Battle of Pulo Aura 1804
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 15 February 1804 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1804 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Asia) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Napoleonic Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Batavian Republic, France, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 2.4492, 104.5250 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Pulo Aura was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large British East India Company (EIC) convoy intimidated, drove off and chased away a powerful French Navy squadron. Although the French squadron was much stronger than the British convoy, Commodore Nathaniel Dance's aggressive tactics persuaded Counter-admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois to retire after only a brief exchange of fire. Dance then chased the French squadron until his convoy was out of danger, whereupon he resumed his passage toward British India.
The battle occurred during an extended commerce raiding operation by Linois' squadron, led by the ship of the line Marengo. In 1803, before war broke out, Linois sailed to the Indian Ocean to install garrisons in French and Batavian colonies and target British merchantmen. A prime target was the "China Fleet", a convoy of East Indiamen carrying millions of pounds' worth of trade goods. Although escorted by smaller merchant ships, the only available escort warship was the EIC armed brig Ganges. Dutch informants told Linois of the fleet's destination and date of departure from Canton while he was at Batavia, and he set sail on 28 December 1803, eventually locating the convoy in early February.
Although no warships protected the convoy, Dance knew that lookouts could mistake a large East Indiaman for a ship of the line.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Pulo Aura (revision 1370586761), 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 Napoleonic Wars
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- Battle of the Pyramids 1798
- Battle of Marengo 1800
- Battle of West Kay 1801
- Action of 5 October 1804 1804
- Battle of Visakhapatnam 1804
- French capture of Gorée (1804) 1804
- Raid on Boulogne 1804
- Action of 10 August 1805 1805
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