Action of 7 May 1794 1794
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 5 May 1794 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1794 | 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 | 54.4240, -10.8050 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The action of 7 May 1794 was a minor naval action fought between a British ship of the line and a French frigate early in the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Navy sought to disrupt British trade by intercepting and capturing merchant ships with roving frigates, a strategy countered by Britain by protecting convoys with heavier warships, particularly in European waters. On 5 May 1794, the British escorts of a convoy from Cork sighted two French ships approaching and gave chase. The ships, a frigate and a corvette, outmatched, separated, and the convoy escorts did likewise, each following one of the raiders on a separate course.
By the evening one of the French ships had successfully escaped, but the other was still under pursuit, Captain Charles Linois of Atalante attempting a number of tactics to drive off his opponent but without success. Eventually, after a chase lasting nearly two days, the French ship came within range of the much larger British 74-gun third-rate HMS Swiftsure and despite a brave defence was soon forced to surrender after suffering more than 40 casualties. Although he had surrendered his ship, Linois was widely praised for his actions in defending his ship against such heavy odds.
In the aftermath of the engagement, a French battle squadron that formed part of the developing Atlantic campaign of May 1794 pursued both ships for the rest of the day; their quarry eventually…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action of 7 May 1794 (revision 1370426756), 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 Killala 1798 · 105 km
- Battle of Castlebar 1798 · 116 km
- Battle of Creadran Cille 1257 · 142 km
- Battle of Collooney 1798 · 152 km
- Battle of Curlew Pass 1599 · 169 km
- Siege of Galway 1651 · 173 km
Other battles of the French Revolutionary Wars
- Battle of Vihiers 1793
- Battle of Wattignies 1793
- Siege of Dunkirk (1793) 1793
- Siege of Lyon 1793
- Siege of Pondicherry (1793) 1793
- Action of 6 November 1794 1794
- Battle of Boxtel 1794
- Battle of Martinique (1794) 1794
- Battle of Mykonos 1794
- Battle of Sprimont 1794
All 81 battles of the French Revolutionary Wars →
Browse more: battles at sea · Europe · Early modern battles