Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801 were three connected major French Navy operations of the spring of 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars. A French naval squadron from Brest under Contre-amiral Honoré Ganteaume, seeking to reinforce the besieged French garrison in Ottoman Egypt, made three separate but futile efforts to reach the Eastern Mediterranean. The French army in Egypt had been trapped there shortly after the start of the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt in 1798, when the French Mediterranean Fleet was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile. Since that defeat, the French Navy had maintained only a minimal presence in the Mediterranean Sea, while the more numerous British and their allies had succeeded in blockading and defeating several French bases almost unopposed.
The despatch of Ganteaume's squadron was a direct effort to restore balance to the situation in the Mediterranean by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and on the first cruise it reached Toulon on 19 February 1801, providing vital reinforcements to the remnants of the fleet there. The second expedition, launched from Toulon a month later, was forced back to the port by a combination of bad weather and the British blockade. The third expedition actually reached the Eastern Mediterranean and a fruitless attempt was made to land troops at Benghazi, before British ships from the blockade of Egypt successfully drove Ganteaume's forces away. The French squadron returned to Toulon by 22 July, at which point the expedition was called off. Despite his failure to land troops in North Africa, Ganteaume did win a series of minor victories over lone British warships, including the frigate HMS Success and the ship of the line HMS Swiftsure, and several of his ships detached during the third expedition were subsequently involved in the Algeciras Campaign in July. Ultimately the inability of the French to break through the British blockade of Egypt resulted in the defeat and surrender of the garrison there later in the year.
Background In May 1798, a large French fleet of warships and transports crossed the Mediterranean Sea with an army of more than 35,000 men under General Napoleon Bonaparte, intent on an invasion of Egypt, then nominally held by the neutral Ottoman Empire.Gardiner, p. 26 Pausing to capture Malta, the French force then pressed on eastwards aware that a fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson had entered the Mediterranean and was in pursuit. Successfully avoiding Nelson's forces, the fleet reached Alexandria on 29 June and immediately invaded, rapidly advancing inland and defeating the Mamluk rulers of Egypt at the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July. While the army had pushed inland, the fleet, under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers, had anchored in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria, and was found there in the afternoon of 1 August by Nelson's fleet. Despite the growing darkness, Nelson attacked at once and in the three-day Battle of the Nile destroyed or captured eleven ships of the line and two frigates. Just two ships of the line and two frigates escaped and among the more than 3,000 casualties was Admiral Brueys, killed on his flagship Orient.Gardiner, p. 35
With his route back to France suddenly closed, Bonaparte consolidated his position in Egypt and then attacked north into Ottoman Syria. The operation achieved some initial success, but British dominance at sea heavily influenced the campaign: the siege train was captured on its coastal barges, all supplies had to be brought overland and any French operations near the shoreline came under heavy fire from Royal Navy warships, particularly at the culminating Siege of Acre.Gardiner, p. 61 An attempt by the French Atlantic Fleet to intervene in the Mediterranean, known as the Croisière de Bruix, failed in July 1799.Clowes, p. 387 Defeated at Acre and driven back to Egypt, Bonaparte decided to return to France in November 1799 in order to take charge of the deteriorating situation in the War of the Second Coalition. He could only evacuate a small number of advisors with him on the frigates Muiron and Carrère, but promised the army remaining in Egypt under General Jean Baptiste Kléber that he would send support and reinforcements from Europe. Bonaparte successfully reached France without interception by British forces and on 9 November 1799 seized power in the coup of 18 Brumaire and proclaimed himself First Consul.Gardiner, p. 66
While Bonaparte was preoccupied in the Middle East and then with French politics, the Royal Navy had returned to the Mediterranean in force. British forces had withdrawn from the region in 1796 after France and Spain became allies in the Treaty of San Ildefonso, but Nelson's victory at the Nile had eliminated the French threat, allowing a large scale redeployment in the second half of the year. Malta was besieged, the Ionian Islands were captured by a joint Turkish and Russian force and successive efforts to reach the trapped garrison of Egypt were defeated at sea.Gardiner, p. 58 Negotiations to return the French troops to Europe collapsed and although Kléber defeated an Ottoman attack at the Battle of Heliopolis on 20 March 1800, he was assassinated in June.Gardiner, p. 66 As morale fell, the situation in Egypt became increasingly desperate for the French garrison and the British planned an invasion for March 1801. News of British intentions reached France where Bonaparte, who had successfully reorganised the French Army and driven back allied advances in Italy thus bringing the continental war to an end, ordered a squadron from the French Atlantic Fleet, based at Brest, to reinforce the garrison in Egypt.Clowes, p. 447
First expedition
The squadron selected for the reinforcement of Egypt was placed under the command of Counter-Admiral Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume, a survivor of the Battle of the Nile and therefore an officer with experience of service in the Eastern Mediterranean. Under Ganteaume's command were three 80-gun and four 74-gun ships of the line, two frigates and a lugger which between them carried 5,000 troops as reinforcements for the Army in Egypt under General Jean Sahuguet.James, p. 87 Rumours were spread that the expedition was destined for the Caribbean to oppose the Haitian Revolution, and demonstrations were arranged at every French Atlantic and Channel port, intended to confuse the British blockade squadrons as to which ships were actually sailing and which were only giving the impression of doing so.Woodman, p. 157 Ganteaume's squadron was ordered to sail from Brest on 7 January 1801, but the diversion plan was not successful, as the British squadron that was permanently maintained off Brest under Rear-Admiral Henry Harvey immediately gave chase to Ganteauame's ships as they emerged from the Passage du Raz. Within hours, Ganteaume had been forced to take shelter under the batteries at the mouth of the River Vilaine, pretending that his voyage had only been a feint like the other operations along the coast. A few days later he managed to slip back into Brest harbour.
