Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 - 28 May

28 May

With his enemy visible from the deck of his flagship by 06:30, Howe recalled his frigates and ordered his fleet to press on all sail in the hope of engaging the rear of the scattered French line. By 10:35 Howe's continued pursuit was making his own battleline ragged, but he pressed on in the belief that Villaret intended to use the weather gage to outrun him and escape. To counter this, Howe ordered his fastest ships into a flying squadron under Admiral Thomas Pasley. This squadron was significantly faster than the majority of the vessels in either fleet and rapidly closed with the French rear. The first shots of the engagement were fired at 14:30 by HMS Russell, commanded by John Willett Payne, which managed some long-distance fire at the rearmost French ships on the opposite tack. Fire was returned by the French but without significant effect. In an attempt to hold off Pasley's squadron, at 17:00 the French first rate 110-gun Révolutionnaire exchanged places with the smaller third rates at the rear of the line and engaged the pursuing British van. This manoeuvre was apparently conducted on the initiative of Captain Vandangel of Révolutionnaire without orders from Admiral Villaret or his political observer Jean Bon Saint-André.

Through a sharp and skilful tack, HMS Bellerophon, one of the slowest ships in the British van, succeeded in bringing the Révolutionnaire to steady action at 18:00. The ships exchanged fire for twenty minutes, the weaker Bellerophon taking severe damage to her rigging, and falling back to be replaced by HMS Marlborough under Captain George Cranfield Berkeley. Marlborough was joined by HMS Russell and HMS Thunderer, and between them they shot away much of the Révolutionnaire's rigging, so that by 19:30 she was unmanageable. HMS Leviathan also joined the action, firing at an unidentified ship ahead of Révolutionnaire. Concerned about Pasley's squadron becoming cut off from the main body of his fleet, Howe recalled them to the British line at 20:00. All complied except the newly arrived HMS Audacious under Captain William Parker. Audacious had engaged Révolutionnaire so closely that she could not safely withdraw, and although her gunnery eventually dismasted her huge opponent, Audacious took severe damage.

It was not until 22:00 that Audacious and Révolutionnaire disentangled themselves and limped apart—their respective fleets now some way off. Audacious's crew later claimed that Révolutionnaire had struck her colours during the engagement, although this has not been corroborated. Parker stated that he did not take possession of Révolutionnaire because he was concerned by the distant sighting of nine French battleships on the horizon. He had spotted a squadron under Commodore Jean-Joseph Castagnier, which was uninvolved in the current campaign and which soon disappeared without participating in any of the subsequent engagements. Audacious's crew made strenuous efforts to repair their ship and rejoin the British fleet during the night, but became disorientated and in the morning Audacious was still only half a mile from her former opponent.

Révolutionnaire had suffered much more severely than Audacious, but survived the encounter without being boarded thanks to a misread signal by Captain Albemarle Bertie of Thunderer, who failed to take possession of the dismasted three-decker when ordered to. During the night Villaret sent reinforcements to rescue Révolutionnaire, and at dawn on 29 May Parker saw that his large opponent was soon to be supported by the undamaged ship of the line Audacieux, the frigate Bellone, and two corvettes. Once more Audacious came under fire from Révolutionnaire, leaving her no option but to flee this superior force. Audacious was chased for half an hour by Bellone and the corvettes, before losing them in a rain squall, and eventually returned to Plymouth on 3 June. Révolutionnaire also escaped pursuit and was taken under tow by Audacieux, who brought her safely to Rochefort several days later. For leaving the battlefleet before the main engagement, Révolutionnaire's captain was subsequently arrested.