The Battle of Tamatave (also known as the Battle of Madagascar or action of 20 May 1811) was fought off Tamatave in the Indian Ocean between British and French frigate squadrons during the Napoleonic Wars. The action was the final engagement of the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811, and it saw the destruction of the last French attempt to reinforce their garrison on Isle de France. Although the news had not reached Europe by February 1811 when the reinforcement squadron left Brest, a British invasion of Isle de France resulted in the colony falling by December 1810, the French defences hampered by the lack of the supplies and troops carried aboard the frigate squadron under the command of Commodore Dominique Roquebert in Renommée. Roquebert's heavily laden ships reached Isle de France on 6 May and discovered that the island was in British hands the following day, narrowly escaping a trap laid by a squadron of British frigates ordered to hunt and destroy them.
On 20 May the British squadron, under the command of Captain Charles Marsh Schomberg, discovered the French off Tamatave and attacked, both sides hampered by light winds which impeded movement for much of the day. During a period of calm weather early in the battle, the French were better positioned than the disorganised British squadron and Roquebert's ships inflicted severe damage on several British vessels before an increasing breeze allowed Schomberg to press home his attack. As the evening approached, the French attempted to escape, Roquebert sacrificing his flagship and ultimately his life to allow the frigates Clorinde and the badly damaged Néréide to escape. Five days later, Schomberg's squadron rediscovered Néréide at Tamatave and persuaded the town's commander to surrender without a fight. The battle was the last action of the campaign and confirmed British dominance of the seas east of the Cape of Good Hope for the rest of the Napoleonic Wars.
Background
In August 1810, the French squadron on Isle de France achieved the most significant French naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars, when they captured or destroyed four Royal Navy frigates at the Battle of Grand Port. The battle was fought inside Grand Port, one of the harbours of Isle de France into which the French squadrons, dominant in the Indian Ocean during 1809, had been steadily pushed and blockaded by pressure from a British squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley.Gardiner, p. 95. The British defeat had a noticeable galvanising effect on both the British and French naval commands: both recognised that the campaign would be won by the first to reinforce and resupply their forces. Although the French had achieved a significant victory, the naval bases on Isle de France lacked the military stores and food supplies to repair the battle damage to their ships or supply lengthy raiding voyages against British trade routes.Woodman, p. 284.
The British reaction was immediate: ships were dispatched from regional bases at Madras, the Cape of Good Hope and Rodriguez to replace Rowley's losses while a larger force was collected at Rodriguez in preparation for a major invasion of Isle de France intended to permanently eliminate the island as a raiding base. The French response from their squadron on Isle de France, based at Port Napoleon under Commodore Jacques Hamelin, was to exercise their regional superiority by attacking British reinforcements at the actions of 13 September 1810 and 18 September 1810. Despite inflicting severe damage on two British frigates, the French lost one of their own, captured with Hamelin aboard, and suffered two more damaged. Without supplies or reinforcements to replace these losses, the French were unable to resist the British invasion in November 1810 and the island fell within four days.Taylor, p. 331.
The French had also been preparing reinforcements for the region, but their nearest naval bases were in France itself, several thousand miles away across oceans almost totally controlled by the Royal Navy. These distances also delayed the arrival of news from the Indian Ocean, and therefore word had still not reached France of the fall of Isle de France by 17:00 on 2 February 1811, when a reinforcement squadron set sail from Brest.Clowes, p. 486. This squadron consisted of three powerful frigates, Renommée under Commodore Dominique Roquebert, Clorinde under Captain Jacques de Saint-Cricq and Néréide under Captain Jean-François Lemaresquier. Each ship carried over 200 soldiers for the Isle de France garrison and significant food and military supplies with which to refit Hamelin's squadron and resupply the island. The French authorities were aware of the possibility that Isle de France had been captured, and had ordered that if the island was in British hands, the squadron should continue on to the Dutch city of Batavia on Java, to operate against the British from there.James, p. 15.
February to May 1811
By 1811, the Royal Navy enjoyed a worldwide naval supremacy over the French, including the seas immediately off the French coast. To avoid being attacked as they left Brest, French ships had to attempt to slip out either under cover of darkness or during storms that drove the British away from the dangerous coastline. This also however forced the French ships to fight against the wind to leave their harbours and as a result, Roquebert's ships only covered in the first 18 days. On 24 February, the squadron captured a Portuguese merchant ship and discovered Lisbon newspapers aboard that announced the British invasion, although not its outcome. On 13 March, Roquebert's ships crossed the Equator and on 18 April they passed the Cape of Good Hope at distance, benefitting from good weather and a strong breeze during the latter stages of the journey. At 23:00 on 6 May, 93 days after leaving Brest, the French convoy arrived off Île de la Passe at the entrance to Grand Port.
