1/1200 Naval Flags and Pennants

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Naval Engagement between a British East Indiaman and a French Warship, 1781
The trade route to India - south around Africa and northeast across the vast Indian Ocean - was well known and of great importance. Conveniently astride this route lay the Dutch colony of South Africa, and further on Mauritius and the island of Reunion. Inconveniently, Holland was now part of Napoleon's European empire, and Mauritius was held by the French and harboured a very active privateer squadron. British troops were landed at Cape Town and that colony captured with a mere show of force. A more active plan was devised to take over Mauritius and the island of Reunion. In a nineteenth-century-style combined operation, the British would deliver a force of infantry - British state troops plus British and Indian troops of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) - to capture and garrison shore bases, whilst naval elements dealt with enemy ships and provided support. However, this was not a new scheme the British and other European powers had been doing it for over 200 years.

By mid-1810 the French had three frigates in the area - Bellone (40 guns), Minerve (40) and Victor (22). On 3 July, they attacked three 813tonne (800-ton) ships of the HEIC. These were among the biggest merchantmen of the time, with some built larger, up to 1422 tonnes (1400 tons). In addition, their construction was stronger than that of naval frigates, with iron instead of oak knees and fittings. More than half the HEIC fleet was rated at 1422 tonnes (1400 tons), and increasing numbers of their ships were built in Bombay using teak, which was better than oak in tropical waters besides HMS Victor, the oldest serving ship of the period was an Indian-built frigate.

Although larger than a conventional frigate as a vessel, an Indiaman's armament was slightly lighter. An 813-tonne (800-ton) Indiaman would expect to carry 32 18-pounder cannon. This was quite a respectable armament, except that the vessel did not have the crew numbers or space to operate as a true warship because of the cargo she carried, which was her real raison d'etre. The French squadron captured two of these East Indiamen, the Ceylon and the Windham. The third made good her escape under cover of darkness.



Rob.