page_title: Action of 13 January 1797
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Action of 13 January 1797 / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Menhir des Droits de l'Homme à Plozévet (Finistère)Deutsch: Gedenkstein zur Erinnerung an den 13.-14.01.1797 Schiffsversenkungen in der Bucht von Audierne - Vor der Insel Ouessant trifft das französische Linienschiff Droits de l'Homme (2.900 t), auf dem Weg von Irland nach Brest und mit 1.300 Soldaten und Seeleuten an Bord, auf die beiden britischen Fregatten HMS Indefatigable und HMS Amazon (1795). In einem 15 Stunden dauernden erbitterten Gefecht wird das französische Linienschiff Droits de l'Homme zusammengeschossen und strandet schließlich in einem aufziehenden Sturm an der bretonischen Küste. Von den rund 1.300 Menschen an Bord kommen etwa 250 während des Artilleriegefechtes zu Tode; rund 750 Mann ertrinken zudem während des Schiffbruchs. Nur etwa 300 Mann überleben. Auch die englische HMS Amazon (1795) ging infolge des Seegefechtes in der Audierne Bay von Île de Batz unter, allerdings mit viel weniger Toten.
context_page_description: The Action of 13 January 1797 was a minor naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the action the frigates outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it onto shore in heavy seas, resulting in the deaths of between 400 and 1,000 of the 1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement with six sailors drowned after running onto a sandbank while failing to escape a lee shore.
  The French 74-gun ship Droits de l'Homme had been part of the Expédition d'Irlande, an unsuccessful attempt by a French expeditionary force to invade Ireland. During the operation, the French fleet was beset by poor coordination and violent weather, eventually being compelled to return to France without landing a single soldier. Two British frigates, the 44-gun HMS Indefatigable and the 36-gun HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the seas off Ushant in an attempt to intercept the returning French force and sighted the Droits de l'Homme on the afternoon of 13 January.
context_section_description: Exact French casualties are difficult to calculate, but of the 1,300 aboard Droits de l'Homme, 103 are known to have died in the battle and just over 300 were saved from the wreck, indicating the deaths of approximately 900 men on the French ship between the morning of 14 January and the morning of 18 January. However, a French source suggests that up to another 500 of the crew were rescued from the wreck by the corvette Arrogante and the cutter Aiguille on 17 and 18 January. This would give a toll of only about 400. A menhir at Plozévet, with an inscription carved in 1840 gives a death toll of six hundred.
  Amazon lost three in the battle and six in her wreck, with 15 wounded, while Indefatigable did not lose a single man killed, suffering only 18 wounded. The discrepancy in losses during the action is likely due to the extreme difficulty the French crew had in aiming their guns given their ship's instability in heavy seas.
  Reynolds and his officers were exchanged for French prisoners some weeks later, and in the routine court-martial investigating the loss of their ship were honourably acquitted "with every sentiment of the court's highest approbation." Reynolds was subsequently appointed to the large frigate HMS Pomone. The senior lieutenants of each frigate were promoted to commander and head money (prize money based on the number of the enemy's crew and awarded when the defeated ship was destroyed) was distributed among the crews. Pellew remained in command of Indefatigable off Brest for another year and seized a number of French merchant ships. He was later promoted several times, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had become Lord Exmouth, Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Reynolds did not survive the war, dying in the wreck of HMS St George in 1811. Lacrosse and Humbert were not censured for the loss of their ship: the commodore was promoted to admiral and later became ambassador to Spain, while Humbert led the next and equally unsuccessful attempt to invade Ireland, surrendering at the Battle of Ballinamuck in 1798.
  In Britain, the action was lauded at the time and since: First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Spencer described the operation as "an exploit which has not I believe ever before graced our naval annals". Historian James Henderson says of the action: "It was a feat of arms and seamanship such as had never been done before, and never was done again," and Richard Woodman calls it "a dazzling display of seamanship by all concerned in the alternating darkness and moonlight of a boisterous night". Five decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by the Naval General Service Medal, with clasps "Indefatigable 13 Jany. 1797" and "Amazon 13 Jany. 1797", awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.
caption: Menhir commemorating the wreck of Droits de l'Homme (shown in the picture as damaged by storm with the topmost portion having broken off)
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