Roquebert's expedition to the Caribbean

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy rapidly and decisively seized control of the war at sea, driving French ships into protected harbours and laying heavy blockades on ports held by the French Empire and her allies to strangle communications and overseas trade. This had a devastating effect on the French West Indian colonies, particularly the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. With trade impossible, their economies stagnated while social upheaval and limited food supplies reduced their ability to resist invasion by the large British forces maintained in the region. In the summer of 1808, desperate messages were sent to France from the islands, prompting a succession of French efforts to supply food, reinforcements and trading opportunities during the latter part of 1808 and the first months of 1809. These efforts were entirely unsuccessful: the few ships that did safely reach the Caribbean Sea and successfully landed supplies were all intercepted and captured on the return journey, costing the French four frigates and numerous smaller ships by the end of February 1809. The British blockade squadrons had intercepted a number of the messages sent from the islands during 1808, and a large expeditionary force was built up on Barbados with orders to invade and capture the French colonies as swiftly as possible. Their first target was Martinique, which was invaded and captured during February 1809. Outlying islands were captured over the next few months and a major French reinforcement squadron was trapped and then defeated near the Îles des Saintes in April: the French lost a ship of the line, and two more frigates were captured in June and July as they tried to return to France. With such heavy losses, the French took time preparing their next effort while the British were distracted by the Reconquista in Santo Domingo, a Spanish campaign to drive the French out of the island of Hispaniola that was eventually concluded in July 1809 with British naval assistance. By the autumn of 1809, the British commander, Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, was again developing an expeditionary force, this time aimed at Guadeloupe. He had strengthened the blockade squadron off the island's principal port Basse-Terre, and placed heavier forces at Martinique in case they were required. Individual ships were dispersed in the approaches to the French island, ready to intercept any approaching reinforcement. Other ships operated against ships already anchored off Guadeloupe: one squadron seized the corvette Nisus from Deshaies on 12 December. In the months since Troude's failure, the French had only sent small supply ships to Guadeloupe, while carefully preparing a major expedition at Nantes. Two French flûtes, Loire, under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Joseph Normand-Kergré, and Seine, under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Bernard Vincent, took on board large quantities of food supplies and over 200 military reinforcements each. To protect these ships two frigates were detailed to escort the convoy to Guadeloupe: Renommée, under Commodore Dominique Roquebert, and Clorinde, under Captain Jacques Saint-Cricq. The force departed on 15 November 1809 and made rapid progress across the Atlantic, avoiding all contact with British warships. Of the small ships despatched around the same time, none reached Guadeloupe; all were captured in the Western Atlantic or Caribbean by warships sent by Cochrane to patrol for approaching French reinforcements. ==Destruction of HMS Junon==

Among the ships despatched by Cochrane was the 40-gun frigate under Captain John Shortland. Junon had been captured from the French less than a year earlier at the action of 10 February 1809, following an unsuccessful attempt to return to France from Guadeloupe. Hastily repaired, she had been commissioned into the Royal Navy and added to Cochrane's fleet, from where Cochrane had ordered her to patrol to the east of Antigua for ships attempting to evade the British blockade. On 13 December, Shortland, in company with the 16-gun brig HMS Observateur under Captain Frederick Wetherall, stopped an American merchant ship and boarded her in search of contraband. Unable to manoeuvre away from the French due to the damage suffered in the opening broadside, Shortland returned fire as best he could while closing with Renommée to inflict maximum damage. As Junon closed with the flagship, Clorinde attacked her from the other side and the flûtes took up stations fore and aft, repeatedly raking the British ship. Observateur had been some distance behind Junon when the action began, and was thus not directly engaged by any of the French ships. Wetherall initially fired at Clorinde from extreme range, but soon recognised that he could do nothing to aid Junon in the face of overwhelming French numbers and so sailed westward to find and warn other British ships of the approaching French squadron. As Observateur escaped, Junon was pounded from all sides, Roquebert's ship coming so close to the British frigate that their rigging tangled and they collided, inflicting further damage. The French squadron was so close to Junon that the soldiers carried aboard for the garrison on Guadeloupe were able to fire their muskets at the British top deck, killing many of the sailors manning the guns. ==Operations off Guadeloupe==

