Action of 10 November 1808 1808
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 10 November 1808 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1808 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Europe) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Napoleonic Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | France, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 45.1390, -1.4960 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The action of 10 November 1808 was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, in which a British frigate defeated and captured a French frigate in the Bay of Biscay. The action formed part of the blockade of the French Biscay ports during the war by the British Royal Navy, a strategy designed to prevent ships from entering or leaving French harbours, thus eliminating foreign trade with France and damaging the French economy as well as cutting France off from her overseas colonies. The French ship in the action, Thétis, was destined for the French held West Indian island of Martinique with a cargo of flour and military supplies, including over 100 soldiers to reinforce the island's garrison.
Thétis had not even cleared the French coast when she was discovered by a patrolling British frigate of the inshore squadron, a unit tasked with watching the entrance to the French Biscay ports, principally Brest, and intercepting any ships seeking to enter or leave the harbours. This frigate, HMS Amethyst chased Thétis and brought her to battle, closing with the French ship but preventing the soldiers aboard Thétis from boarding the British ship and using their superior numbers to overwhelm her with heavy and accurate gunfire.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action of 10 November 1808 (revision 1370425825), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Napoleonic Wars
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- Action of 31 May 1809 1809
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