Battle of Mahé facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Battle of Mahé
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
HMS Sybille capturing the Chiffonne off Mahé in the Seychelles, Thomas Whitcombe
Date 19 August 1801 Location Off Mahé, Indian Ocean Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	France
Commanders and leaders
Charles Adam	Pierre Guiyesse
Strength
1 frigate 1 brig	1 frigate 1 schooner 1 brig
Casualties and losses
3 killed and wounded	53 killed and wounded 1 frigate captured 1 schooner captured 1 brig sunk

The Battle of Mahé was a small but important naval fight. It happened on August 19, 1801, in the harbor of Mahé. This island in the Seychelles was a French colony in the Indian Ocean. This battle took place during the last year of the French Revolutionary Wars.

For a while, the Royal Navy (Britain's navy) was in charge of the East Indies. They controlled the shipping routes where trade ships sailed. This also helped them move their military forces quickly. The French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, wanted to challenge Britain's power in British India. He had tried to invade Egypt in 1798, but it didn't work out.

To stop British ships in the Red Sea, the French Navy sent a new warship. It was a 36-gun frigate called Chiffonne. Its job was to operate from Mahé. The ship carried 32 political prisoners who were being sent away from France. After a long journey, Chiffonne reached the Seychelles in August. Its commander, Pierre Guiyesse, wanted to fix the ship before starting his mission. He thought his ship would be safe in the bay. It was protected by coral reefs and a quickly built gun battery on shore.

However, the British commander in the area, Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, expected the French to send ships. He ordered the 38-gun frigate HMS Sybille, led by Captain Charles Adam, to investigate. Adam sailed to Mahé and found the French ship being repaired. Captain Adam carefully steered Sybille through the coral reefs. He brought his ship right next to Chiffonne. A short but fierce battle followed. Commander Guiyesse was forced to give up.

A month later, another French ship, the brig Flèche, was also caught. It was operating from the same harbor on a similar mission. The British brig HMS Victor found and sank it. These battles were the last big naval actions of the war in the Indian Ocean. The war officially ended in October with the Peace of Amiens.

Why the Battle Happened

The French Revolutionary Wars were almost over by 1801. These wars started in 1792. The new French Republic and its friends fought against many European countries. Only Great Britain (now the United Kingdom) had always fought against France.

In the Indian Ocean, Britain had a very profitable trading empire. Its center was British India. The Royal Navy was almost always in control there. Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier was their commander. Between 1796 and 1799, the French Navy had some ships in the area. They operated from Île de France (now Mauritius). But these French ships either went back to France or were defeated. By December 1799, Britain had full control again.

Napoleon's Plans in Egypt

The East Indies were very important for British trade. So, France often planned to threaten this region. The biggest plan was Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798. At first, the French army did well. But then, the British navy destroyed the French fleet. This happened at the Battle of the Nile on August 1, 1798. This defeat meant Napoleon's plan in Egypt was doomed.

Later, Napoleon thought about building a fleet in the Red Sea. But a British fleet, led by Rear-Admiral John Blankett, took control of that area. Napoleon went back to France the next year. But the British Red Sea fleet stayed active.

In 1801, a British army landed in Northern Egypt. The French forces there eventually surrendered. The British fleet in the Red Sea helped with this. France wanted to stop British operations in the Red Sea. They decided to send a new warship. It was the 36-gun frigate Chiffonne. It sailed from Nantes on April 14, 1801. Commander Pierre Guiyesse was in charge. He was also ordered to drop off 32 political prisoners at Mahé.

Chiffonne's Journey

Chiffonne had an eventful trip to the Indian Ocean. On May 15, it captured a Portuguese merchant schooner off Brazil. On May 18, it met a Portuguese frigate called Andorinha. Andorinha had 24 carronades (short-range cannons). But it was no match for Chiffonne's 36 12-pounder long guns. Andorinha surrendered quickly. Guiyesse let the warship go. But first, he threw its guns overboard. He also made the officers promise not to fight against France again.

