Key Facts
- Date of final engagement
- 27 March 1814
- French frigates involved
- Etoile and Sultane
- Duration of Etoile engagement
- Over 2 hours
- Outcome for both prizes
- Captured and commissioned into Royal Navy
- War ended
- 11 April 1814 (Napoleon's abdication)
Strategic Narrative Overview
Attempting to reach Saint Malo in March 1814, the battered French squadron was intercepted near the Île de Batz by a superior British force including the ship of the line HMS Hannibal, frigate HMS Hebrus, and brig-sloop HMS Sparrow. The already-damaged Sultane surrendered without resistance to Hannibal. Etoile fled but was overtaken by Hebrus off Jobourg in Normandy in the early hours of 27 March, where the two frigates fought a fierce two-hour close-inshore engagement.
01 / The Origins
In October 1813, with Allied armies pressing into France and the Royal Navy commanding the seas, the French Navy dispatched two small frigate squadrons to harass British Atlantic trade. Unable to challenge British naval dominance directly, these raiders represented a last effort to project French sea power. One squadron was defeated near the Canary Islands in January 1814; the second, from Nantes comprising frigates Etoile and Sultane, fought engagements in the mid-Atlantic and Cape Verde Islands before attempting to return home.
03 / The Outcome
After more than two hours of fierce fighting, Etoile struck her colours and surrendered. Casualties were heavy on both ships. Both French frigates were taken as prizes to Britain and commissioned into the Royal Navy. The engagement was the last naval action of the War of the Sixth Coalition, which formally concluded with Napoleon's abdication on 11 April 1814, ending over two decades of Revolutionary and Napoleonic warfare.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.