Action of 18 November 1809 - Hamelin's Cruise

Hamelin's Cruise

In July 1809, Hamelin had departed Île de France for the Bay of Bengal in Vénus, accompanied by the corvette Créole and the frigate Manche. The frigates were both armed with at least 40 cannon each and the corvette 14. All three ships were crewed by a full complement of experienced sailors drawn from the pool of unemployed men stranded in Île de France by the British blockade. This force was followed a month later by the similarly sized frigate Bellone. Hamelin's early cruises were successful: operating initially off the Nicobar Islands, Vénus captured the HEIC armed ship Orient on 26 July. After this however, targets became scarcer and despite the capture of a number of small merchant vessels, Hamelin was forced to take his squadron further east and south to find British shipping to attack. On 10 October, he raided the small trading port of Tappanooly on Sumatra, captured its British population and razed the town.

At 06:00 on 18 November 1809, with the sailing season almost at an end, Hamelin finally encountered a sizable target. Cruising in Vénus, accompanied by Manche and Créole, Hamelin sighted and chased a northwards-bound convoy of East Indiamen. These three ships were the Windham, Charlton and United Kingdom, under the command of Captain John Stewart on Windham. Stewart's ships had departed Britain months earlier, destined for Calcutta to receive cargoes for Britain. Their main cargo on this voyage were over 200 passengers, primarily soldiers enlisted in the army of the HEIC. All three vessels weighed approximately 800 tons and carried between 20 and 30 cannon each, but were not warships: their crews were not trained to military standards and their guns were not as powerful as those typically carried on military vessels. In addition, a large proportion of the crew were lascars, who were not considered reliable in combat. Stewart however had been warned of Hamelin's presence by the sloop HMS Rattlesnake a week earlier and had been rehearsing Windham's gunnery in case he should meet the French squadron. Ship for ship, the East Indiamen were outclassed by the French frigates, which were faster, stronger, more powerful and better armed and manned. In convoy however the British were still a formidable target: only four years earlier, at the Battle of Pulo Aura, a convoy of East Indiamen had defeated and pursued a more powerful French squadron under Admiral Linois in similar waters.