L'Hermite's expedition facts for kids

The L'Hermite's expedition was a French navy trip during the Napoleonic Wars in 1805. Its main goals were to attack British trading ships off West Africa and to distract the British navy from the main Trafalgar campaign.

Commodore Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermite left Lorient in October 1805. He had one large warship, two smaller frigates, and a corvette. His orders were to find and destroy British traders and slave ships near the West African coast. He was also supposed to wait for more ships led by Jérôme Bonaparte. These extra ships would help him capture a British trading fort. This fort would then become a French naval base for future attacks. The French also hoped L'Hermite's mission would make the British move some of their ships away from Cadiz. This would help the French and Spanish fleet trapped there to escape.

L'Hermite did manage to capture some British ships. However, his force was too small to really hurt British trade in the area. The extra ships he was promised never arrived. This was because the main fleet at Cadiz was destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. This happened ten days before L'Hermite even sailed, but the news hadn't reached Lorient yet. In early 1806, L'Hermite captured a small British navy ship. Still, he couldn't make a big difference to British trade.

In the spring of 1806, L'Hermite sailed across the Atlantic. He stopped in neutral Brazil to get supplies and fix his ships. On the way back to France in August 1806, his ships were caught in a huge hurricane. One frigate was badly damaged and had to go to a port in the United States for repairs. The rest of the ships continued to France. L'Hermite reached Brest in his main ship, the Régulus. The other frigate was caught by a British fleet on September 27, 1806, and captured in the Bay of Biscay.

Why the Expedition Happened

By the summer of 1805, the Napoleonic Wars had been going on for two years. The biggest naval fight, the Trafalgar campaign, was about to reach its peak. A French fleet had left Toulon in March 1805. It picked up Spanish ships and then sailed across the Atlantic. Their goal was to mess up British trade and take British colonies.

A British Royal Navy fleet, led by Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson, chased them closely. Nelson's fleet reached the Caribbean on June 11. They found that the French fleet had already started heading back to Europe. On July 22, 1805, the French and Spanish fleet fought the Battle of Cape Finisterre against a British force. After this battle, they had to go south and hide in the Spanish port of Cadiz. Nelson arrived a few days later and began to block the port, waiting for them to come out for a fight.

The main French fleet in the Atlantic, based at Brest, hadn't been part of this big campaign. But the French decided to send smaller groups of ships to attack British trade in the Atlantic. They hoped this would make Nelson send some of his ships to chase them, taking pressure off the fleet in Cadiz.

One such group was led by Contre-Admiral Zacharie Allemand. It had five large warships, two frigates, and two corvettes. This group sailed from Brest on July 12 to operate in the North Atlantic.

A second group was put under Commodore Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermite. His ships were the warship Régulus, the frigates Président and Cybèle, and the corvette Surveillant. L'Hermite was told to sail to West Africa. There, he would attack merchant ships and slave ships that traded near the many British posts along the coast.

At some point, L'Hermite was supposed to meet a larger group of ships led by Captain Jérôme Bonaparte, who was Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's brother. This stronger group would have over 1,000 French soldiers. These soldiers would be used to attack one of the British trading posts in West Africa. If they could capture a post, it would become a French naval base. This would force the British to send a whole fleet from their Channel Fleet to deal with it. This was important because the British needed every warship for the Trafalgar campaign.

The Expedition's Journey

L'Hermite's ships left Lorient on October 31. They managed to avoid the British ships blocking the port and headed for the West African coast. What they didn't know was that Villeneuve's fleet had already been destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar ten days earlier. So, L'Hermite's mission to distract the British was no longer needed.

During November and December, L'Hermite's ships sailed in the Gulf of Guinea. They successfully captured and burned several small merchant ships and slave ships. However, the promised extra ships never showed up. After the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon changed his plans. He sent resources to the Atlantic campaign of 1806, a big raiding operation to the Caribbean and South Atlantic that started in December 1805. Jérôme Bonaparte's ship, the Vétéran, was part of this new operation.

