Action of 13 January 1797

The Action of 13 January 1797 is a small naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars.

During the action, the frigates successfully outmaneuver the much larger French vessel and drive it on shore in heavy seas, resulting in the death of over 900 of the 1,300 persons aboard.

One of the British frigates is also lost in the engagement, running onto a sandbank after failing to escape a lee shore.The French 74-gun ship Droits de l'Homme had been part of the Expédition d'Irlande, a disastrous attempt by a French expeditionary force to invade Ireland.

During the operation, the French fleet had been beset by poor coordination and violent weather, eventually being compelled to return to France without landing a single soldier.

Two British frigates, the 44-gun HMS Indefatigable and the 36-gun HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the seas off Ushant in an attempt to intercept the returning French force and sight Droits de l'Homme on the afternoon of 13 January.The engagement lasts for more than 15 hours, in an increasing gale and the constant presence of the rocky Breton coast.

The seas are so violent that the French ship is unable to open her lower gun ports during the action and as a result can only fire with her upper deck guns, significantly reducing the advantage that a ship of the line would normally have over the smaller frigates.

The damage the more maneuverable British vessels inflict on the French ship is so severe that as the winds increased, the French crew loses control and Droits de l'Homme is swept onto a sandbar and destroyed.

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