Counter-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, comte de Linois (27 January 1761 – 2 December 1848) was a French Navy officer and colonial administrator who served in the American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He commanded the combined Franco-Spanish fleet during the Algeciras campaign in 1801, winning the campaign's first battle but losing its second battle after Juan Joaquín Moreno de Mondragón took command.Piat pp. 195–196See
In March 1803, Linois set out on an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, fighting in the Battle of Pulo Aura in 1804, where a commercial East India Company fleet defeated him using aggressive and deceptive tactics.Clowes (Vol. V) p. 337James (Vol. 3) p. 250 Linois continued his campaign until being captured by the British at the action of 13 March 1806; an infuriated Napoleon refused to exchange him, and Linois was not released until 1814.
Following the Bourbon Restoration in France, Linois was appointed governor of Guadeloupe, and supported Napoleon during the Hundred Days. This led to an Anglo-Bourbon expeditionary force capturing Guadeloupe in 1815 and deposing Linois. Upon his return to France, he was forced to resign and court martialled. Although acquitted, Linois never held an office again until his death in 1848.
Early life
Born in Brest, Linois joined the French Navy as a volunteer in 1776, when he was 15 years old, serving aboard the ships Cesar and Protée in his home port.Humble p. 115 In August 1778, during the American War of Independence, he joined Bien-Aimé , part of d'Orvilliers' fleet in the Caribbean where, after only eight months service, he was temporarily appointed, lieutenant de frégate pour le campagne. He served aboard the newly built Scipion from May 1779 to January 1781, when his two-year probationary period expired and he was promoted to ship-of-the-line ensign. Between October 1782 and April 1783, Linois served aboard Diadème, his last appointment of the war.
Indian Ocean service
In March 1784, Linois joined the storeship Barbeau, carrying supplies and despatches to the Isle de France (now Mauritius). He left Barbeau in January 1785 and in March sailed for the Caribbean on the 64-gun Réfléchi where he remained for the next two years. Arriving at Saint-Domingue on 23 April, Linois spent eight months on the frigate, Danaé before rejoining Réfléchi. In May 1786, he took a land-based post as sous-lieutenant de port at Port-au-Prince, returning to sea aboard the frigate, Proserpine in December 1786. This was a short-lived appointment; on 1 March 1787, Linois left for home on the same storeship that had conveyed him to the Isle de France two years earlier.Humble p. 116
Another position ashore, as lieutenant de port at Brest, ended a period of unemployment that had lasted until 1 May 1789 and was followed, on 12 October 1790, by a posting to the ship-of-the-line, Victoire. From 1791 to 1793 he served with the French forces in the Indian Ocean. He left for Isle de France on 25 January on board the 32-gun frigate Atalante as second officer to Denis Decres. On 15 May, the newly published naval list named Linois as ship-of-the-line lieutenant with his promotion backdated to 1 May 1789. On their return home in April 1794, Decres was arrested as an aristocrat and Linois was given command of Atalante.
The Brest Fleet
While acting as a decoy for an important convoy of wheat from the United States, Linois was captured by the Royal Navy at the action of 7 May 1794.Humble pp. 116-117 On 5 May, Atalante, in company with the corvette Levrette, encountered a British convoy three days out from Cork. The convoy was under the protection of two ships of the line, the 74 and the 64-gun , which immediately hoisted their colours and opened fire.James (Vol. I) p. 204 Linois realising he was outgunned, as senior officer, ordered his ships to divide and effect an escape. Levrette; managed to evade her pursuer, St Albans during the night but Atalante was unable to shake off Swiftsure which continued her chase throughout the following day. By 0325 on 7 May, Atalante had been overhauled and so badly damaged during the two-day running battle, Linois was forced to surrender. He and his crew were taken prisoner and Atalante was eventually taken into the Royal Navy as HMS EspionJames (Vol. I) pp. 204-205Clowes (Vol. III) p. 485
Linois was exchanged and returned home in March 1795.Humble p. 117 He was promoted to ship-of-the-line captain in May, backdated to January 1794, taking command of the 74-gun Formidable of the Brest Fleet.Humble p. 117 The following year, in June, he was captured again at the Battle of Groix, when his ship was one of the three rearmost in Villaret's withdrawing squadron. He was twice wounded in the battle and lost the sight of an eye. He was quickly exchanged and returned in August. In 1796 he took part in the Expédition d'Irlande as a chief of division, leading a 3-ship of the line and 4-frigate squadron, with his flag on Nestor. On arrival in Bantry Bay, the generals opposed a landing, and the squadron headed back to Brest. Linois moved his flag to the 74-gun Jean-Jacque Rousseau on 22 April 1798 and in the following February, took up the position of Chief of Staff at Brest.