On 23 January a heavy storm struck the Brittany coast, fierce northerly winds driving the British out to sea and leaving the entrance to Brest clear for Ganteaume's escape. Driving out through the Iroise, the French ships were scattered by the storm and several suffered damage to their masts. The squadron broke into two bodies: a main force of six ships of the line, one frigate and the lugger under Commodore Moncousu and a smaller force under Ganteaume, with one ship of the line and one frigate. Unobserved by the absent British, these forces passed southwest over the following five days, hoping to rendezvous at Cape Spartel. Both had encounters with scattered British warships: the larger body encountered the British frigate HMS Concorde under Captain Robert Barton at 09:00 on 27 January approximately northeast of Finisterre. Concorde was towing a seized Swedish merchant vessel, but abandoned the ship as soon as a ship of the line and the frigate Bravoure closed to investigate.James, p. 88
Concorde initially retreated before the advancing ships, but at distant from the squadron turned to meet Bravoure, which was now advancing alone. As he approached, Captain Louis-Auguste Dordelin demanded that Barton surrender but was met with musket fire and both ships commenced a close range engagement with their main broadsides. For half an hour the battle continued until wreckage was seen falling from Bravoure and Barton ordered his ship to ceasefire on the assumption that the French ship had surrendered. In fact, Dordelin was hastily turning his ship back towards the squadron for support and although Concorde gave chase, Barton's rigging was too severely damaged to continue the operation, Concorde turning back towards Europe at 03:00 on 28 January. Although Bravoure could still be seen in the distance the following morning, the continued presence of Moncousu's ships rendered any further efforts to attack Bravoure too dangerous. The British ship had lost four killed and 19 wounded from a total of 244 crew members, the French ten killed and 24 wounded, including Captain Doredelin, who had lost a hand.James, p. 89
Entering the Mediterranean On 30 January, shortly before the separated squadron was reunited off Cape Spartel, Ganteaume's ships also encountered a British vessel, chasing down the small fireship under Commander Richard Dalling Dunn. Incendiary was unable to resist the larger warships and after they had removed her crew her captors set fire to Incendiary, scuttling her. After passing southwards together, the united squadron reached the Straits of Gibraltar on 9 February and passed through them without resistance.Woodman, p. 158 As most of the British fleet was operating in the Mediterranean Sea and no news of Ganteaume's operation had yet reached the authorities at Gibraltar, the only Royal Navy ship on hand to observe the French squadron was the 32-gun frigate HMS Success under Captain Shuldham Peard that lay at anchor off the British base.Clowes, p. 448 Peard correctly assumed that the French squadron was sailing for Egypt and decided to follow them, shadowing the French during 10 February. That day the French captured and scuttled the 10-gun cutter . In the evening, Ganteaume called his ships to a halt off Cape de Gata in the Alboran Sea and Peard unwittingly passed them in the night, so that by the morning of 11 February the French were in a position to pursue his frigate.James, p. 90
For three days Peard sailed north and east, on several occasions believing that he had lost the French only for Ganteaume's ships to reappear over the horizon once more as light winds hampered his escape. At dawn on 13 February, Peard realised that he would eventually be caught and defeated, and swung Success back towards the west, hoping that by doing so he would lead the French straight into any British forces that might now be searching for Ganteaume. The plan failed when the wind disappeared completely at noon, and by 15:00 two French ships of the line had approached within gunshot. Hopelessly outnumbered, the frigate surrendered without further resistance and was attached to the French squadron as Succès, the crew provided by detachments from other vessels. Peard and his men joined the prisoners taken from Incendiary and Sprightly on Ganteaume's flagship Indivisible and were closely questioned as to British movements in the Mediterranean. When interrogated, Peard informed Ganteaume that the invasion of Egypt was already underway, that the Eastern Mediterranean was controlled by a powerful fleet under Lord Keith and that a squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren was actively hunting the French and could appear at any moment.