Battle of Visakhapatnam 1804
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 15 September 1804 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1804 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | India | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Napoleonic Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | France, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 17.6833, 83.3167 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Visakhapatnam was a minor naval engagement fought in the approaches to Visakhapatnam harbour in the Coastal Andhra region of British India on the Bay of Bengal on 18 September 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars. A French squadron under Counter-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois in the ship of the line Marengo attacked the Royal Navy fourth-rate HMS Centurion and two East Indiaman merchant ships anchored in the roadstead.
Linois was engaged in an extended raiding campaign, which had already involved operations in the South China Sea, in the Mozambique Channel, off Ceylon and along the Indian coast of the Bay of Bengal. The French squadron had fought one notable engagement, at the Battle of Pulo Aura on 15 February 1804, in which Linois had attacked the Honourable East India Company's (HEIC) China Fleet, a large convoy of well-armed merchant ships carrying cargo worth £8 million. Linois failed to press the attack and withdrew with the convoy at his mercy, invoking the anger of Napoleon when the news reached France.
Since his failure at Pulo Aura, Linois had been cruising the Indian Ocean, and during August and September 1804 had seized a number of valuable merchant ships as his squadron travelled north from Ceylon along the Indian coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Visakhapatnam (revision 1370592632), 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 Condore 1758 · 286 km
- Siege of Masulipatam 1759 · 287 km
Other battles of the Napoleonic Wars
- Battle of Trippstadt 1794
- Battle of Lodi 1796
- Battle of the Pyramids 1798
- Battle of Marengo 1800
- Battle of West Kay 1801
- Action of 5 October 1804 1804
- Battle of Pulo Aura 1804
- French capture of Gorée (1804) 1804
- Raid on Boulogne 1804
- Action of 10 August 1805 1805
All 50 battles of the Napoleonic Wars →
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