Battle of the Raz de Sein 1798
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 21 April 1798 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1798 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | French Revolutionary Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | French First Republic, Kingdom of Great Britain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 48.0339, -4.7736 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Raz de Sein was a single-ship naval engagement of the blockade of Brest during the French Revolutionary Wars between a French and Royal Navy ships of the line on 21 April 1798. The British blockade fleet under Admiral Lord Bridport had sailed from St Helens on 12 April and on the morning of 21 April was crossing the Iroise Passage when sails were spotted to the east. Three ships were detached in pursuit, led by the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Mars under Captain Alexander Hood. As the British ships approached their quarry a third sail was sighted to the southeast close to the coastline and moving north towards Brest.
This ship was the 74-gun Hercule under Ship-of-the-line Captain Louis Lhéritier, newly commissioned at Lorient and sailing to Brest to join the main French fleet and the British squadron immediately changed direction to intercept the new target. Facing overwhelming odds Lhéritier attempted to escape through the narrow Raz de Sein passage, but found the tide against him and so anchored at the mouth of the passage to await the British attack. At 21:15 Mars reached Hercule, coming under heavy fire as Hood manoeuvred into position, bringing his ship crashing alongside the French vessel.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Raz de Sein (revision 1370601942), 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 French Revolutionary Wars
- Action of 25 January 1797 1797
- Assault on Cádiz (1797) 1797
- Battle of Camperdown 1797
- Battle of Rivoli 1797
- Battle of Tarvis (1797) 1797
- Action of 14 December 1798 1798
- Action of 24 October 1798 1798
- Action of 30 May 1798 1798
- Battle of Tory Island 1798
- Battle of the Pyramids 1798
All 81 battles of the French Revolutionary Wars →
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