Action of 18 September 1810

The Action of 18 September 1810 was a naval battle fought between British Royal Navy and French Navy frigates in the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars. The engagement was one of several between rival frigate squadrons contesting control of the French island base of Île de France, from which French frigates had raided British trade routes during the war. The action came in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Grand Port, in which four British frigates had been lost, and just four days after a fifth British frigate had been captured and subsequently recaptured in the Action of 13 September 1810. In consequence of the heavy losses the British force had suffered, reinforcements were hastily rushed to the area and became individual targets for the larger French squadron blockading the British base at Île Bourbon.

HMS Ceylon had been despatched by the British authorities at Madras after the Battle of Grand Port to reinforce the remains of the squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley on Île Bourbon. Searching for Rowley off Île de France, Ceylon was spotted by French Commodore Jacques Hamelin who gave chase in his flagship Vénus, supported by a corvette. Vénus was faster than Ceylon, and although Captain Charles Gordon almost reached the safety of Île Bourbon, he was run down and forced to engage the French ship during the night, both frigates inflicting severe damage on one another before the wounded Gordon surrendered to the approaching corvette. As dawn broke, Rowley's flagship HMS Boadicea arrived, recaptured Ceylon, drove off the corvette and forced the battered French flagship to surrender, capturing Hamelin. This was the last ship-to-ship action in the region before the successful invasion of Île de France in December 1810: without Hamelin the French squadron, short on supplies and low on morale, did not contest British control of the region and failed to even attempt to disrupt the invasion fleet.