Action of 13 May 1779

The action of 13 May 1779 was a battle in Cancale Bay, near St Malo, between French and British squadrons of frigates. The French force had been part of the escort meant for Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen's invasion of Jersey. When that invasion failed on 1 May the French retreated to Coutances. The British brought together a large squadron of frigates under Captain John Gidoin and Captain Sir James Wallace, which then split in two to attack the French squadron against the coast in a pincer manoeuvre.

Action of 13 May 1779
Part of the Anglo-French War
Action off the Coast of France by Thomas Luny
Date 13 May 1779 Location Cancale Bay, France Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	France
Commanders and leaders
Sir James Wallace	de Kergariou Coatles
Strength
3 frigates 1 sloop 1 brig	2 frigates 1 corvette 1 gabarre 2 cutters
Casualties and losses
2 killed 15 wounded	1 frigate captured 1 corvette destroyed 1 cutter destroyed

On 13 May Gidoin's squadron chased the French from Coutances up the coast to St Malo where Wallace's squadron awaited them. Wallace followed the French into Cancale Bay and attacked them; in response the French beached their ships and went ashore after having been cannonaded for an hour and a half. Wallace captured the frigate Danae and two merchant vessels, but was forced to burn the other vessels because of gunfire from gun batteries on shore. Wallace's squadron suffered minimal casualties. Danae would go on to be bought into service with the Royal Navy; the cutter Guepe and the gabarre Écluse were the only French vessels the French were able to recover and repair.

Background

On 1 May 1779 a French invasion force led by Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen attacked the British crown dependency of Jersey, intending to capture the island through a coup de main. The invasion force was made up of five ships of the line and a number of smaller vessels, together carrying 2,500 soldiers.^[a][2][3] The force attempted to land at Saint Ouen Bay, but a combined force of local militia and the 78th Regiment of Foot, which was garrisoned on the island, repulsed the attack. Unable to proceed with their landings, Nassau-Siegen's force put to sea again.^[4] When the threat from the French force had been at its highest, the island's governor had sent a flyboat to Portsmouth to raise the alarm.^[5] While on her way there the boat encountered the squadron of Rear-Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot at 10 a.m. on 2 May that was escorting a large convoy to North America. Arbuthnot took his force to the Channel Islands and arrived at Guernsey on 4 May to find that the invasion force had departed.^[4][1]

While Arbuthnot sailed to relieve the islands, the messenger that had reached him continued on to Portsmouth. Admiral Sir Thomas Pye, the commander-in-chief there, ordered a group of frigates under the command of Captain John Gidoin of the frigate HMS Richmond to sail out to Jersey.^[4] Arbuthnot departed the Channel Islands on 6 May, but left behind the frigate HMS Experiment under Captain Sir James Wallace to temporarily bolster naval forces in the area.^[4][3] Gidoin's force joined with Wallace at Bouley Bay.^[4]

Action in Cancale Bay

On 10 May the bailiff of Jersey sent a letter to Gidoin, who was the senior captain still on station, to report that a group of French ships that had been tasked with assisting the invasion, had been seen near the Chausey Islands, situated between the French coast and the Channel Islands.^[6][7][5] Wallace, who had been preparing to leave the area and re-join Arbuthnot, instead chose to stay with Gidoin. Some small ships were sent out to Chausey to discover the nature of the French ships, and they soon reported that the French force consisted of the frigates Danae and Diane, the gabarre Écluse, the corvette Valeur, and cutter Guepe, and that they were anchored off Coutances.^[6][1][8]

Gidoin and Wallace decided to split their force to provide the greatest possible chance of intercepting the French ships before they could escape. Wallace, in Experiment, took with him the frigates HMS Pallas and HMS Unicorn, the brig HMS Cabot, the sloop HMS Fortune, and one other vessel donated by the locals to assist in the hunt. Gidoin, in Richmond, took with him the four other ships of the squadron and three more local armed vessels.^[9][1] The two forces sailed on 12 May; Gidoin went directly for Coutances where the French were still at anchor, while Wallace took a westerly route around Jersey in order to cut off any escape route the French might have used.^[10][11]

When Gidoin's force came in sight of the French, they set sail north for St Malo, towards where Wallace was waiting for them. Gidoin chased the French but by 10 p.m. the tide was against him and his ships were making very little headway so he was forced to anchor off Granville. At the same time Wallace's force were beset by similar difficulties but by 7 p.m. had succeeded in getting round Jersey.^[10]

A model of the lead British ship in the attack, Experiment

At 3 a.m. on 13 May Gidoin set sail once more and at a slow pace struggled in the direction the French had been sailing; at 10 a.m. he discovered Wallace's squadron ahead of him, chasing the French who had anchored at Cancale Bay. Gidoin was not able to make up the distance to Wallace and the French force, and would play no role in the subsequent action.^[10]

In the early morning daylight of 13 May Wallace, still sailing for the French, found another French frigate sailing from St Malo to assist her brethren in Cancale Bay. Wallace chased this new opponent under the guns of the batteries of St Malo, where she stayed. Unable to continue his assault on the frigate, Wallace redirected his force towards the original group of French ships, which were off to his left, just outside the bay itself.^[10]

The French sailed into the bay in an attempt to escape the attack but Wallace, leading the chase in Experiment, followed them in.^[10][3] Diane escaped past Experiment back out of the bay, while the rest of the French squadron sailed towards the protection of a gun battery further in.^[1] Danae had ten men killed and 20 wounded before her crew ran her aground and abandoned her in the bay, without her commander, Lieutenant de vaisseau de Kergariou Coatles, having given any such order. When the crews of the other French vessels saw Danae's crew abandon her, they too abandoned their vessels. The French did not set fire to Danae as they were unable to extract her sick and wounded.^[12][13]

