Battle of Grand Port 1810
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 20 August 1810 – 27 August 1810 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1810 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Mauritius | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Islands & open ocean | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Mauritius campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | France, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -20.3903, 57.7339 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Grand Port was fought on 20–27 August 1810 in the harbour of Grand Port between the British and French navies over the harbour of Grand Port as part of the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811. A British squadron of four frigates under Captain Samuel Pym sought to blockade Grand Port in the French colony of Isle de France by capturing the fortified Île de la Passe at the port's entrance. The position was seized by a British landing party on 13 August, and when a French squadron under Frigate Captain Guy-Victor Duperré approached the bay nine days later, Pym decided to lure them into coastal waters where his forces could ambush them.
Most of Duperré's squadron managed to break past the British blockade and take shelter in the protected anchorage, which was only accessible through a series of complicated routes between reefs and sandbanks that were impassable without an experienced harbour pilot. When Pym ordered his frigates to attack the French warships on 22 and 23 August, his ships became trapped in the narrow channels of the bay: two were irretrievably grounded, a third struck her colours after being outnumbered and a fourth was unable to close to within effective gun range.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Grand Port (revision 1379557094), 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
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Other battles of the Mauritius campaign
All 3 battles of the Mauritius campaign →
Browse more: battles in Mauritius · Islands & open ocean · 19th century battles