Battle of Lissa (1811)

[Bligh]

Order of battle.

Captain Hoste's squadron.
Ship	Rate	Guns		Commander	Casualties			Notes
Killed	Wounded	Total
HMS Active	Fifth rate	38		Captain James Alexander Gordon	4	24	28
HMS Amphion	Fifth rate	32		Captain William Hoste	15	47	62
HMS Volage	Sixth rate	22		Captain Phipps Hornby	13	33	46
HMS Cerberus	Fifth rate	32		Captain Henry Whitby	13	41	54
Casualties: 45 killed, 145 wounded, 190 total.

Commodore Dubourdieu's squadron.
Ship	Rate	Guns		Commander	Casualties	Notes
Windward division.
Favorite	Fifth rate	40		Commodore Bernard Dubourdieu † Captain Antonie-Francois-Zavier La Marre-la-Meillerie †	~150	Driven ashore and destroyed.
Flore	Fifth rate	40		Captain Jean-Alexandre Péridier	unknown	Surrendered but later escaped to safety.
Bellona	Fifth rate	32		Captain Giuseppe Duodo †	~70	Captured and later commissioned into the Royal Navy as troopship HMS Dover.
Leeward division.
Danaé	Fifth rate	40		Captain Villon	unknown
Corona	Fifth rate	40		Captain Nicolò Pasqualigo	unknown	Captured and later commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Daedalus.
Carolina	Fifth rate	32		Captain Giovanni Palicuccia or Palincucchia	unknown
Dubordieu's squadron was accompanied by the 16-gun brig Mercure, two small schooners Principessa Augusta and Principessa di Bologna, the xebec Eugenio and two gunboats (one named Lodola), none of which were heavily engaged. The squadron carried approximately 500 soldiers of the Italian Army under Colonel Alessandro Gifflenga.
Casualties: approximately 700 killed, wounded or captured.

[Bligh]

Captain James Alexander Gordon.



Born the eldest son of Charles Gordon of Wardhouse, Aberdeenshire, and his wife, a daughter of Major James Mercer, of Auchnacant, Aberdeenshire, Gordon joined the Royal Navy in November 1793. He was assigned to the 74-gun HMS Arrogant in the Channel Squadron and took part in the blockade of Brest. He spent time on harbour duty in the 74-gun HMS Invincible, in the 74-gun HMS Ramillies, the 74-gun HMS Defence and finally the 24-gun HMS Eurydice during 1794. He transferred to the frigate HMS Révolutionnaire in 1795 and served under Admiral Lord Bridport at the Battle of Groix in June 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Gordon moved to the 90-gun ship-of-the-line HMS Namur in 1796 and served under Lord Howe at the Battle of the Glorious First of June in June 1794. He transferred to the 74-gun HMS Goliath and served under Sir John Jervis at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 and, having been promoted to midshipman, he served under Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798 when a crushing defeat was inflicted on the French fleet commanded by François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers. He became second lieutenant of the sloop Bordelais in January 1800 and, while escorting a convoy to the West Indies, fought an action with three French brigs, capturing one in January 1801. In the Caribbean later that year Gordon, on an independent mission, was captured by the Haitian government of Toussaint Louverture and spent four months in prison before being released by cartel. He was made first lieutenant of the 18-gun brig HMS Racoon in 1802 and returned to the West Indies. Racoon's capture of the French corvette Lodi in July 1803 led to Gordon's appointment as commanding officer of HMS Raccoon in October 1803 and his promotion to commander on 2 March 1804.

Frigate captain.

