Action of 24 October 1793 1793
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 24 October 1793 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1793 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Europe) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | French Revolutionary Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | France, Kingdom of Great Britain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 47.0333, -7.3667 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The action of 24 October 1793 was fought during the War of the First Coalition. While cruising in the Northern Bay of Biscay, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Thames, under Captain James Cotes, encountered the much larger French frigate Uranie, under Captain Jean-François Tartu. The ships engaged, with each suffering severe damage until they separated after nearly four hours of continual combat. Cotes ordered his crew to make hasty repairs, intending to resume the battle, but Uranie's crew, with their captain dead, slipped away while Thames was unable to manoeuvre. At 16:00, with repairs on Thames ongoing, a French squadron of three frigates and a brig, under Captain Zacharie Allemand, arrived, firing on Thames as they approached. Outnumbered, Cotes surrendered his ship to Allemand, who commended Cotes on his resistance to the far larger Uranie.
The French brought Thames into Brest, where sailors from Allemand's squadron looted the frigate. The British officers were imprisoned for the next two years. The frigate was commissioned into the French Navy as Tamise, and Uranie was renamed Tartu in honour of her deceased captain.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action of 24 October 1793 (revision 1370426347), 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 French Revolutionary Wars
- Battle of Verdun (1792) 1792
- Siege of Namur (1792) 1792
- Siege of Thionville (1792) 1792
- Action of 18 June 1793 1793
- Action of 20 October 1793 1793
- Action of 31 July 1793 1793
- Battle of Brécourt 1793
- Battle of Epierre 1793
- Battle of Mas Deu 1793
- Battle of Menin (1793) 1793
All 81 battles of the French Revolutionary Wars →
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