Battle of Grand Port - Background

Background

For more details on this topic, see Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811.

During the early nineteenth century, the Indian Ocean formed an essential part of the network of trade routes that connected the British Empire. Heavily laden East Indiamen travelled from British Indian port cities such as Bombay or Calcutta to the United Kingdom carrying millions of pounds worth of goods. From Britain, the ships returned on the same routes, often carrying soldiers for the growing British Indian Army, then under the control of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). Following the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803, the British Admiralty had made the security of these routes a priority, and by 1807 the Dutch bases at the Cape of Good Hope and Java had been neutralised by expeditionary forces to prevent their use by enemy raiders. The French Indian Ocean possessions however, principally Île Bonaparte and Isle de France, were a more complicated target, protected from attack not only by the great distances involved in preparing an invasion attempt but also by heavy fortifications and a substantial garrison of French Army soldiers augmented by a large local militia.

The French had recognised the importance of these islands as bases for raiding warships during the French Revolutionary Wars (1793–1801), but by late 1807 the only naval resources allocated to the region were a few older frigates and a large number of local privateers. Following the reduction of these remaining naval forces on Isle de France during 1808, by defeat in battle and disarmaments due to age and unseaworthiness, the French naval authorities made a serious attempt to disrupt British trade in the region, ordering five large modern frigates to sail to Isle de France under Commodore Jacques Hamelin. Four of these ships broke through the British blockade of the French coast, arriving in the Indian Ocean in the spring of 1809, where Hamelin dispersed them into the Bay of Bengal with orders to intercept, attack and capture or destroy the heavily armed but extremely valuable convoys of East Indiamen. The first French success came at the end of the spring, when the frigate Caroline successfully attacked a convoy at the Action of 31 May 1809, seizing two heavily laden merchant ships.

Commodore Josias Rowley was given command of the British response to the French deployment, a hastily assembled force composed mainly of those ships available at the Cape of Good Hope in early 1809. Ordered to stop the French raiders, Rowley was unable to spread his limited squadron wide enough to pursue the roving French frigates, instead using his forces to blockade and raid the French Indian Ocean islands in anticipation of Hamelin's return. In August 1809, Caroline arrived with her prizes at Saint Paul on Île Bonaparte and Rowley determined to seize the frigate. He planned a successful invasion of the town, launched on 20 September 1809, which resulted in the capture of the port's defences, Caroline and the captured East Indiamen. With his objectives complete, Rowley withdrew five days later. Almost a year later, Rowley returned with a larger task force and made a second landing around the capital of Île Bonaparte, Saint Denis. Marching on the seat of government, Rowley's troops rapidly overwhelmed the defences and forced the island's garrison to surrender, renaming the island Île Bourbon and installing a British governor.

Hamelin had used the British preoccupation with Île Bonaparte to send additional frigates to sea during 1809 and early 1810, including his flagship Vénus, which captured three East Indiamen at the Action of 18 November 1809, and Bellone, which took the Portuguese frigate Minerva in the Bay of Bengal a few days later. Minerva, renamed Minerve in French hands, was subsequently involved in the Action of 3 July 1810, when a further two East Indiamen were captured. The squadron in the latter action was commanded by Guy-Victor Duperré in Bellone, whose ships were so badly damaged that Duperré was forced to spend nearly a month repairing his vessels in the Comoros Islands before they were ready to return to Isle de France.