Gordon was promoted to post-captain on 16 May 1805 and assigned command of the 28-gun frigate HMS Ligaera but shortly after his arrival in England was taken seriously ill and had to resign his command. He was without a command until 1807, when he took over the 28-gun frigate HMS Mercury, engaged in blockade duties off Cádiz, and took part of a hard-fought action between three British ships and the combined forces of a Spanish convoy, 20 gunboats and land artillery off the town of Rota in April 1808. He became captain of the 38-gun frigate HMS Active at Gibraltar in June 1808 and spent the next three years in operations in the Mediterranean Sea and Adriatic Sea. Active was one of the four ships under the command of William Hoste that successfully defeated a much larger French squadron at the first Battle of Lissa in March 1811 and she was one of three that defeated three more powerful French frigates off Palagruža in November 1811. In this latter action Gordon’s left knee was shattered by a cannonball and his leg had to be amputated; he used a wooden leg for the remainder of his life. He recuperated in Malta and was able to take Active back to England in June 1812. He took command of the frigate HMS Seahorse in September 1812, escorting convoys for the West Indies and enforcing the blockade of France. In 1814 she transferred to the American station, where the War of 1812 was still under way. Gordon, with Charles Napier as his second in command, distinguished himself as commodore leading the successful raid on Alexandria on the Potomac in August 1814 and also taking part in the less successful attack on Fort McHenry and the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814. He went on to provide logistic support during the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 29 June 1815.

Gordon continued to hold seagoing commands after the cessation of hostilities, becoming commanding officer of the frigate HMS Madagascar on the Home Station in November 1815 and then of the frigate HMS Maeander in October 1816. He rejoined his old command, HMS Active, in 1819 and was again her commanding officer until 1821. After this he held no further seagoing command. He was appointed Superintendent of the Naval Hospital at Plymouth in 1828 and moved on to become Superintendent of Chatham Dockyard in July 1832.

Senior command.

Promoted to rear-admiral on 10 January 1837, Gordon became Lieutenant-Governor of the Greenwich Hospital at Greenwich in July 1840. Promoted to vice-admiral on 8 January 1848, he succeeded Sir Charles Adam as Governor of Greenwich Hospital in October 1853. He was promoted to full admiral on 21 January 1854^] and, having been advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 5 July 1855, he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 30 January 1868.

Death.

Gordon died at Greenwich Hospital on 8 January 1869 and was buried in the hospital grounds. The grave lies within an enclosed area of surviving graves within the generally cleared graveyard, now forming a pocket park immediately west of the entrance to National Maritime Museum.

An obituary in Macmillan’s Magazine hailed him as "The Last of Nelson’s Captains" and a biography by Brian Perrett argued that his career was the principal model for that of C. S. Forester’s hero Horatio Hornblower.

[Bligh]

Captain Henry Whitby.




Henry Whitby was a captain in the Royal Navy. He fought during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. He joined the navy in 1794 as a Midshipman. He was in command of the HMS Leander (1780) and HMS Centaur (1797). He married the second daughter of John Nicholson Inglefield.
Nationality British
Roles Sailor
First Known Service1794
Last Known Service1812
Date of Death1812

---

Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
1799/06/04		Lieutenant
1801/09	1801/09/04	Proselyte (32), as Commanding Officer
1802/04/28		Commander
1802/04/28	1804/02/06	Pelican (18), as Commanding Officer
1802/08		Aeolus (32), as Commanding Officer
1803	1804	Santa Margarita (36), as Commanding Officer
1804/02/06		Captain
1804/02/06	1805	Desiree (36), as Commanding Officer
1805		Centaur (74), as Commanding Officer
1805/01	1806/05	Leander (52), as Commanding Officer
1809/03	1811/06	Cerberus (32), as Commanding Officer
1811/03/13		Battle of Lissa
1812/04	1812/05	Briton (38), as Commanding Officer
1812/07	1812/08	Belle Poule (38), as Commanding Officer

[Bligh]

Commodore Bernard Dubourdieu †




Bernard Dubourdieu (28 April 1773 – 13 March 1811) was a French rear-admiral who led the allied French-Venetian forces at the Battle of Lissa in 1811, during which he was killed.

A native of Bayonne, Dubourdieu started sailing on a merchantman at 16, before joining the Navy in 1792. He quickly rose to ensign aboard the Entreprenant. He transferred to the frigate Topaze the next year in Latouche-Tréville's squadron.

