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Action of 18 November 1809
The Action of 18 November 1809 was the most significant engagement of a six-month cruise by a French frigate squadron in the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars. The French commander, Commodore Jacques Hamelin, raided across the Bay of Bengal with his squadron and achieved local superiority, capturing numerous merchant ships and minor warships. On 18 November 1809, three ships of Hamelin's squadron encountered a convoy of India-bound East Indiamen, mainly carrying recruits for the Indian Army, then administered by the Honourable East India Company (HEIC).
Despite spirited resistance from the largest British merchant ship, ''Windham'', the failure of the other Indiamen to support their leader and the size and power of the French ships forced the British to withdraw: all the HEIC ships were subsequently captured by the larger, faster French warships. A month later, Hamelin's raiding campaign skirted disaster when a winter hurricane on the voyage back to Île de France almost wrecked his flagship ''Vénus''. ''Vénus'' only survived with the co-operation of the British prisoners aboard, who brought the ship safely to port. Only two of the captured Indiamen were successfully brought to Ile de France: the same storm that nearly destroyed ''Vénus'' scattered the squadron and its prizes, allowing a patrolling British frigate to recapture ''Windham'' just a few miles from the French island.
==Background==
In the late autumn of 1808, the French Navy despatched four large frigates to the East Indies. These ships, stationed on Île de France and Île Bonaparte, were ordered to attack and disrupt British trade routes from the Far East, in particular British India.〔Gardiner, p. 92〕 This disruption was intended to have a negative financial effect on the British economy and force the Royal Navy to send ships into the Indian Ocean, expending valuable resources in doing so. The commander of this French force was Commodore Jacques Hamelin, a highly skilled officer who ordered his frigates to disperse in the Bay of Bengal to hunt British East Indiamen, large and well armed merchant ships that carried millions of pounds worth of goods between Britain and her Empire ever year.〔
During the late spring, the most active of the French frigates was ''Caroline'', which intercepted a convoy of East Indiamen in the Action of 31 May 1809. Due to a brief but determined resistance by the larger vessels, one of the East Indiamen was able to escape, but two others were captured and brought to Île Bonaparte.〔 During the spring of 1809, the Royal Navy in the region, represented by Admiral Albemarle Bertie at the Cape of Good Hope, had also been active. Bertie had gathered a squadron of available ships which he ordered to blockade the French Indian Ocean islands and probe them for weaknesses that would assist future invasion attempts. The force was led by Commodore Josias Rowley in HMS ''Raisonnable'' and mainly consisted of frigates, in roughly equivalent numbers to the French force under Hamelin.〔Woodman, p. 283〕 Rowley's first significant operation was the successful Raid on Saint Paul on 21 September 1809.〔Gardiner, p. 93〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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