Battle of Tamatave 1811
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 20 May 1811 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1811 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Africa) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Mauritius campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | First French Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -18.1500, 49.5000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Tamatave (also known as the Battle of Madagascar or action of 20 May 1811) was fought off Tamatave in the Indian Ocean between British and French frigate squadrons during the Napoleonic Wars. The action was the final engagement of the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811, and it saw the destruction of the last French attempt to reinforce their garrison on Isle de France. Although the news had not reached Europe by February 1811 when the reinforcement squadron left Brest, a British invasion of Isle de France resulted in the colony falling by December 1810, the French defences hampered by the lack of the supplies and troops carried aboard the frigate squadron under the command of Commodore Dominique Roquebert in Renommée. Roquebert's heavily laden ships reached Isle de France on 6 May and discovered that the island was in British hands the following day, narrowly escaping a trap laid by a squadron of British frigates ordered to hunt and destroy them.
On 20 May the British squadron, under the command of Captain Charles Marsh Schomberg, discovered the French off Tamatave and attacked, both sides hampered by light winds which impeded movement for much of the day.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Tamatave (revision 1370275193), 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.
Other battles of the Mauritius campaign
All 3 battles of the Mauritius campaign →
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