Action of 13 January 1797 1797
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 14 January 1797 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1797 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | French Revolutionary Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | France, Kingdom of Great Britain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 47.9414, -4.4544 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The action of 13 January 1797 (known by the French as the Naufrage du Droits de l'Homme; "shipwreck [or sinking] of the Droits de l'Homme") was fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the War of the First Coalition. During the action the frigates outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it onto shore in heavy seas, resulting in the deaths of between 400 and 1,000 of the 1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement with six sailors drowned after running onto a sandbank while failing to escape a lee shore.
The French 74-gun ship Droits de l'Homme had been part of the unsuccessful French expedition to Ireland. During the operation, the French fleet was beset by poor coordination and violent weather, eventually being compelled to return to France without landing a single soldier. Two British frigates, the 44-gun HMS Indefatigable and the 36-gun HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the seas off Ushant in an attempt to intercept the returning French force and sighted the Droits de l'Homme on the afternoon of 13 January.
The engagement lasted for more than 15 hours, in an increasing gale and the constant presence of the rocky Breton coast.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action of 13 January 1797 (revision 1378621176), 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.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Audierne Bay 1944 · 4 km
- Battle of the Raz de Sein 1798 · 26 km
- Siege of Fort Crozon 1594 · 34 km
- Battle of Camaret 1694 · 39 km
- Childers Incident 1793 · 43 km
- Battle of Pierres Noires 1944 · 46 km
Other battles of the French Revolutionary Wars
- Battle of Rastatt (1796) 1796
- Battle of Rovereto 1796
- Battle of Voltri 1796
- Battle of Würzburg 1796
- Second Battle of Kehl (1796) 1796
- Action of 25 January 1797 1797
- Assault on Cádiz (1797) 1797
- Battle of Camperdown 1797
- Battle of Rivoli 1797
- Battle of Tarvis (1797) 1797
All 81 battles of the French Revolutionary Wars →
Browse more: battles in France · Europe · Early modern battles