Without more ships, L'Hermite couldn't really hurt British trade off West Africa. He also couldn't try to capture a British trading fort. On January 6, he had a small victory. He captured the 18-gun British sloop Favourite, commanded by John Davie. This captured ship became part of L'Hermite's group. The Surveillant was sent back to France with messages.

L'Hermite also captured two slave ships off the coast of Sierra Leone: Trio and Lord Nelson. These ships had not yet taken any slaves aboard. L'Hermite put the crew of Favourite onto Trio and sent her back to England as a cartel (a ship used for exchanging prisoners). Later, he captured several other slave ships: Ponsonby, Juverna, Wells, Hughes, Active, and Laurel. The squadron burned the other captured ships. The captains of these ships arrived at Waterford on May 12 on the cartel Active. The squadron also captured Sarah, Otway, Mary, and Nelson.

In the spring of 1806, L'Hermite's supplies were running low. He left the African coast and sailed across the Atlantic to Brazil, which was a colony of neutral Portugal. After several months of repairs and getting new supplies, L'Hermite sailed through the Caribbean Sea in July 1806. He didn't know that another French fleet was in the same area. He only met a few small merchant ships before heading into the Atlantic in early August. He left Favourite behind in the West Indies. On January 27, 1807, the British frigate HMS  Jason recaptured Favourite off Surinam.

On August 20, L'Hermite's ships were caught in a hurricane at 22°26′N 55°00′W / 22.433°N 55.000°W / 22.433; -55.000 ("L'Hermite's squadron dispersed by a hurricane"). This was the same storm that had damaged another French fleet two days earlier. The damage was serious. Cybèle was hit the hardest, losing her topmasts. This made her much slower than the other ships. Because the frigate was so weak, L'Hermite told her to separate and sail to a port in the neutral United States. She arrived at Hampton Roads on September 1. Cybèle was later repaired and returned to France in 1807. She then joined the fleet based at Rochefort.

The Capture of Président

L'Hermite's three other ships survived the hurricane mostly intact. They were able to continue their journey to Europe without problems. The British ships in the area had also been scattered by the summer storms. In late September, L'Hermite's group split up. The Régulus sailed for Brest and arrived on October 5. It was the only French warship to enter or leave that port all year.

The Président was not as lucky. At 3:30 AM on September 27, while sailing in the Bay of Biscay at 47°17′N 06°52′W / 47.283°N 6.867°W / 47.283; -6.867 ("Action of 27 September 1806"), Captain Labrosse saw six large warships. This huge force was a British fleet led by Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis. They had been sent to the Bay of Biscay to wait for another French fleet returning from the Caribbean.

The British ships immediately started chasing the Président. Louis found that his large warships were not fast enough to catch the French frigate, which began to pull away. However, one of the small 18-gun sloops with the British fleet, HMS Despatch under Captain Edward Hawkins, was able to keep up with the frigate. By 6:45 PM, Despatch was close enough to fire.

Even though Hawkins only had two small guns that could aim at the frigate, he kept firing steadily for the next hour. He avoided the shots from the frigate's front guns during the chase. By 7:45 PM, it was clear that Despatch's shots were slowing the frigate down. Captain Labrosse turned his ship towards the approaching British fleet, as if to attack the closest British frigate, HMS Blanche.

Seeing the French ship change direction, Louis ordered his main ship, HMS Canopus, to fire a gun from very far away. This warned Labrosse that the British fleet was getting very close. He decided to surrender rather than have his ship destroyed by all the British firepower. No one was hurt in the exchange of fire. However, Despatch had serious damage to its ropes and sails, and one shot went through its hull. The French ship had only minor damage. It was later taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Presidente. In 1815, it was renamed HMS Piemontaise. This frigate was much admired by the Royal Navy, and many later frigates were built to a similar design.

Ships in L'Hermite's Squadron