Near the British-held Cape of Good Hope, Guiyesse captured the British merchant ship Bellona on June 16. He sent Bellona to Île de France. Chiffonne itself was heading to Mahé in the Seychelles. The Seychelles were a French colony. Mahé was a good place to attack British ships heading to the Red Sea.

Rear-Admiral Rainier had been fighting in the Indian Ocean since 1794. He guessed that the French might send ships to the Red Sea. He thought the Seychelles would be a good base for them. So, he ordered one of his biggest frigates to patrol the area. This ship was HMS Sybille. It was a 38-gun frigate that the British had captured from the French in 1794. Captain Charles Adam was its commander.

When Guiyesse arrived at Mahé, he dropped off the prisoners. Then, he ordered his crew to repair Chiffonne. The front mast needed a lot of work, so it was removed. Guiyesse carefully anchored Chiffonne among many coral reefs. The captured schooner and a small ketch helped with repairs. Guiyesse also had his men build a gun battery on the shore. This battery was placed to fire directly along the length of any attacking ship. This was called raking fire. The battery used guns from Chiffonne's front deck. They were set up on wooden planks and protected by bundles of sticks. There was also a furnace behind the battery. This allowed them to heat cannonballs. These hot cannonballs were meant to set enemy ships on fire.

The Battle of Mahé

Charles Adam

Early on August 19, HMS Sybille was exploring the Seychelles. They saw flag signals coming from Ste. Anne Island, east of Mahé. Captain Adam thought this was unusual. He ordered his ship to investigate. Sybille sailed past Ste. Anne Island. It was flying false French flags. They could clearly see Chiffonne anchored close to shore at Mahé.

Adam prepared his ship for battle. He used ropes on the anchor cables to help the ship move better in shallow water. The main cannons were made ready. Then, Adam ordered the front sail to be set. Sybille slowly moved into the tricky coral reefs that protected the French ship. To get through these reefs, a sailor stood high on the mainmast. He watched the color of the water. Darker water meant deeper water. But the changes in color were so small that only someone high up could see them.

Sybille's slow journey took over an hour. By 10:15 AM, they reached the safer waters inside the harbor. Guiyesse was ready. At 10:00 AM, he fired a warning shot at the distant Sybille. He also raised the French tricolor flag. Adam was still separated from Chiffonne by a reef he couldn't cross. But he was now about 200 yards away, close enough to shoot.

At 10:25 AM, Sybille was in position. Adam raised his British flag and fired the first broadside (all the cannons on one side firing at once). Instantly, Chiffonne, the schooner, and the shore battery fired back. The shore battery was perfectly placed to hit Sybille with raking fire. The fight was short, lasting only 17 minutes. At 10:42 AM, Guiyesse had many injured crew and his ship was damaged. He struck his colours (lowered his flag to surrender). He then cut his ship's anchor cables. This let Chiffonne drift onto the reef. The schooner had been sunk by shots from Sybille's back deck.

Adam then turned Sybille to fire at the shore battery. He also sent ship's boats to take over Chiffonne and attack the gunners on shore. When the boats reached the beach, the French gunners ran away inland. They left their guns behind.

Sybille had very few losses. Two men were killed, and a junior officer was slightly hurt. Chiffonne had many more casualties. Reports said 23 were killed and 30 were wounded. About 160 of the surviving crew were captured. Around 100 escaped inland from the damaged frigate or the battery.

After the battle, Captain Adam asked the Governor of Mahé, Jean-Baptiste Queau de Quincy, why the neutrality agreement had been broken by Chiffonne. Quincy convinced Adam that he was not responsible. They agreed that Seychelles merchant ships flying a special flag would be allowed to pass through the British blockade. Chiffonne was pulled off the reef and repaired. Adam sailed away with his captured ship and two captured schooners on May 4. He returned to Madras (in India) on September 22. There, Rear-Admiral Rainier bought the ship for the Royal Navy, keeping its name. Adam later received a special sword worth 200 guineas from an insurance company.

Ship Details

In this table, "Guns" means all cannons on the ship. "Broadside weight" is the total weight of all cannonballs fired at once from one side of the ship.

