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The Action of 24 June 1801 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars. A British ship of the line, HMS ''Swiftsure'' under Captain Benjamin Hallowell was passing westwards through the Southern Mediterranean near Cape Derna when it encountered a much larger French squadron under Contre-Amiral Honoré Ganteaume that was also returning westwards after a failed attempt to reinforce the besieged French garrison in Egypt. Although Hallowell immediately recognised the danger his vessel was in and turned to flee, the French ships were much faster and soon closed with his ship. At 14:00, three French vessels were within long gunshot and Hallowell decided that his only hope of escape lay in disabling the three ships before the rest of the French squadron could join the engagement. Turning towards the enemy, Hallowell found that his sluggish ship was unable to respond rapidly to French manoeuvres and within two hours ''Swiftsure'' was surrounded. Threatened with complete destruction and unable to escape, the British captain surrendered. The action was a rare victory for the French in the Mediterranean Sea, which had been largely under British control since the French Mediterranean Fleet had been destroyed in 1798 at the Battle of the Nile. This had trapped the French army in Egypt on the African side of the Mediterranean, and all efforts to reinforce and resupply them had ended in failure, including three separate expeditions by Ganteaume's squadron. ''Swiftsure'' was later commissioned into the French Navy and fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where the ship was recaptured by the British and rejoined the Royal Navy. Hallowell was subsequently court martialed for the loss of his ship, but was honourably acquitted and returned to naval service. ==Background== (詳細はBattle of the Nile, a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson destroyed the French Mediterranean Fleet at Aboukir Bay on the Egyptian coast.〔Gardiner, p. 39〕 The battle completely reversed the strategic situation in the Mediterranean: British forces had evacuated the region in 1796 after the Treaty of San Ildefonso brought Spain into the war on the French side, but they were now able to return in large numbers. As French maritime lines of communication were cut, the French ''Armée d'Orient'' under General Napoleon Bonaparte became trapped in Egypt. Unable to return to Europe by sea, the army attempted and failed to pass overland through Palestine and was subsequently abandoned by Bonaparte, who returned to France with his closest advisors in the frigates ''Muiron'' and ''Carrère'' in November 1799, promising to send reinforcements to the forces that remained in North Africa.〔Gardiner, p. 66〕 By 1801, the ''Armée d'Orient'' was on the verge of collapse. No supplies or support had arrived from France, their commander Jean Baptiste Kléber had been assassinated, and a British invasion was impending. Frustrated at his failure to assist his men in Egypt, Bonaparte ordered a squadron of ships of the line to sail from Brest in January 1801 under the command of Contre-Amiral Honoré Ganteaume.〔James, p. 88〕 This force was instructed to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean and land over 5,000 troops at Alexandria. In February, Ganteaume's force reached Toulon, the admiral concerned that his ships would be outnumbered further east where the British expeditionary force was gathering. Bonaparte sent him back to sea to complete the operation but again he returned, driven back by bad weather and a patrolling British squadron off Sicily under Rear-Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren.〔James, p. 93〕 On 27 April Ganteaume made a third attempt to reach Egypt, and reached Benghazi before pressure from larger British forces under Admiral Lord Keith drove his squadron back westwards. On 24 June, Ganteaume's ships were retreating along the North African coast, passing close to Cape Derna.〔James, p. 94〕 Also in the region was the British 74-gun ship of the line HMS ''Swiftsure'' under Captain Benjamin Hallowell, a veteran of the Battle of the Nile three years earlier.〔 ''Swiftsure'' was passing slowly along the North African coast after being detached from Keith's fleet to join Warren's squadron off Malta, escorting a small convoy ''en route''. Hallowell's ship was understrength as more than 80 men had been removed from the ship for service in Egyptian waters and illness rendered another 59 unfit for duty,〔 while the vessel itself was in a poor state of repair and leaking badly.〔Clowes, p. 453〕 Progress had been slow, and a northeasterly wind had also significantly delayed Hallowell's passage. When he learned from a passing vessel that there was a French squadron in the region, he ordered the convoy to separate and sailed for Malta alone in an effort to join Warren more rapidly and warn him of Ganteaume's return.〔Woodman, p. 159〕 At 03:30 on 24 June his lookouts sighted sails to the southwest. Hallowell immediately assumed that the distant ships were the enemy and he turned away from the French and tacked into the wind. By 05:30, lookouts on the nearest French ships, the ships of the line ''Jean Bart'' and ''Constitution'' had spotted the distant British vessel and were ordered to give chase.〔 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 24 June 1801」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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