Action of 31 May 1796

Action of 31 May 1796
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
Date31 May 1796
LocationOff Arma di Taggia and Bussana
Result British victory
Belligerents
 Great Britain France French Republic
Commanders and leaders
Commodore Horatio Nelson Enseigne de vaisseau Pioch
Strength
Ship of the Line HMS Agamemnon 2 gunboats
5 transports
Casualties and losses
1 killed & 3 wounded 7 ships captured

The Action of 31 May 1796 was a small action during the French Revolutionary Wars in which a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Commodore Horatio Nelson, in the 64-gun third-rate ship of the line HMS Agamemnon, captured a seven-vessel French convoy that was sailing along the coast from Menton to Vado in the Mediterranean. The British succeeded in capturing the entire convoy, with minimal casualties to themselves.

Nelson had received the news that the French were trying to take supplies to St Pierre d'Acena for the siege of Mantua. He therefore set out to intercept any such attempt.[1]

When Nelson and his squadron sighted a small convoy of seven sail skirting the coast, he pursued them. The French vessels anchored under the guns of a shore battery and hoisted French flags. Nelson then sent in the squadron's ships' boats to capture the convoy. After a short resistance by an armed tartane of three guns, a gunboat of one gun, and the battery, the British succeeded in taking the vessels. British casualties were one man killed and three wounded.[1] French records place the action off Arma di Taggia and Bussana.[2]

The vessels the British captured were two naval vessels and five transports.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes
  1. ↑ Unfortunately, the information in Winfield and Roberts, and Winfield, has a mistaken fate for Génie. She did not become HMS Venom.[3][6] Vessel types, dates, and locations do not match in that Venom was a brig already in service in the Caribbean in March-April 1794. She continued to serve there until 1799 or 1800. It is quite possible that Génie became a Venom, it was not uncommon for local station commanders to commission locally-acquired vessels, particularly as tenders to a larger vessel, but the Venom the sources refer to is a different vessel entirely.
  2. ↑ Numero Douze matches the admittedly sketchy information for one of a series of chaloupe-canonnières built at Toulon in 1794. However, No. 12 was renamed Négligente in May 1795,[8] and was reportedly wrecked near Genoa that month.[9] There is evidence that there was a second Numéro Douze that also was lost near Genoa.[7] It is possible that after the loss of Numéro Douze/Négligente in May 1795, the French Navy commissioned a new Numéro Douze that then was the one captured in 1796.
Citations
  1. 1 2 3 The London Gazette: no. 13912. p. 682. 16 July 1796.
  2. 1 2 Fonds Marine, p.184.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Winfield and Roberts (2015), pp.277-8.
  4. ↑ Roche (2005), p.223.
  5. ↑ Demerliac (2004), №948, p.139.
  6. ↑ Winfield (2008), p.336.
  7. 1 2 Roche (2005), p. 106.
  8. ↑ Demerliac (2004), №896, p.133.
  9. ↑ Winfield and Roberts (2015), p. 278.
References
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