Ship	Commander	Navy	Guns	Tons	Broadside weight	Complement	Casualties
							Killed	Wounded	Total
HMS Sybille	Captain Charles Adam		48	1091bm	503 pounds (228 kg)	271	2	1	3
Chiffonne	Captain Pierre Guiyesse		40	945bm	370 pounds (170 kg)	296	23	30	53
Source: ,

More Fighting in September

A few weeks later, another battle happened. The 18-gun French brig Flèche arrived from Nantes in June. It was also on a raiding mission and carried 35 more political prisoners. Flèche, commanded by Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Bonami, also used Mahé as a base to attack British ships.

On September 2, the 18-gun British ship HMS Victor spotted Flèche near the Seychelles. Victor, led by Captain George Ralph Collier, was a small ship. But it had very powerful weapons: 16 short-range 32-pounder carronades and two 6-pounder long guns. Collier had been sent to find Flèche. He chased the French brig and caught it at 5:30 PM. Flèche fired two broadsides, badly damaging Victors ropes and sails. But Victors guns also caused a lot of damage. Bonami used his advantage to pull away from Victor. But he couldn't completely lose his enemy. Collier followed Flèche for the next two days. Sometimes he got close enough to fire, but never close enough for a final battle. By dawn on September 5, the French brig had escaped.

Collier thought Flèche was heading back to Mahé for safety. He steered Victor towards the harbor. When the island came into view at 3:30 PM that day, the French brig was indeed anchored there. Collier slowly approached. He anchored outside the reef at 7:00 PM. Since night was coming, Collier didn't want to risk his ship in the tricky channels. Instead, the ship's master, James Crawford, took a boat out during the night. He took soundings (measurements of water depth) to find a safe channel. Even though the boat was fired upon, they successfully mapped a course.

The next morning, Flèche was ready for battle at the mouth of the channel. It flew a revolutionary red flag. Volunteers from Chiffonne's escaped crew helped man the guns. Collier took Victor across the reef, facing constant raking fire from the French brig. This process took all day. Victor didn't reach the safer waters inside the harbor until 9:00 PM. During the evening, it slowly moved closer to Flèche. At 11:45 PM, Collier decided his ship was close enough. He opened fire with his main broadside. A fierce, close-range fight began. It lasted more than two hours. At 2:20 AM on September 7, Flèche began to sink.

As British boat crews went to take over the brig, the French crew deliberately drove their ship onto the reef. They then set it on fire. As they left, the British crew arrived. They lowered the flag and put out the fire. But the French ship was too damaged. Flèche slowly rolled over into deeper water and sank.

Even though two British men were wounded in the fighting on September 2, not a single British casualty was recorded on September 7. This was despite heavy damage to Victor's hull and rigging. Bonami later reported four of his men killed. He didn't say how many were wounded. But British sailors reported seeing many more casualties when they boarded the brig.

Ship Details

In this table, "Guns" means all cannons on the ship. "Broadside weight" is the total weight of all cannonballs fired at once from one side of the ship.

Ship	Commander	Navy	Guns	Tons	Broadside weight	Complement	Casualties
							Killed	Wounded	Total
HMS Victor	Captain George Ralph Collier		18		262 pounds (119 kg)	120	0	2	2
Flèche	Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Bonami		18		78 pounds (35 kg)		4	?	c.4
Source:

What Happened Next

The battles at Mahé were the last important fights of the war in the Indian Ocean. A British admiral, Lord St Vincent, called the capture of Chiffonne "the last and neatest frigate action of the war."

On October 1, the terms of the Peace of Amiens were agreed upon. This peace treaty officially ended the war. Even though the news didn't reach the Indian Ocean until February 1802, Admiral Rainier had expected peace. So, he hadn't started any new attacks. The peace treaty mostly returned the area to how it was before the war. The only land that permanently changed hands was Dutch Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), which became a British colony.

Both sides used the peace to rebuild their navies in the East Indies. No one in the area expected the peace to last long. When the Napoleonic Wars began in May 1803, both Britain and France had strong navies in the Indian Ocean again.