Captured at Toulon by the British and transferred to Gibraltar, he escaped to Lorient. Promoted to enseigne de vaisseau, Dubourdieu sailed on the corvette Gaieté. Gaieté was captured and Dubourdieu was imprisoned again until 1799.

Captured a third time in Alexandria in 1800, he was exchanged and promoted to lieutenant de vaisseau. In 1805, he was made a Frigate Captain. In 1807, he took command of the frigate Pénélope and captured 13 British merchantmen. In the Action of 27 February 1809, along with the frigate Pauline, he captured HMS Proserpine blockading Toulon.

On 23 October 1810, he raided Lissa and captured 6 ships in the harbour. He was then tasked to capture the island and establish a base there. Promoted to contre-amiral, Dubourdieu set sail with 6 frigates. In the ensuing Battle of Lissa, the French were routed and Dubourdieu was killed.

[Bligh]

Captain Jean-Alexandre Péridier.



Born: 12 September 1767.
Entered naval service either commercial or military position: 1783.
Captain de fregate: 24 September 1803.
Member of the Legion d’Honneur: 14 June 1804.
Captain de vaisseau 2nd class: 12 July 1808.
Officer of the Legion d’Honneur: 16 August 1811.
Chevalier of the Couronne de Fer: 13 April 1811.
Wounds received while in the service of France: 1798, 1811.
Died: 13 December 1826.

[Bligh]

All the information that I have on this officer is as follows.


Captain Giuseppe Duodo †







After the action of Lissa.

Aboard Bellona, Captain Duodo planned to ignite the powder magazine and destroy the ship following its surrender. Duodo had been mortally wounded in the action, and so ordered his second in command to light the fuse. The officer promised to do so, but instead handed control of the magazine to the British prize crew when they arrived. Duodo died still believing that the fuse had been lit.

[Bligh]

Captain Eugene-Sebastien-Camille Villon.



Born: 10 June 1773
Entered naval service either commercial or military position: 1785
Captain de fregate: 12 July 1808
Captain de vaisseau 2nd Class: 19 May 1811
Member of the Legion d’Honneur: 1 April 1811
Wounds received while in the service of France: None
Died: 5 September 1812 (Killed in action)

[Bligh]

Captain Nicolò Pasqualigo.



(27 July 1770 - 13 January 1821) Pasquaiigo was an Italian navy officer and a Venetian patrician who served in the navies of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire.

A son of Venice.

He started his service on board of the galleys of the Venetian Navy as nobile di nave (a rank roughly equal to Midshipman in the contemporary Royal Navy), when almost all the young men of his social class tried the best they could to avoid the perils of the military career, both on land or at the sea. Shortly after, he asked and obtained to be transferred on board of the Armada Grossa, the sailing warships' Division of Venice, and distinguished himself under the command of Angelo Emo in 1788, during the victorious campaign against the Bey of Tunis.
Subsequently, he was awarded with the rank of sopra-comito (commander of a galley) in Dalmatia. In this position he was surprised by the surrender of Venice in 1797.

The Italian Kingdom.

In 1810 he distinguished himself in the first Franco-Italian attempt to conquer the island of Lissa. In the following year he was the commander, with the rank of Corvette Captain, of the Italian frigate Corona, a fifth rate ship of 40 guns. During the battle he engaged the HMS Cerberus in a short-range duel, inflicting heavy damage to the enemy but receiving equal; the wreck of the French frigate Favorite with the death of Commodore Dubourdieu and the arrival of the HMS Active forced him to follow in the retreat to the east the frigates Danaé and Carolina. The Active, the only British ship still in fighting condition, quickly reached the Corona at 12.30 in the small channel between Lissa and the little island of Spalmadon. At 14.30, after a 45 minutes fight resulting in a fire that broke up aboard of his ship, he was forced to struck his colour in surrender.

[Bligh]

Captain William Hoste.




