Attachment 27372
The British column had been pursuing the French fleet for the last 3 days. They were slowly catching the French and a fight was inevitable. Rather than allowing the British to catch up and simply rake them into oblivion they decided to turn and fight.
There were three ships of the line in the French column: Generaux, Duguary Tourin, and the might Commerce de Marseilles.
The British fleet consisted of three ships: HMS Defence (Samuel Griffon), HMS Impetueux (Henry Watson), and the first rate HMS Brittania (Hugh Gabriel).
The British captains had their orders from the flag ship, keep in line, double shots, concentrate on the French 1st rate, and give them hell!
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Attachment 27373
HMS Brittania leeds the way as the French make a slightly clumsy turn to face them.
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Attachment 27374
The distance closes
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Attachment 27375
HMS Impetueux follows HMS Brittania maintaining the distance and following the flag ships lead.
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Attachment 27376
HMS Defence follows HMS Impetueux. The French have almost completed their turn. They are not quite in line, but close enough.
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Attachment 27377
The guns are loaded and ready to fire, at this range the damage will be devastating. The battle will be decided by the skill of the various crews.
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Attachment 27378
HMS Brittania and Commerce de Marseilles open fire. The damage to both ships is significant but Admiral Gabriels gambit that he could keep the range short enough to use double shot works. HMS Brittania loses a mast and the crews rush to fix it.
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Attachment 27379
Commerce de Marseilles takes another double-shotted broadside from HMS Impetueux, the damage is heavy on the french flag ship with leaks and fires all over the ship.
HMS Brittania takes a second broadside, this time from Duguary Tourin.
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Attachment 27380
HMS Brittanias gun crews reload the guns with double shot in record time, their crews training shows! A hellish broadside smashes into Genereaux causing a great many casualties.
Generaux is no slowch though and fires back at close range destroying utterly HMS Brittanias rudder. The first rate will be almost unmanageable now.
Following up the rear HMS Defence fires its rear guns at the Comerce de Marseille. The french first rate is taking on water too fast and strikes her colors but not before firing back at the Defence and dismasting her.
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Attachment 27381
Attachment 27382
The damage so far.
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Attachment 27383
HMS Brittania is struggling to maintain her heading with no rudder
HMS Defence takes a broadside from Duguary Tourin destroying the mast that the crew had just fixed and causing fires to break out.
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Attachment 27384
The British ships cut across the French lines opening up with their guns.
Generaux is caught between all three British ships and takes a beating.
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Attachment 27385
The Generaux pulls up alongside the HMS Defence in a last act of defiance. They exchange musket fire and then board one another. The HMS Defence strikes but it is a meaningless victory and Generaux strikes immediately after.
Duguary Tourin escapes the action as the British busy themselves securing the Commerce de Marseilles and Generaux.
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Attachment 27386
Butchers bill
HMS Brittania sends a crew over to HMS Defence to take them back to port along with their prizes.
note, forgive spelling punctuation and grammar. I did this in a rush and will proof read it later.