Admiral
In 1799 Linois was promoted to counter admiral and sent to the Mediterranean under Vice-admiral Étienne Eustache Bruix. He joined the 120-gun flagship, Océan, in which he took part in the Croisière de Bruix. On 8 August, the expedition returned to Brest where Linois continued as Chief of Staff until 28 October 1800, when he was posted to Toulon as second in command to Admiral Ganteaume.Humble pp. 117-118
Linois did not join Ganteaume in the unsuccessful attempt to bolster the French forces in Egypt but instead commanded the remainder of the Toulon fleet at the Siege of Porto Ferrajo and orchestrated the attack on Elba in May 1801. In June, with Ganteaume still on manoeuvres, Linois was ordered to assemble a new combined French and Spanish naval force at Cádiz.Humble p. 118 Aboard Formidable and in company with Desaix, Indomptable and Muiron, he set sail on 13 June, passing Gibraltar on 3 July and capturing the British brig . After hearing from Speedy's captain, Thomas Lord Cochrane, that a powerful squadron under Sir James Saumarez was blockading Cádiz, Linois sought shelter beneath the Spanish guns of Algeciras. In addition to these land batteries, by the time Saumerez arrived with six ships-of-the-line, either end of the French line had been reinforced with Spanish gunboats. Linois' squadron was thus able to prevail during the first part of the Algeciras campaign, aided by a lack of wind which prevented Saumarez' force arriving as one and left the British ships drifting helplessly. HMS Hannibal ran aground and was captured.Humble p. 119
Both sides were still effecting repairs when, on 9 July, the French were joined by five Spanish ships-of-the-line from Cádiz. This combined fleet left for Cádiz at dawn on 12 July and Saumarez, who had been reinforced by , followed, intending to harass the Franco-Spanish fleet once it had moved out of range of the shore guns. Hannibal caused problems and at 19:45, Indienne was ordered to tow her back to Algeciras. The Spanish commander then turned the fleet towards Cádiz, heading into the Gut of Gibraltar. The British followed and at 20:40, Saumerez ordered independent action.Humble p. 120
Superb was first into the action, engaging Real Carlos. Some of the shot was high and passed through her rigging, hitting the ship to her larboard, San Hermenegildo. Thinking the shot came from Real Carlos and that she was an enemy, San Hermenegildo fired into her. In about ten minutes the Real Carlos was on fire. When San Hermenegildo crossed her stern to deliver a raking fire, a sudden gust of wind brought them together and the fire spread through both ships, which subsequently blew up. In the meantime, Superb had moved on and forced the surrender of San Antonio. An independently sailing, Spanish frigate was also sunk during the battle but the remaining French and Spanish ships escaped into Cádiz the following morning.James (Vol. III) p. 129 Linois was commended for his part in the battle and the previous one on 6 July, and received the 'Sabre of Honour' from Napoleon. He and his combined fleet however, were blockaded in Cádiz until peace negotiations began with Britain in October.Humble p. 121
Early in 1802, Linois participated in an expedition to Saint-Domingue to depose the governor, Toussaint Louverture and reassert French control there. Louverture was a former slave who was suspected of trying to gain independence for the colony. In January Linois took command of a squadron of troopships, comprising three ships-of-the-line and three frigates, and sailed out to reinforce the 20,000 troops already there. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful and Linois returned to France on 31 May.
Napoleonic Wars
In 1803 Napoleon appointed him to command the French forces in the Indian Ocean and to convey the new Captain-General of French India, Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen to Pondicherry. Flying his flag aboard the 74-gun-ship Marengo, Linois left Brest on 6 March with only three frigates in company; much of the French fleet still being occupied at Saint-Domingue. On arrival however, the British forces there, under Arthur Wellesley, refused to leave and Linois was obliged to detour to the Ile-de-France.Humble p. 121
Linois received news that the war had resumed when he was joined by the 22-gun corvette, Berceau in September. Leaving half the troops to defend the Île-de-France, Linois left with the remainder and his squadron for Batavia on 8 October; raiding a British trading station on Sumatra on the way, capturing eight merchant vessels, destroying three others and setting light to three stocked warehouses.Humble pp. 121-122 Arriving at Batavia on 10 December, Linois was appraised of a British convoy returning from China. After dropping off the soldiers and adding the 16 gun brig-corvette, Adventurier, to his force, set sail on 28 December.Humble p. 122
The Battle of Pulo Aura occurred on 14 February 1804 when Linois' squadron encountered the British China Fleet. Although lightly armed, the British merchant ships outnumbered Linois' forces and manoeuvred as though preparing to defend themselves. Some of the larger indiamen, with gun ports painted on and flying naval ensigns, formed a mock line of battle. With these tactics, the convoy commodore, Nathaniel Dance, fooled Linois into believing that the British fleet was defended by naval escorts and the French retired without attacking the virtually defenceless British.
In June, Linois embarked on a second cruise, this time minus the 40-gun Belle Poule, which was despatched on a separate mission. Setting out in Marengo with the 44-gun Atalante and Semillante, Linois first scoured the channel between Mozambique and Madagascar, before crossing the Indian Ocean to patrol the waters around Ceylon. After taking some lucrative prizes, Linois headed up the Coromandel Coast to Visakhapatnam, having heard about a British convoy heading there. The French squadron arrived on 18 September to find two British East Indiamen loading in the roadstead, under the protection of the 50-gun and 3 guns on the shore. Linois was cautious and, after Atalante had been chased off, decided to engage Centurion from distance. The damage inflicted by both ships therefore was superficial but while Centurion was occupied, Semilante was able to capture one of the Indiamen and drive the other onto the shore.Humble pp. 122-123 On the return journey, Linois' ships took another prize, and arrived at Île-de-France on 1 November, to find Belle Poule with a capture of her own.Humble p. 123