Hoste was educated for a time at King's Lynn and later at the Paston School in North Walsham, where Horatio Nelson himself had been to school some years previously. Dixon Hoste had arranged for Hoste's name to be entered in the books of HMS Europa as a Captain's servant when he was just 5 years old, although he would not actually go to sea until he reached the age of 12 or 13.
That time coincided with the outbreak of war with France in February 1793. Lacking any influence or naval contacts himself, Dixon Hoste asked his landlord, Thomas Coke, for assistance and was introduced to Nelson, then living nearby in Burnham Thorpe and who had recently been appointed as Captain of HMS Agamemnon a 64-gun third-rate, which was being fitted out at Chatham Dockyard.

Early career.

HMS Agamemnon.
Nelson accepted Hoste to join him as a captain's servant on HMS Agamemnon, which he boarded at Portsmouth at the end of April 1793. The ship joined the Mediterranean Fleet under Lord Hood, and it was in the Mediterranean and Adriatic that Hoste saw most of his naval service. Extracts from Nelson's letters to his wife mention Hoste frequently; for example: ‘without exception one of the finest boys I ever met with’ and ‘his gallantry never can be exceeded, and each day rivets him stronger to my heart’. Another captain's servant on Agamemnon was Josiah Nisbet, Nelson's stepson, but the letters suggest that Hoste quickly became a favourite and that Josiah compared badly with him in many respects. Hoste was promoted to midshipman by Nelson on 1 February 1794 and served with him during the blockade of and subsequent assault on Corsica on 7 February.
HMS Captain and the battle of Cape St Vincent.

Hoste moved with Nelson to HMS Captain in 1796 and was with him at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, When a British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a Spanish fleet almost twice its size. Captain was heavily involved in the fighting and captured the larger San Josef and San Nicolas of 112 and 80 guns, respectively.
Captain started the battle towards the rear of the British line.^[3] Instead of continuing to follow the line, Nelson disobeyed orders and wore ship, and made for the Spanish van, which consisted of the 112-gun San Josef, the 80-gun San Nicolas and the 130-gun Santísima Trinidad. Captain engaged all three, assisted by HMS Culloden which had come to her aid. After an hour of exchanging broadsides which left both Captain and Culloden heavily damaged, Nelson found himself alongside the San Nicolas which he boarded and forced her surrender.
San Josef attempted to come to the San Nicolas’s aid, but became entangled with her compatriot and was left immobile. Nelson led his party from the deck of the San Nicolas onto the San Josef and captured her as well.

HMS Theseus.

In June 1797, he transferred to HMS Theseus a 74-gun third-rate. Theseus was a 'troubled' ship, and Nelson and a few handpicked officers, including Hoste, Captain Ralph Willett Miller and Lieutenant John Weatherhead, were sent aboard to restore order. The tactic was successful and Nelson received a letter from the would-be mutineers which stated, "We thank the Admiral (Nelson) for the Officers he has placed over us".
In July, Theseus was present at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, although Hoste remained aboard and took no part in the assault. Following the death of a Lieutenant Weatherhead in the battle, Nelson promoted Hoste to lieutenant to fill the vacancy, his position being confirmed, thanks to his 'book time' in Europa, in February 1798.

The battle of the Nile.

Later that year, Hoste, still aboard HMS Theseus, was at the Battle of the Nile. The Royal Navy fleet was outnumbered, at least in firepower, by the French fleet, which boasted the 118-gun ship-of-the-line L'Orient, three 80-gun warships and nine of the popular 74-gun ships. The Royal Navy fleet in comparison had just thirteen 74-gun ships and one 50-gun fourth-rate. Nevertheless, the battle was a decisive victory for the British.
Following the battle, Nelson sent his report to London, taking the precaution of sending a duplicate in the brig HMS Mutine, commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Capel. At Naples, Capel was to carry on with the dispatch, handing command of Mutine to Hoste. Upon taking command, Hoste became an acting-captain at the age of 18. Hoste, carrying news of the victory, first sailed to Gibraltar, before rejoining the fleet, under St Vincent, off Cadiz. His promotion was confirmed in December 1798.

