Raid On Saint-Paul - Background

Background

The French Indian Ocean territories of Île de France and Île Bonaparte were heavily fortified island bases from which French frigates were able to launch raids against British trade routes across the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars. In late 1808, a squadron of four frigates departed France for the region under Commodore Jacques Hamelin with orders to prey on the convoys of East Indiamen that regularly crossed the Indian Ocean. During the late spring of 1809, these frigates dispersed into the Bay of Bengal, attacking British shipping and coastal harbours around the rim of the Eastern Indian Ocean. The Royal Navy was also preparing an operation in the region, a staggered campaign intended to blockade, isolate and subsequently capture both Île de France and Île Bonaparte, eliminating the final French territories and bases east of Africa.

To conduct the British operation, Admiral Albemarle Bertie at the Cape of Good Hope organised a squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley to blockade the islands, capture any French shipping that presented itself and begin preparations for the invasions. Rowley was equipped with the antiquated ship of the line HMS Raisonnable and a small squadron of frigates and smaller ships, later reinforced with a force of soldiers from Madras in British India, with which he seized the nearby island of Rodriguez to use as a raiding base.

On 14 August, one of Rowley's ships, the 18-gun sloop HMS Otter, attacked a French brig at Rivière Noire District on Île de France. Although the attack was ultimately unsuccessful, Otter's captain Nesbit Willoughby and his landing party were able to break into and out of the harbour without severe difficulties. This prompted Rowley to consider a larger scale operation against a more heavily fortified French position. Two months earlier, in the Action of 31 May 1809, the French frigate Caroline had captured two East Indiamen, the Streatham and Europe in the Bay of Bengal. The French captain, Jean-Baptiste-Henri Feretier, led his prizes back to the French-held islands, arriving off Île de France on 22 July. Feretier was prevented from attempting to reach Port Louis by Rowley's blockading squadron and instead put his ships into Saint-Paul on Île Bonaparte to unload his captured vessels and replenish his supplies.