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The Action of 13 September 1810 was an inconclusive frigate engagement during the Napoleonic Wars between British Royal Navy and French Navy frigates during which a British frigate was defeated by two French vessels near Isle de France (now Mauritius), but British reinforcements were able to recapture the ship before the French could secure her. The British frigate was HMS ''Africaine'', a new arrival to the Indian Ocean. She was under the command of Captain Robert Corbet, who had served there the previous year. Corbet was a notoriously unpopular officer and his death in the battle provoked a storm of controversy in Britain over claims that Corbet had either committed suicide at the shame of losing his ship, been murdered by his disaffected crew, or been abandoned by his men, who were said to have refused to load their guns while he remained in command. Whether any of these rumours were accurate has never been satisfactorily determined, but the issue has been discussed in several prominent naval histories and was the subject of at least one lawsuit. The action came about as a direct consequence of the Battle of Grand Port three weeks earlier, in which a British squadron had been destroyed in a failed attack on Grand Port harbour on Isle de France. This gave the French forces on the island a significant regional advantage, outnumbering the British frigate on the recently captured Île Bourbon, commanded by Commodore Josias Rowley, by six to one. British reinforcements were hastily despatched to the area but the French were blockading Île Bourbon in force and the arriving reinforcements were in constant danger of attack by more powerful French units. ''Africaine'' was the first ship to reinforce Rowley's squadron, but within three days of her arrival in the region was engaged by two French ships while attempting to drive them away from Saint Denis on Île Bourbon. Corbet was severely wounded in the opening exchanges and subsequently died. Although his crew fought hard, they were overwhelmed by the French frigates and forced to surrender, only for Rowley to arrive in HMS ''Boadicea'' and drive off the French warships, recapturing ''Africaine''. ==Background== In 1808, both the British Royal Navy and the French Navy despatched frigate squadrons to the Indian Ocean. The French, led by Commodore Jacques Hamelin, were ordered to disrupt British trade in the region, particularly targeting the large East Indiamen that carried millions of pounds worth of goods between Britain and her Empire.〔Gardiner, p. 92〕 The British force under Commodore Josias Rowley was tasked with the blockade and eventual capture of the two well defended island bases of the French, Île Bonaparte and Isle de France. At the Action of 31 May 1809, a French frigate named ''Caroline'' captured two East Indiamen, sheltering with her prizes at Saint Paul on Île Bonaparte. In his first major operation against the islands, Rowley landed soldiers behind the defences of the harbour and sent his ships into the bay, seizing the town and the shipping in the harbour, including ''Caroline''.〔Woodman, p. 284〕 One of Rowley's captains who had performed well in this engagement was Robert Corbet of HMS ''Nereide''. Refitting the ''Caroline'' as a British warship and renaming her HMS ''Bourbonaise'', Rowley placed Corbet in command and sent him to Britain with despatches.〔James, p. 197–199〕 Over the following year, the French continued to attack British trade convoys, achieving important victories at the Action of 18 November 1809 and the Action of 3 July 1810, where they captured another five East Indiamen as well as numerous smaller merchant ships and a large Portuguese frigate.〔Gardiner, p. 93〕 Rowley too was active, commanding the successful Invasion of Île Bonaparte in July and renaming the island Île Bourbon, basing his squadron at Saint Paul on the island's eastern shore. From this base, Rowley's ships were ideally positioned to begin a close blockade of Isle de France, led initially by Captain Samuel Pym in HMS ''Sirius''.〔Clowes, p. 458〕 Pym sought to reduce French movement by seizing a number of fortified offshore islands, starting with Île de la Passe off Grand Port. The island was captured, but when a French squadron broke through the British blockade and took shelter in Grand Port, Pym resolved to attack them.〔Macmillan, p. 30〕 The ensuing Battle of Grand Port was a disaster for Rowley's squadron, as Pym led four of Rowley's five frigates into the bay without adequately assessing the channel through the coral reefs that sheltered the harbour. As a result, two frigates grounded out of range of the enemy and the remaining two were outnumbered in confined waters. In a complicated battle lasting several days, two of Pym's frigates were captured and two more had to be scuttled, with their entire crews made prisoner. Rowley's reinforcements arrived too late, and the British commodore was chased back to Saint Denis by Hamelin's flagship.〔James, p. 297〕 While Rowley and Hamelin had sparred in the Indian Ocean, Corbet had made the lengthy journey back to Britain. During his time in command of ''Nereide'', Corbet had already developed a reputation as a strict disciplinarian, regularly beating his men for the slightest infractions, to the extent that he had provoked a brief mutiny on ''Nereide'' in 1808.〔 His reputation spread before him, and when he switched commands with Captain Richard Raggett of HMS ''Africaine'', he was met with a storm of protest from ''Africaine'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Action of 13 September 1810」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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