Command.

Hoste continued in command of the Mutine for the next three years, campaigning in Italy under Nelson, where in the autumn of 1799, he took part in the capture of Rome. He later served under Lord Keith, who knew little of him and his career appeared to have stalled until, possibly at Nelson's prompting, he was promoted post-captain by Lord St Vincent, First Lord of the Admiralty, in January 1802. At this time, Hoste was in Alexandria, where he contracted malaria and then a lung infection, which were to have a lasting effect on his health. He convalesced with Lord and Lady Elgin in Athens, where he began an education in classical antiquity, completed following his appointment to the frigate HMS Greyhound in Florence, when his ship was cruising on the Italian coast.
Hoste served almost continuously throughout the Peace of Amiens, returning to England briefly in April 1803 before being given command of HMS Eurydice in October.

Notable actions.

Nelson summoned him to Cadiz in September 1805 and gave him command of the 32-gun frigate HMS Amphion. Sent on a diplomatic mission to Algiers, he missed the Battle of Trafalgar by a matter of days, and only learned of Nelson's death on his return in November. He wrote to his father - 'Not to have been in it is enough to make one mad, but to have lost such a friend besides is really sufficient to almost overwhelm me.’
A number of successes while engaged on active service in the Mediterranean over the following 18 months brought Hoste to the attention of Lord Collingwood, who sent him into the Adriatic Sea. Here he single-handedly conducted an aggressive campaign against enemy shipping and coastal installations, bringing coastal trade with the enemy more or less to a halt. By the end of 1809, Hoste and his crew had captured or sunk over 200 enemy ships. His endeavours were rewarded with command, as commodore, of a small detachment of frigates, comprising HMS Amphion, HMS Active (36 guns), HMS Volage (22 guns) and HMS Cerberus (32 guns), operations continued and by establishing a base at Lissa, now known as Vis, Hoste was able to dominate the Adriatic with just four ships. In March and April 1810 alone, they took or destroyed 46 vessels. The French and their allies became so frustrated by the disruption to their shipping that a Franco-Venetian squadron, under the command of an aggressive frigate commander named Bernard Dubourdieu, was dispatched and on 13 March 1811 they attacked Hoste's small force in what became known as the Battle of Lissa.

Battle of Lissa.

Dubourdieu's squadron of seven frigates and four smaller warships possessing a total of 276 guns and nearly 2,000 men significantly outnumbered Hoste with his 4 frigates mounting only 124 guns and manned by less than 900 men. The French officer imitated Nelson's attack at Trafalgar by sailing down on the English line from windward with his ships in two lines. However, signalling 'Remember Nelson' to rally his men, Hoste used his superior seamanship and gunnery overcame the larger enemy force, with the loss of 50 men killed and 132 wounded. Dubourdieu was killed, one of the French frigates was driven on shore another captured, and two of the Venetian frigates were taken.
Hoste's signal had a profound effect on his men. It was universally greeted with loud cheers and Captain Hornby of the Volage wrote of it later: "Never again so long as I live shall I see so interesting or so glorious moment".

Cattaro, Spalato and Ragusa.

Amphion was so badly damaged that she was obliged to return to England, where Hoste was given the command of HMS Bacchante (38 guns), although he did not return to the Adriatic in her until 1812. Hoste continued to demonstrate the same kind of initiative and aggression as before. He helped capture Spalato (Split) in November 1813 with the assistance from the 35th regiment of foot. Then working with Montenegran forces, he attacked the mountain fortress of Cattaro, hauling ships' cannon and mortars to positions above the fort using block and tackle. The French garrison had no alternative but to surrender, which it did on 5 January 1814. Hoste immediately repeated these tactics at Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), which also surrendered later on the 27th.

Later life.

