought to Port Mahon in Menorca and subsequently commissioned into the Royal Navy. The action further tightened the British blockade against French efforts to relieve the Egyptian garrison, which remained isolated and ultimately capitulated later in 1801.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent
Saulnier (Commodore).