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The Battle of Port Louis was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on 11 December 1799 at the mouth of the Tombeau River near Port Louis on the French Indian Ocean island of Île de France, later known as Mauritius. ''Preneuse'' had originally been part of a powerful squadron of six frigates sent to the Indian Ocean in 1796 under the command of Contre-amiral Pierre César Charles de Sercey, but the squadron dispersed in 1798 and by the summer of 1799 ''Preneuse'' was the only significant French warship remaining in the region. The battle was the culmination of a three-month raiding cruise by the 40-gun French Navy frigate ''Preneuse'', commanded by Captain Jean-Matthieu-Adrien Lhermitte. Ordered to raid British commerce in the Mozambique Channel, Lhermitte's cruise had been eventful, with an inconclusive encounter with a squadron of small British warships in Algoa Bay on 20 September and an engagement with the 50-gun HMS ''Jupiter'' during heavy weather on 9–11 October. Returning to Île de France in December, Lhermitte steered for Port Louis but was intercepted by the British blockade squadron, comprising the 74-gun ship of the line HMS ''Tremendous'' and the 50-gun HMS ''Adamant''. Unable to reach safety, Lhermitte evaded pursuit long enough to drive ''Preneuse'' onto a beach at the mouth of the Tombeau. After a brief exchange of fire the wrecked frigate was surrendered and British boarding parties in ship's boats rowed inshore to ''Preneuse'', removed the survivors and burnt the remains. Watching from the shore as the last of his command burned on the beach, Sercey subsequently retired from military service. ==Background== In 1796 British Royal Navy dominance in the East Indies during the French Revolutionary Wars was challenged by the arrival of a squadron of six French Navy frigates, commanded by Contre-amiral Pierre César Charles de Sercey. Among these ships was the new 40-gun frigate ''Preneuse'', commanded by Captain Jean-Matthieu-Adrien Lhermitte. ''Preneuse'' had not sailed from France with Sercey, instead passing independently through the Atlantic and uniting with the squadron at Port Louis on Île de France. Sercey deployed his squadron to the Dutch East Indies, but suffered frustration at the Action of 9 September 1796 and the Bali Strait Incident of January 1797 and subsequently returned to the base at Port Louis. There the squadron began to fracture, with a succession of ships sent back to France or detached on independent missions. ''Preneuse'' separated in March 1798, carrying messages of support and 86 military volunteers for the Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore, an enemy of the British in Southern India who sought to form an alliance with France. Lhermitte's instructions emphasised subtlety in the operation, but on 20 April he attacked the British port of Tellicherry and seized the East Indiaman merchant ships ''Woodcot'' and ''Raymond''. This alerted the British to ''Preneuse'' Lhermitte then sailed to rejoin Sercey and the corvette ''Brûle-Gueule'' at Batavia in the Dutch East Indies for a planned junction with an allied Spanish squadron at Manila. This combined force then attacked an East India Company convoy gathering in the Pearl River in January 1799, but in the ensuing Macau Incident they were driven off by the Royal Navy escort squadron. Dispirited, Sercey returned westwards to Île de France, narrowly avoiding an unequal battle with a large British squadron blockading the port. On arrival he discovered that ''Preneuse'' and ''Brûle-Gueule'' were the only ships remaining of his original command, the others having returned to France or been lost in battle. 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「Battle of Port Louis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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