Hoste's health, compromised by his malaria and earlier lung infection, worsened and he was forced to return to England. In 1814, he was made a baronet, and in 1815 he was knighted KCB. In 1817, he married Lady Harriet Walpole, with whom he had three sons and three daughters. In 1825, he was appointed to the royal yacht Royal Sovereign.
In January 1828, he developed a cold which affected his already weakened lungs, and he died of tuberculosis in London on 6 December 1828. He was buried in St John's Chapel, London.

Legacy.

Hoste's actions at Cattaro and Ragusa were later immortalised in fiction, where they are attributed to Captain Jack Aubrey, the principal character in Patrick O'Brian's 20 novels of the Aubrey–Maturin series.

[Bligh]

Captain Phipps Hornby.



Hornby was born in 1785, the son of Geoffrey Hornby, rector of Winwick, and his wife Lucy Stanley. Hornby's mother was a daughter of James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange and sister to Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby. Hornby's sister Charlotte Margaret later married her cousin Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby, and the close association between the Earls of Derby and the Hornby family would play a significant role in Phipps Hornby's career and politics. Hornby received education at Sunbury-on-Thames and joined the Navy as a midshipman in 1797 aged 12.

In 1797, Britain was embroiled in the French Revolutionary Wars, and Hornby's ship HMS Latona became caught up in the Nore Mutiny just weeks after he joined her. Latona's captain, John Bligh, took Hornby with him when he moved ships, and Hornby saw service on HMS Romney, HMS Agincourt and HMS Theseus, mainly serving in the Americas.

Napoleonic Wars.

In 1804 following the Peace of Amiens, Hornby joined Horatio Nelson's flagship HMS Victory in the Mediterranean briefly before being posted to HMS Excellent with the admiral's recommendation. Excellent was detached from Nelson's fleet soon afterwards and in 1805 and 1806 participated in numerous operations on the Italian coast, particularly at Gaeta. Excellent was also present at the capture of Capri. Hornby was granted his first independent command in 1806, the small armed vessel HMS Duchess of Bedfordshire and in her fought off two large Spanish privateers. In 1807 he was promoted to commander and took over the sloop HMS Minorca in which he fought numerous engagements with Spanish gunboats off Cadiz.

In 1809, Minorca operated briefly with the squadron in the Adriatic Sea and the following year Hornby was promoted to post captain, becoming temporary commander of HMS Fame before moving to the small sixth rate HMS Volage to serve in the Adriatic squadron under William Hoste. Hornby was wounded in March 1811 during the Battle of Lissa, at which his ship fought a much larger French vessel and despite losing all but one gun, remained in combat throughout. Recovering from his injuries, Hornby took command of HMS Stag off the Cape of Good Hope the next year and later moved to HMS Spartan in the Mediterranean. While commander of Spartan, Hornby participated in the capture of Elba from the French, for which he was invested with the Austrian order of St Joseph of Würzburg.

Later service.

In 1814, Hornby married Sophia Maria Burgoyne, daughter of General John Burgoyne. The couple had five daughters and three sons. The eldest son, John, died in service with the Royal Engineers in 1848 aged 27, while his younger sons Geoffrey Hornby and James John Hornby had lengthy and successful careers in the Royal Navy and education respectively. Hornby was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 4 June 1815 and the following year paid off Spartan and entered semi-retirement. During his retirement, Hornby dabbled in politics, a supporter of the Earls of Derby.

In 1832, Hornby returned to service to promote his son's career through preferment, initially becoming superintendent of Plymouth Naval Hospital and in 1838 moving to become superintendent of the Woolwich Dockyard. In 1841 he became comptroller-general of the Coast Guard until 1846 when he was promoted to rear admiral. In order to further his son's career, Hornby then accepted the position of commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, raising his flag in HMS Asia in 1847. In 1852 Hornby returned to Europe to serve as a Second Naval Lord under the Duke of Northumberland and remained in post until his final retirement in 1853, shortly after the fall of Lord Derby's government.

In retirement Hornby continued to receive honours, eventually being promoted full admiral in 1858 and becoming a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1861. He died a widower at his estate in the village of Little Green near Petersfield in Hampshire in March 1867.