Although Junon had been destroyed, Observateur had escaped from the French squadron and immediately sought out the blockade force off Guadeloupe, the only place that the French squadron could be destined for. Arriving at Basse-Terre at 13:00 on 15 December, Captain Wetherall telegraphed the senior officer on the station, Captain Volant Vashon Ballard in the frigate HMS Blonde, of the impending arrival of Roquebert's squadron. Ballard swiftly gathered his squadron, the frigate HMS Thetis under Captain George Miller and the sloops and , and positioned them in the channel between Guadeloupe and the Îles des Saintes, through which Roquebert's ships would have to pass. At daylight on 17 December, Blonde sighted the French flûtes approaching Basse-Terre from the northwest and Ballard advanced on them, blocking them from reaching Basse-Terre. Retreating northwest along the southern coastline of Guadeloupe, the flûtes entered a sheltered cove named Anse la Barque at 10:00, sheltering under two batteries on either side of the bay. Lieutenants Normand-Kergré and Vincent then anchored their ships parallel with the shore, so that they had the maximum number of cannon aimed at the entrance to the cove. Ballard then tested the feasibility of an attack on the French ships, ordering the 12-gun schooner to assess the depth of the entrance to the bay while he in Blonde attacked the batteries directly at 16:00. Discovering that the entrance was navigable. Blonde and Elizabeth withdrew out of range. Operations were then suspended for the evening to allow additional reinforcements to come up. During the night the frigate (or Freija) under Captain John Hayes joined Ballard's squadron. ==Destruction of Loire and Seine==

At 08:30 on the morning of 18 December, a small boat sailed from Anse la Barque with a message offering the British a temporary truce. Simultaneously the British ship of the line HMS Sceptre arrived from Fort Royal on Martinique under the command of Captain Samuel James Ballard, who immediately assumed command of the diverse squadron assembled at the entrance to the bay. At 17:20, the fire reached the magazines of the burning flûte, and the ensuing explosion hurled burning wreckage across the bay. The British ships were largely untouched, but the second French flûte was struck by a large piece of flaming timber, which ignited her mainmast and destroyed her as well. The operations successfully completed, the British ships embarked their landing parties, who had demolished the fortifications around the bay, and returned to open water. In total the British had lost eight killed and 16 wounded on Blonde, six wounded on Thetis, and an uncertain number lost in the amphibious operation, although casualty figures are not known. French losses in the engagement are also uncertain, although most of the crews of Loire and Seine were able to quite easily reach the shore. ==Aftermath==

Roquebert's remaining frigates turned north after parting from the storeships, sighting the British squadron in the distance and grounding on a sandbar off Antigua in their haste to escape. Throwing overboard their guns and stores, the ships were lightened enough to regain open water. Within a year, Roquebert and Saint-Cricq would be despatched on another mission to resupply a French colony, sailing with the frigate Néréide to Île de France in December 1810. Unknown to the French authorities, a British expeditionary force had already captured the island, and Roquebert's squadron was ambushed in May 1811 and brought to battle off Tamatave in Madagascar. Néréide and Renomée were both captured and Roquebert killed in action. Clorinde only escaped by deserting the other ships in the middle of the engagement, fleeing north and eventually reaching France. In the West Indies, the failure of the main resupply effort resulted in a further drop in morale among the defenders of Guadeloupe. Other smaller ships sent with supplies were captured during the operations against Roquebert's squadron, including the brig Béarnais captured on 14 December and Papillion on 19 December. In January 1810, the blockade tightened: Scorpion captured the brig Oreste from inside the harbour at Basse-Terre and Freija seized several coastal vessels in Baie-Mahault. ==Notes==