Action of 13 January 1797

Action of 13 January 1797
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
Battle between the French warship Droits de l'Homme and the frigates HMS Amazon and Indefatigable, 13 & 14 January 1797, Leopold Le Guen
Date 13–14 January 1797 Location Bay of Biscay, Atlantic Ocean 47°56′29″N 4°27′16″W / 47.94139°N 4.45444°W / 47.94139; -4.45444 Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	France
Commanders and leaders
Edward Pellew Robert Reynolds (POW)	Jean de Lacrosse
Strength
2 frigates	1 ship of the line
Casualties and losses
37 killed and wounded 6 drowned 250 captured 1 frigate wrecked	253 killed and wounded 400-900 drowned 1 ship of the line wrecked
class=notpageimage| Location of the battle, off the coast of Brittany

The action of 13 January 1797 (known by the French as the Naufrage du Droits de l'Homme; "shipwreck [or sinking] of the Droits de l'Homme") was a minor naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the action the frigates outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it onto shore in heavy seas, resulting in the deaths of between 400 and 1,000 of the 1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement with six sailors drowned after running onto a sandbank while failing to escape a lee shore.

The French 74-gun ship Droits de l'Homme had been part of the Expédition d'Irlande, an unsuccessful attempt by a French expeditionary force to invade Ireland. During the operation, the French fleet was beset by poor coordination and violent weather, eventually being compelled to return to France without landing a single soldier. Two British frigates, the 44-gun HMS Indefatigable and the 36-gun HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the seas off Ushant in an attempt to intercept the returning French force and sighted the Droits de l'Homme on the afternoon of 13 January.

The engagement lasted for more than 15 hours, in an increasing gale and the constant presence of the rocky Breton coast. The seas were so rough that the French ship was unable to open the lower gun ports during the action and as a result could fire only the upper deck guns, significantly reducing the advantage that a ship of the line would normally have over the smaller frigates. The damage the more manoeuvrable British vessels inflicted on the French ship was so severe that as the winds increased, the French crew lost control and the Droits de l'Homme was swept onto a sandbar and destroyed.