Battle of the Basque Roads The Battle of the Basque Roads , also Battle of Aix Roads ( French : " Bataille de l ' île d ' Aix " , also " Affaire des brûlots " , rarely " Bataille de la rade des Basques " ) was a naval battle during the Napoleonic Wars off the Island of Aix . On the night of 11 April 1809 Captain Lord Cochrane led a British fireship attack against a powerful squadron of French ships anchored in the Basque Roads . In the attack all but two of the French ships were driven ashore . The subsequent engagement lasted three days but failed to destroy the entire French fleet . Cochrane accused the British commanding officer , Admiral James Gambier , of being reluctant to press the attack . Gambier demanded a court - martial , and was duly exonerated ; Cochrane ' s career in the Royal Navy ended . The French Navy continued to operate against the British from the Basque Roads until the end of the Napoleonic Wars . Background . The Basque Roads are a sheltered bay on the Biscay shore of France , bounded by the Île d ' Oléron to the west and the Île de Ré to the north . The port of La Rochelle stands at the northeast corner of the roads , and the important town of Rochefort is near the mouth of the Charente River to the south . During the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal the Duke of Wellington depended on maritime supply . The French fleet in the Basque Roads operated against the British supply ships . To protect the convoys , the Royal Navy maintained a blockade of the Basque Roads , but this was expensive and never wholly effective . In late October 1808 , Napoléon sent Decrès orders for the squadrons at Lorient and Rochefort to deliver reinforcements and supplies to Martinique . The continual presence of large British squadrons , however , impeded their departure . On 7 February 1809 , Napoleon ordered Admiral Willaumez to raise the blockades with the Brest fleet to allow these small squadrons to make their way to Martinique . Two weeks later , Willaumez finally set out with eight ships - of - the - line and two frigates towards Lorient . Although he chased off the British ships stationed there , calms prevented the Lorient squadron from weighing anchor ; they eventually did so , after the fleet had departed , leading to the Battle of Les Sables - d ' Olonne . Fearful of being caught by the British , Willaumez continued on his way south to Rochefort , but the Rochefort squadron was in no shape to sail , having been recently ravaged by sickness . With the subsequent arrival of a large British fleet , Willaumez was trapped in Rochefort . A British squadron arrived on the scene and held the French there until Gambier arrived with the rest of the Channel fleet to impose a blockade . The British Admiralty became concerned about the concentration of such a large segment of the French fleet in one place . If the ships escaped they could ferry supplies to Napoleon ’ s Peninsular forces , making it very difficult for Britain to return to the Peninsula . With these reasons in mind , the First Lord of the Admiralty , Lord Mulgrave , proposed an attack on the French fleet at anchor using fire ships . Cochrane ' s superior officer , Lord Gambier , commanding the Channel Fleet , was opposed to the plan , calling it " a horrible and anti - Christian mode of warfare " . Cochrane was given twenty - one fireships to command , but he was also focusing on his own invention : explosion ships , which were basically fireships packed tightly with explosive powder . Gambier ' s opposition and Mulgrave ' s persuasiveness meant that full responsibility for executing the plan fell to Lord Cochrane . The attack . On the evening of April 11 , 1809 Cochrane led the way into Basque Roads with two explosion ships , followed by 25 other ships . Because of delays resulting from Gambier ’ s indecision , the French were alert to the British plan . Admiral Allemand , who had replaced Willaumez , had struck the topmasts and yards of the big ships , stowed their sails to reduce the amount of exposed flammable material , and placed a stout boom across the harbor entrance . Allemand had anchored his ships in an apparently impregnable position drawn up in two lines between the Ile d ' Aix to the northeast and Ilôt Boyard to the southwest , that were defended by gun batteries . On the night of April 11 , 1809 Cochrane floated in on the flood - tide aboard the foremost explosion vessel with the other explosion ships following . Once he had reached the boom , Cochrane lit the fuse of the vessel and he and his handful of men swarmed into their boat , only to discover that they had left their pet dog behind , which they went back to rescue . They managed to escape with their dog just in time . A " boom " of heavy spars and chains the French had placed to prevent the British ships from engaging the French , more than a mile long , was broken in several places by the explosion ships . Unable to see clearly in the smoke , the panicked French gunners fired into the line of protecting frigates . Anchor cables were hastily cut to escape the surge of flame , and without sails , the ships piled up on the shoals . Cochrane described the attack as follows : The follow - up . When Cochrane returned to the British fleet , he found that the second attack — 20 fireships — was in complete disarray . Only four of those ships managed to reach the enemy ' s position , and they did no direct damage . Cochrane was outraged , reckoning that the fireships could have completely destroyed the French squadron in the confusion following the explosion ; instead a series of mishaps took place including firing the ships too soon , missing the enemy squadron , with one fireship even grounding itself . The fireships missed their target , badly ; but they still inflicted considerable indirect damage . When the French sighted the fireships taking flame several miles away , they believed they were seeing more explosion - vessels at much closer range , and wreaked much havoc upon themselves in their attempts to escape . Most of the ships either cut their anchor cables and drifted ashore , or else hoisted sail with equally disastrous results . Cochrane wrote : Battle continues . Throughout the morning of 12 April , Cochrane signalled Lord Gambier to attack the paralyzed French squadron . ( Gambier was 14 miles offshore with the blockading fleet ; Cochrane had one frigate under his command . ) Finally , in desperation , at 13 : 00 Cochrane allowed his ship to drift toward shore , coming under fire of the land - based fortifications , trying to compel Gambier to send ships to aid Cochrane ' s frigate . The strategy worked ; at 13 : 30 , seven British ships came in , and Cochrane spent the rest of the day capturing and destroying French ships . Much to Cochrane ' s displeasure , on 13 April , the other ships returned to Lord Gambier ' s position offshore , and Cochrane ignored repeated orders from Gambier to also disengage . Cochrane instead destroyed more French vessels before finally obeying Gambier ' s signals , and the battle ended . Fallout . Cochrane returned to Britain a popular hero , but he had already made himself unpopular in important places in the British government , and the Admiralty chose to give Lord Gambier credit for the victory . Gambier and Cochrane were both members of Parliament , and when a vote of thanks to Gambier was proposed , Cochrane charged that Gambier had failed to follow up the attack at Basque Roads . Gambier demanded a court - martial of himself , to clear those charges , and was acquitted . Cochrane ' s naval career was apparently over , the Admiralty did not give him another ship , and he returned his main attentions to Parliament . In 1814 he was convicted of stock market manipulation ; he was sentenced to the pillory and a year ' s imprisonment ; expelled from Parliament and the Royal Navy ; immediately re - elected to Parliament from his district ; popular support and acclaim was so strident that the pillory was never used in Britain again , and he received a royal pardon ; and Cochrane became the head of the Navies of Chile , Brazil , and Greece during their wars of independence . In 1832 Cochrane was returned to the Royal Navy as a Rear Admiral , serving with distinction and eventually being promoted to Admiral . Author C . S . Forester makes reference to the incident in " Flying Colours " , one of his series of Hornblower novels : On the French side , the loss of four ships and two frigates was blamed on captains , four of whom were court - martialed . One was relieved of duty and one , Lafon , of " Calcutta " , executed by firing squad . Allemand ' s role was never questioned , much to the outrage of the officers and the open disapproval of Admiral Martin ; he was swiftly transferred to Toulon and put in charge of the Mediterranean fleet . Legacy . Following the devastating battle of the Basque Roads , Napoleon ordered the reinforcement of the fortification of the area of the mouth of the Charente . In 1810 , he ordered the re - furbishing of the Fort de la Rade on Ile d ' Aix , as well as the construction of Fort Enet . Order of battle . British . " Caledonia " ( 120 ) < br > " Caesar " ( 80 ) < br > " Gibraltar " ( 80 ) < br > " Donegal " ( 74 ) < br > " Bellona " ( 74 ) < br > " Hero " ( 74 ) < br > " Illustrious " ( 74 ) < br > " Resolution " ( 74 ) < br > " Revenge " ( 74 ) < br > " Theseus " ( 74 ) < br > " Valiant " ( 74 ) " Imperieuse " ( 38 ) < br > " Aigle " ( 36 ) < br > " Unicorn " ( 32 ) < br > " Pallas " ( 32 ) < br > " Indefatigable " ( 44 ) < br > " Emerald " ( 36 ) < br > " Mediator " ( 32 ) " Beagle " ( 18 ) < br > " Doterel " ( 18 ) < br > " Foxhound " ( 18 ) < br > " Insolent " ( 14 ) < br > " Encounter " ( 12 ) < br > " Conflict " ( 12 ) < br > " Contest " ( 12 ) < br > " Fervent " ( 12 ) < br > " Growler " ( 12 ) < br > " Lyra " ( 10 ) < br > " Redpole " ( 10 ) < br > " Whiting " ( 4 - fitted as rocket ship ) < br > " Nimrod " ( 10 - fitted as rocket ship ) < br > " King George " ( 10 - fitted as rocket ship ) " Thunder " ( 8 ) ( bomb ) < br > " Ætna " ( 8 ) ( bomb ) 40 transports or fireships < br > 3 Congreve rocket barges French . " Océan " ( 118 ) ( flagship ) < br > " Ville de Varsovie " ( 80 ) ( burnt ) < br > " Foudroyant " ( 80 ) < br > " Jemmapes " ( 80 ) < br > " Cassard " ( 74 ) < br > " Régulus " ( 74 ) < br > " Tourville " ( 74 ) < br > " Aquilon " ( 74 ) ( burnt ) < br > " Patriote " ( 74 ) < br > " Tonnerre " ( 74 ) ( scuttled ) < br > " Calcutta " ( 54 ) ( scuttled ) " Pallas " ( 46 ) < br > " Hortense " ( 46 ) < br > " Indienne " ( 46 ) ( scuttled ) < br > " Elbe " ( 46 ) Other smaller ships