The British had not been idle during the six months they had occupied Isle de France, now renamed Mauritius. The invasion fleet had broken up soon after the island fell and command of the remaining naval forces on the island had been given to Captain Philip Beaver. On 5 January, a small French dispatch ship had been captured off Port Louis (formerly Port Napoleon) and from the messages aboard the nature and destination of Roquebert's squadron was discovered. Information was also received describing a second French force being prepared for operations in the region, consisting of the frigates Nymphe and Méduse. Aware of the impending arrival of French reinforcements, Admiral Robert Stopford at the Cape of Good Hope sent Captain James Hillyar in to reinforce Beaver on Mauritius. Beaver ordered Hillyar, with under Captain Woodley Losack and under Captain James de Rippe, to prepare for the arrival of Roquebert's convoy. Beaver then began eliminating French harbours in the western Indian Ocean, sending the brig to attack Tamatave in Madagascar, which was captured on 12 February. After the end of the hurricane season in March, Beaver personally sailed in to invade the Seychelles, before collecting specie from Madras to refloat the Mauritian economy. In his absence, Mauritius came under the command of Captain Charles Marsh Schomberg in .Gardiner, p. 98.
When Roquebert's ships appeared off Grand Port, Hillyar had his three ships in the harbour ready to sail at short notice and ensured that French tricolours were flying from Île de la Passe and other landmarks in the hope that the French could be lured into the shallow waters of the bay and defeated in a similar manner to the British defeat at the battle at Grand Port the previous year. Signals were exchanged between the French squadron and the shore but Roquebert was wary: the signals from Île de la Passe were out of date and he knew of the British invasion from the Lisbon newspapers captured two months before. Waiting offshore, the French commodore sent three boats ashore during the night with instructions to discover the situation on the island. Seizing two black inhabitants, one of the boats returned on the morning of 7 May and from his captives Roquebert learned that the British had captured the island six months earlier. The other landing parties were captured by British troops and did not return. With Hillyar's trap uncovered, Roquebert raised French colours and turned eastwards away from Grand Port, Hillyar emerging from the harbour to give chase.
Roquebert's escape At 04:00 on 8 May, Roquebert realised that his overladen ships were too slow to outrun Hillyar's squadron, which was behind and gaining rapidly. At 08:00, he decided to turn and meet the British ships head-on rather than be overtaken. Hillyar, aware that his squadron was weaker than Roquebert's, held back in anticipation of the arrival of Schomberg in Astraea from Port Louis, to whom he had sent an urgent message the night before. As the British fell back towards Île Ronde off the northeastern shore of Mauritius, Roquebert declined to follow them through the dangerous gap between Île Ronde and Île du Serpent and instead sailed southwards, escaping before Hillyar and Schomberg could join up. Although Losack, supported by many crew members on board both Phoebe and Galatea, remonstrated with Hillyar for not pursuing the French, the British commander could not be persuaded and Roquebert slipped away. The British retired to Port Louis, arriving on 12 May.
Roquebert's squadron sailed westwards towards Bourbon, initially planning to raid the eastern coast of island for food supplies, as his own were running low. Although the British garrison in the eastern part of the island was weak, the plan was thwarted by heavy surf on the landing beaches and Roquebert continued eastwards on half rations, reaching Tamatave in Madagascar on 19 May. The British garrison at Tamatave, 100 men of the 22nd Regiment of Foot, were afflicted with malaria and surrendered without contesting the town, where the French squadron gathered water and food supplies.James, p. 16.
When Hillyar's squadron arrived at Port Louis, Captain Schomberg immediately assumed command and led the squadron out again on 14 May, following the French eastwards. Heading straight for Tamatave, the only resupply point between Bourbon and the Cape of Good Hope, Schomberg rapidly gained on the French and when dawn broke on 20 May the French were within sight of the harbour. During the day, both commanders were frustrated by light winds and periods of calm in which none of the ships were able to move. Roquebert completed resupplying his ships at 12:00 and pulled away from the harbour in battle line, Clorinde followed by Renommée and Néréide while the British, although initially intending to form a line with Astraea at its head, gradually broke into a loose formation created by the vagaries of the wind.Gardiner, p. 99.
Battle
Firing began at 16:00, when Renommée attempted to engage Astraea at extreme range. The British returned fire, Phoebe and Galatea joining the attack as they advanced, but the long distances and slow speeds involved meant that little damage was caused by either side. The British squadron gradually drifted beyond the range of the French, Schomberg desperately but unsuccessfully attempting to turn back towards them. With the British becalmed, Roquebert's ships began to close the distance, using the breeze to position their broadsides close to the sterns of the British ships. From this position the French were able to unleash a destructive raking fire, Clorinde concentrating on Phoebe and Renommée on Galatea. The rearmost ship, Néréide, was unable to manoeuvre successfully in the light winds and remained beyond the effective range of Astraea and Racehorse, despite an ineffectual cannonade in her direction.James, p. 17.