Action of 18 November 1809 1809
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 18 November 1809 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1809 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Islands & open ocean) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Islands & open ocean | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Mauritius campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | East India Company, First French Empire | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 6.5000, 92.7500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The action of 18 November 1809 was the major engagement of a six-month cruise in the Indian Ocean by a French navy squadron during the Napoleonic Wars. Under Commodore Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, the squadron engaged in commerce raiding across the Bay of Bengal. Hamelin's squadron achieved local superiority, capturing several British merchant ships and destroying a factory of the East India Company (EIC). On 18 November 1809, two frigates and a brig of Hamelin's squadron encountered a convoy of three EIC East Indiamen bound for British India.
Windham, the largest East Indiaman of the convoy, took advantage of a disrupted French formation to attack the frigate Manche. The two ships duelled for an hour before Manche disengaged and Windham fled. The other two East Indiamen declined to join the action and offered only token resistance to stronger French warships before surrendering. Windham evaded a French pursuit for five days before being captured by Hamelin's flagship, Vénus. The French immediately began transporting their prizes back to the colony of Isle de France.
A month after the battle, Hamelin's squadron encountered a tropical cyclone that heavily damaged several ships.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action of 18 November 1809 (revision 1370426121), 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
- Action of 9 September 1796 1796 · 359 km
- Action of 31 May 1809 1809 · 394 km
Other battles of the Mauritius campaign
- Battle of Grand Port 1810
- Battle of Tamatave 1811
All 3 battles of the Mauritius campaign →
Browse more: battles at sea · Islands & open ocean · 19th century battles