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The Action of 31 March 1800 was a naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought between a Royal Navy squadron and a French Navy ship of the line off Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. By March 1800 Valletta, the Maltese capital, had been under siege for eighteen months and food supplies were severely depleted, a problem exacerbated by the interception and defeat of a French replenishment convoy in mid-February. In an effort to simultaneously obtain help from France and reduce the number of personnel maintained in the city, the naval commander on the island, Contre-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, ordered his subordinate Contre-Admiral Denis Decrès to put to sea with the large ship of the line ''Guillaume Tell'', which had arrived in the port shortly before the siege began in September 1798. Over 900 men were carried aboard the ship, which was to sail for Toulon under cover of darkness on 30 March. The British had maintained a blockade off Malta since the beginning of the siege, ostensibly led by Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson, who by March 1800 was defying a direct order from his superior officer Lord Keith by remaining in Palermo with his lover Emma, Lady Hamilton. In his absence the blockade was under the command of Captain Manley Dixon of HMS ''Lion'' and Nelson's flag captain Sir Edward Berry, who were notified of Decrés' departure by the patrolling frigate HMS ''Penelope'' and gave chase. The large ship of the line was initially only attacked by ''Penelope'', which manoeuvered around ''Guillaume Tell'' ==Background== In May 1798, a French fleet under General Napoleon Bonaparte crossed the Mediterranean Sea, sailing for Egypt. Pausing at Malta on 9 June, Bonaparte landed soldiers and seized the island leaving a sizeable French garrison at Valletta under General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois while the rest of the fleet continued on to Alexandria.〔Adkins, p. 13〕 After the successful landing in Egypt, Bonaparte marched inland at the head of his army. The fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay to support the troops ashore and was surprised and almost completely destroyed on 1 August by a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson. Only two ships of the line and two frigates escaped the Battle of the Nile from the 17 French ships that participated in the action.〔Mostert, p. 272〕 Of the survivors, the ship of the line ''Généreux'' sailed for Corfu while ''Guillaume Tell'', under Contre-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, reached Malta with the two frigates.〔Clowes, p. 374〕 When Villeneuve arrived at Malta in September 1798, the island was already in turmoil: the dissolution of the Roman Catholic Church on the island under French rule had been highly unpopular with the Maltese population, who forced the French garrison to retreat into the fortress of Valletta on 2 September.〔Gardiner, p. 67〕 By the start of October, British and Portuguese troops had supplemented the Maltese irregulars, while a naval squadron watched Valletta harbour, to prevent any French effort to resupply and reinforce the garrison.〔James, Vol. 2, p. 189〕 Although small quantities of material reached Valletta from France in early 1799, by the start of 1800 no ship had arrived for more than seven months, and the garrison was near starvation.〔Clowes, p. 418〕 In an effort to resupply the garrison, the French sent a convoy from Toulon in February 1800, but the ships were intercepted off Malta by a squadron under Nelson on 17 February and in the ensuing battle the flagship ''Généreux'' was captured and Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée was killed.〔Bradford, p. 247〕 Without Perrée's supplies, the garrison faced continued food shortages, and by March Vaubois and Villeneuve decided to send an urgent request for support to France. For this operation they chose the 80-gun ''Guillaume Tell'' under Captain Saulnier, partly because the condition and size of the ship enabled Vaubois to embark over 900 men aboard, many of whom were sick or wounded.〔Gardiner, p. 69〕 Contre-Admiral Denis Decrès had command of the ship and Vaubois and Villeneuve confirmed the date of departure for 30 March. While the French prepared this expedition, the British maintained their blockade, although without their commander. Nelson, in defiance of specific orders from his commanding officer Lord Keith, had retired to Palermo on Sicily to be with Emma, Lady Hamilton, the wife of the British ambassador Sir William Hamilton with whom Nelson was conducting an adulterous affair.〔Mostert, p. 365〕 In his absence, command had passed to Captain Sir Thomas Troubridge on HMS ''Culloden'' and then to Captain Manley Dixon on HMS ''Lion''.〔Clowes, p. 420〕 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 31 March 1800」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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