The landing of the British expeditionary force…
March 1801 CE
The fleet, commanded by Baron Keith, includes seven ships of the line, five frigates and a dozen armed corvettes.
With the troop transports, it is delayed in the bay for several days by strong gales and heavy seas before disembarkation can proceed.
Under General Friant, some two thousand French troops and ten field guns in high positions take a heavy toll of a large British force disembarking from a task-force fleet in boats, each carrying fifty men to be landed on the beach.
The British then rush and overwhelm the defenders with fixed bayonets and secure the position, enabling an orderly landing of the remainder of their seventeen thousand five hundred-strong army and its equipment.
The skirmish is a prelude to the Battle of Alexandria and results in British losses of one hundred and thirty killed and six hundred wounded or missing.
The French withdraw, losing at least three hundred dead or wounded and eight pieces of cannon.
Abercromby will die a week later of a wound received in the action.
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