page_title: Frederick Whitworth Aylmer, 6th Baron Aylmer
section_title: Algiers
hierarchical_section_title: Frederick Whitworth Aylmer, 6th Baron Aylmer / Career / Algiers
context_page_description: Frederick Whitworth Aylmer, 6th Baron Aylmer was a British Royal Navy officer who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and eventually rose to the rank of admiral. He was born on 12 October 1777 in Twyford, Hampshire, into a naval family which included his great-great-grandfather, Admiral Matthew Aylmer.
  Aylmer went to sea at thirteen years of age, and in 1798, as a lieutenant, served aboard HMS Swiftsure at the Battle of the Nile. In 1805, he made post and in 1809 was appointed to a frigate in the channel, where he took part in raids on the north coast of Spain.
  Aylmer is primarily known as the commander of the force that penetrated the Gironde in July 1815, as part of a wider British strategy to rally French royalists against Napoleon. In 1816, commanding the heavy frigate HMS Severn, Aylmer took part in the Bombardment of Algiers, and was subsequently awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath, the royal order of St Ferdinand and of Merit and the royal military order of St Fernando.
context_section_description: In February 1816, Aylmer was given command of the 38-gun, Endymion-class frigate, HMS Severn and on 27 August took part in the attack on Algiers by an Anglo-Dutch force. A British fleet under Edward Pellew, comprising six line-of-battle ships, four frigates, nine smaller warships, a naval transport, a sloop and a despatch-vessel, left Plymouth at 12.00 on 28 July. On 9 August they arrived off Gibraltar where they joined a Dutch squadron of five frigates and a corvette. The combined fleet was kept in the bay by bad weather until 13 August when Commander James Murray arrived in the 18-gun HMS Satelitte and the fleet was given detailed plan of action and information regarding the city's defences. The city was shown to be heavily defended with more than 1,000 guns. The harbour wall alone was mounting more than 220 guns, the vast majority being between 18 and 32-pounders. The harbour entrance was guarded by another three batteries to the south-west, the largest being the Fish Market battery of 15 guns in three tiers, and it was this battery that Aylmer in Severn was charged with destroying. Spreading south, along the coast, were a number of other batteries and, on the opposite side of the bay, facing the harbour entrance, a fort. These coastal defences mounted a further 60 to 70 guns. Inland, on the areas of higher ground stood various other batteries and a further fort. The northern side of the city was not so well defended with fewer than a hundred cannon but the depth of water on this side made an approach impossible. The harbour itself contained four heavy frigates, five large corvettes and between 30 and 40 smaller armed vessels, and 40,000 extra men had been brought in to protect the city.
  Late morning, the following day, the wind was favourable and the Anglo-Dutch force, minus the 10-gun Jasper which was sent off with despatches, set sail for the port of Algiers. In the evening of 16 August 200 miles from its destination, the fleet encountered HMS Prometheus, whose captain, William Dashwood, was able to confirm that Pellew's intelligence was accurate. Having been forced to tack against contrary winds for much of the remaining journey, the fleet did not come within sight of the city until dawn on 27 August. Aylmer's ship, Severn was selected to tow a boat closer in, from where a delegate with a list of demands would then be rowed ashore. The demands included, the abolition of Christian slavery, the release of all Christian slaves and the repayment of the money recently taken to secure the liberty of Neopolitan and Sardinian slaves.
  Having been promised a reply within two hours, and having still not received one by 14:00, the British delegate, Lieutenant Burgess, returned to Severn and Pellew then gave the order for the fleet to take up position. Pellew's ship, Queen Charlotte, anchored at the head of the mole and almost immediately came under fire. The remaining four British battleships, Superb, Minden, Albion and Impregnable engaged the guns on the harbour wall while the three frigates, Glasgow, Severn and Leander attacked the shore batteries, with Severn concentrating her fire on the largest at the fish market. The smaller vessels were expected to take up position where convenient, except the bomb ketches which targeted the harbour and town from some 2,000 yards out. The Dutch squadron was sent against the batteries to the south of the city. By 19:00, HMS Leander had been so badly shot up, she was unable to keep station and only by running a cable to Severn, could she bring her guns to bear. The bombardment continued until 22:00 when Pellew ordered a withdrawal which, owing to the light winds and damage incurred by much of the fleet, took almost four hours to complete. By this time, most of the Algerian guns had been silenced, parts of the city were in flame and much of the shipping in the harbour destroyed. Aylmer's crew suffered three dead and 34 wounded in the action. Total British losses were 128 killed and 690 wounded. The Dutch had 13 killed and 52 wounded. Accounts of the Algerian losses vary between 4,000 and 
caption: Bombardment of Algiers, painting by Thomas Luny
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