The rest of Wallace's squadron having caught up with him, the British opened fire on the beached vessels for an hour and a half, forcing the French crews to escape to safety further inland. While the French squadron now lay defenceless, Wallace's attack had caused the local French militia to mobilise. The militia brought a number of cannon and howitzers to the bay and began to fire at the British ships.^[7] Being now in the dangerous position of being fired on in an enclosed bay, Wallace was not able to bring all the French vessels off the shore as prizes.^[7][11] Instead he ordered that two of the ships be burned where they lay, and for the cutter Dieppe, also in the bay, to be scuttled.^[b][7][8] Danae was successfully brought off and captured alongside two merchantmen, a brig and the sloop Fleur.^[7][15] Valeur, Ecluse, and Guepe were among the ships set on fire.^[1]

While Wallace's orders were being enacted on the stranded French warships, a battery of six 12-pounders had been erected and manned by the crews of the deserted ships. The battery began a concerted fire on Experiment that so frustrated Wallace that after Danae had been secured, he took control of the frigate from her pilots. He sailed her up the bay to lay up against the battery, which after forty-five minutes he destroyed and forced the crews to leave.^[c] The British then sailed from the bay with their prizes, which were sent to England.^[7][3][14]

For the British, casualties and losses in the action were minor. Experiment had been heavily damaged in the hull and sails by the batteries engaging her, and lost two men killed and thirteen wounded. Apart from this the only casualties came from Cabot, which had suffered three men wounded, including her purser who had his leg shot off.^[7]

Aftermath

Pallas brought Danae into Plymouth on 17 May.^[16] The Royal Navy brought her into service under the same name. In reward for the success of the endeavour Commander Charles Powell Hamilton of Fortune and Commander Edmund Dod of Cabot were promoted to post-captain, and Lieutenant John Wallace of Experiment was promoted to commander.^[7] Experiment would go on to re-join Arbuthnot's force, which was still at Torbay, and sail to New York.^[3]

While several of the vessels burned by the British were unsalvageable, the French did succeed in rescuing Guepe after Wallace had left the bay,^[1] and later recovered Ecluse. Diane escaped.^[d] The destruction of their ships forced the French to abandon their plans to capture Jersey for use as a privateering and observation base, as they no longer had enough escorts available to protect an invasion force.^[5][18] The French tried again in 1781, but British forces on the island repelled the invasion at the Battle of Jersey.^[19]

Order of Battle

British squadron
Ship	Guns	Commander	Casualties	Refs
Experiment	50	Captain Sir James Wallace	2 killed, 13 wounded	[1]
Pallas	36	Captain Thomas Spry	—	[1][8]
Unicorn	20	Captain John Ford		[1][8]
Cabot	12/14	Commander Edmund Dod	3 wounded	[1][7]
Fortune	12/14	Commander Charles Powell Hamilton	—	[1]
Armed lugger	Un­known			[1][6]

French squadron
Ship	Guns	Commander	Fate	Refs
Danae	34	Lieutenant de vaisseau de Kergariou Coatles	Captured	[20]
Diane	26		Escaped	[20][1][13]
Dieppe	16		Scuttled	[15]
Écluse[e]	8		Burned but recovered	[1][17]
Valeur	14		Burned	[1][21]
Guepe	6 or 10		Burned but recovered	[1][22]

Notes and citations

Notes

1. Also reported as 1,500 men.^[1]
2. Alternatively reported that Dieppe was burned.^[14]
3. Other reports state that the battery had already been destroyed before the French ships grounded themselves.^[8]
4. Guepe was wrecked in February 1781 at Cape Charles, Virginia. Ecluse returned to service and then became a merchantman after the end of the war. She was condemned in 1788.^[17] Diane continued in French service before being lost in a storm in 1780.^[18]
5. Mis-named Recluse by Wallace.^[20]

Citations

1. Clowes (1899), p. 25.
2. Beatson (1804), p. 538.
3. Breen (2008).
4. Beatson (1804), pp. 538–539.
5. Hargreaves (1967), p. 166.
6. Beatson (1804), p. 539.
7. Beatson (1804), p. 541.
8. Duncan (1805), p. 321.
9. Beatson (1804), pp. 539–540.
10. Beatson (1804), p. 540.
11. Field of Mars (1801).
12. Troude (1867), pp. 50–51.
13. Roche (2005), p. 150.
14. Laughton (1899).
15. Wallace (1779), p. 260.
16. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 1060. 21 May 1779. hdl:2027/mdp.39015004281542. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
17. Roche (2005), p. 166.
18. Winfield & Roberts (2017), p. 180.
19. "No. 12153". The London Gazette. 13 January 1781. p. 1.
20. Wallace (1779), p. 259.
21. Roche (2005), p. 455.
22. Roche (2005), p. 233.

References

• Beatson, Robert (1804). Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain. Vol. 4. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme.
• Breen, Kenneth (2008). "Wallace, Sir James". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Clowes, William Laird (1899). The Royal Navy A History from the Earliest Times to the Present. Vol. 4. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company.
• Duncan, Archibald (1805). The British Trident. Vol. 2. London: James Cundee.
• Hargreaves, Reginald (1967). "Proud Foot of the Conqueror". Royal United Services Institution Journal. 112 (646): 165–170. doi:10.1080/03071846709420395.
• Laughton, John Knox (1899). "Wallace, James (1731-1803)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des Bâtiments de la Flotte de Guerre Française de Colbert à Nos Jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• The Field of Mars. Vol. 1. London: G. and J. Robinson. 1801.
• Troude, Onésime-Joachim (1867). Batailles navales de la France. Vol. 2. Challamel ainé.
• Wallace, James (May 1779). "From the London Gazette". Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure. 64 (447): 258–260.
• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2017). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786. Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-4738-9353-5.