Action of 20 October 1793 The Action of 20 October 1793 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought off Cape Barfleur on the French coast of the English Channel . The early months of the war , which had begun in February , had seen a number of French frigates raiding British merchant shipping in the Channel , and HMS " Crescent " under Captain James Saumarez was deployed to watch the port of Cherbourg with the aim of disrupting the operations of the French frigates " Réunion " and " Sémillante " that were based in the harbour . On 20 October , Saumarez was waiting off Cape Barfleur for French movement when his lookout sighted " Réunion " and the cutter " Espérance " approaching from open water . Saumarez immediately moved to engage the French ship and managed to isolate the frigate and subject it to a fierce barrage of fire for more than two hours . Captain François A . Dénian on " Réunion " responded , but aside from inflicting minor damage to Saumarez ' s rigging achieved little while his own vessel was heavily battered , suffering severe damage to rigging masts and hull and more than 80 and possibly as many as 120 casualties . British losses were confined to a single man wounded by an accident aboard " Crescent " . Eventually Dénian could not hold out any longer and was forced to surrender on the arrival of the 28 - gun British frigate HMS " Circe " . " Réunion " was later repaired and commissioned into the Royal Navy , while Saumarez was knighted for his success . Background . At the outbreak of war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the French Republic in the early spring of 1793 , the French Revolutionary Wars were already a year old . The French Navy was already suffering from the upheavals of the French Revolution and the consequent dissolution of the professional officer class , while the Royal Navy had been at a state of readiness since the summer of 1792 . During the early months of the war the French Navy focused heavily on raiding and disrupting British commerce and deployed frigates on raiding operations against British commercial shipping . In the English Channel , two of the most successful raiders were the frigates " Réunion " and " Sémillante " , based in Cherbourg on the Cotentin Peninsula . These frigates would make short cruises , leaving Cherbourg in the early evening and returning in the morning with any prizes they had encountered during the night . To counter the depredations from Cherbourg , the Admiralty despatched a number of warships to blockade the French coast , including the 36 - gun frigate HMS " Crescent " under Captain James Saumarez , which was sent from Portsmouth to the Channel Islands before operating off the Cotentin . On 19 October , Saumarez learned of the French routine and took up a station close inshore near Cape Barfleur , a rocky headland on the eastern extremity of the Cotentin Peninsula which the Cherbourg raiders passed whenever leaving or entering port . At dawn on 20 October lookouts on " Crescent " reported two sails approaching the land from the Channel , one significantly larger than the other . Saumarez immediately ordered his ship to edge into the wind towards the strange vessels and rapidly came up on the port side of the new arrivals , with the wind behind him allowing freedom of movement . Battle . The two ships encountered by " Crescent " were the 38 - gun frigate " Réunion " and a 14 - gun cutter named " Espérance " , returning from a raiding cruise in the Channel under the command of Captain François A . Dénian ( in some sources Déniau ) . " Réunion " was a substantially larger ship than " Crescent " , weighing to the British ship ' s and carrying 300 men to " Crescent " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s 257 . However these advantages were countered by the slight advantage Saumarez held in weight of shot , which measured to in favour of the British vessel . " Crescent " was also faster than " Réunion " , having only recently completed a dockyard refit . Firing broke out between the frigates at 10 : 30 , while the cutter steered away from the battle towards Cherbourg . One other ship was visible throughout the engagement , the 28 - gun British frigate HMS " Circe " under Captain Joseph Sydney Yorke , which lay stranded approximately distant , unable to approach the battling ships due to calm winds separating " Circe " from the engagement . In the opening exchanges , both frigates suffered damage to their rigging and sails , " Crescent " losing the fore topmast and " Réunion " the fore yard and mizzen topmast . In an effort to break the deadlock , Saumarez suddenly swung his ship onto the opposite tack and , taking advantage of the damage to Dénian ' s vessel that left it unable to effectively manoeuvre , managed to fire several raking broadsides into " Réunion " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s stern . The raking fire inflicted massive damage and casualties on the French ship , and although Dénian continued to resist for some time , his ship was no longer effectively able to respond once Saumarez had crossed his bow . Eventually , with " Circe " now rapidly approaching with a strengthening of the wind , Dénian accepted that he had no choice but to surrender his vessel after an engagement lasting two hours and ten minutes . The cutter , which had been ignored during the battle , successfully escaped to Cherbourg while the captain of " Sémillante " , anchored in the harbour , made a fruitless effort to reach the engagement , delayed by contrary wind and tides that prevented the frigate from sailing . Aftermath . Both ships were damaged in the engagement , although Saumarez ' s damage was almost entirely confined to his rigging : very few shots had actually struck his hull during the battle , and the only one that provoked notice passed across the deck without causing injury and struck a cannon on the opposite site , setting it off in the direction of a number of small gunboats that were approaching from the shore . Casualties on " Crescent " were equally light , with just one man injured ; he had been standing too close to his own cannon during the opening broadside and had been struck by the recoiling gun , suffering a broken leg . Damage and losses on the French ship were very severe , with the rigging in tatters , the hull and lower masts repeatedly struck and casualties that Saumarez initially estimated at more than 120 men killed or wounded , although French accounts give the lower figure of 33 killed and 48 wounded . Saumarez was widely praised for his conduct in only the second successful frigate action of the war after Edward Pellew ' s capture of " Cléopâtre " four months earlier at the Action of 18 June 1793 . In reward , Saumarez was knighted by King George III and given a presentation plate by the City of London , although Saumarez later received a bill for £103 6s and 8 d ( the equivalent of £ as of 2018 ) , from a Mr . Cooke for " the honour of a knighthood " . Saumarez refused to pay , telling Cooke to charge whomever had paid for Edward Pellew ' s knighthood after his successful action . Saumarez later wrote to his brother that " I think it hard to pay so much for an honour which my services have been thought to deserve " . In recognition of his success , Saumarez was subsequently given command of a frigate squadron operating against the Normandy coast from the Channel Islands . In addition , the first lieutenant , George Parker , was promoted to commander and the two other lieutenants were also praised . " Réunion " was purchased for service with the Royal Navy after repairs had been completed , and became HMS " Reunion " , rated as a 36 - gun frigate carrying 12 pounder cannon . Authorisation for the payment of prize money was published in the " London Gazette " on 4 February 1794 , amounting to £5 , 239 ( the equivalent of £ as of 2018 ) divided between the men of " Crescent " and " Circe " . More than five decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal , awarded upon application to all British participants from " Crescent " still living in 1847 .