During the early part of the year 1800, a British squadron, composed of
the eighty-gun ship Foudroyant, Captain Sir Edward Berry (the same who
was captured in the Leander, after the battle of the Nile, as bearer
of despatches), and bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson, the
74-gun ship Alexandria, Captain Ball, the 64-gun ship Lion, Captain
Dixon, and the 36-gun frigate Penelope, Captain Blackwood, with two
or three sloops and smaller vessels, was stationed off Malta, then
in French possession, to prevent succors from being thrown into that
island, and to watch the movements of the French ships which were in
that safe port.
Among the latter, lying in Valetta, was the French 80-gun ship
Guillaume Tell, Rear-Admiral Denis Décrès, and Captain Saunier.
The Guillaume Tell was one of the two French line-of-battle-ships which
had escaped from the battle of the Nile, and she had taken refuge at
Malta.
Décrès occupied so exalted a position, afterwards, that it will be
necessary, before beginning the account of a very remarkable battle, to
give some account of his life.
This very distinguished French naval officer was born in 1762, and died
in 1820. He entered the navy early, and won his first promotion under
Count De Grasse, in America, while he afterwards distinguished himself
in the frigate squadron which France sent to the East Indies to annoy
the English commerce. In 1793 he was a “_capitaine de vaisseau_,” but
was deprived of his rank by the Revolutionists, because he was a noble.
Escaping the guillotine, when thousands of others perished, he was
restored to his rank in the navy in 1795. In 1798 he attained the rank
of Rear-Admiral, and in that capacity was present at the capture of
Malta. He then served at the battle of the Nile, and came back to Malta
with the few French vessels that escaped. These were soon blockaded
by the English in the harbor of Valetta. Décrès, in conjunction with
General Vaubois, conducted the defence of Malta, which continued for
seventeen months.
In March, 1800, provisions fell short, and much sickness appeared
in the French garrison, and Décrès concluded to embark about twelve
hundred men on board the Guillaume Tell, and force the blockade.
The English frigate Penelope followed him, but was able to offer no
resistance. The next day Décrès fell in with more English ships, and
the celebrated engagement which we shall relate further on ensued.
Although conquered at last, Décrès received a sword of honor from
the First Consul, Bonaparte, for his conduct, and the English “Naval
Chronicle” says that this was the warmest resistance ever made by a
foreign man-of-war against a superior British force.
Upon his return from captivity in England, Décrès was successively
appointed Prefêt Maritime, Commandant of the Western Fleet, and
Minister of Marine. He continued to act in this capacity as long as the
French Empire lasted; and in it he showed great administrative ability.
During his administration the great works at Cherbourg were materially
advanced; as well as those at Nieuwe Dieppe and Flushing, while the
docks and construction yards of Antwerp were wholly created. He managed
to keep up, and even increase, the strength of the French navy, in
spite of their great losses; and he collected the great flotilla of
Boulogne, which circumstances rendered useless, however.
Napoleon, who made him, in succession, a Count, Grand Cross of the
Legion of Honor, and finally, a Duke, recalled him to his old position
during the Hundred Days; and when the Emperor finally fell, he was
retired by the Bourbon government.
Duke Décrès survived many bloody battles, to be at last assassinated by
his valet. This man, who had been robbing him for a long time, placed a
quantity of powder, with a slow match, under Décrès’ mattress. Stealing
into the Duke’s bedroom at night, he blew him up. The valet, in his
perturbation at what he had done, threw himself out of the window, and
was killed. His master died a few days after, aged 58 years.
And now to return to this celebrated action.
At eleven o’clock at night, on the 30th of March, 1800, the Guillaume
Tell, taking advantage of a strong southerly gale, and the darkness
that had succeeded the setting of the moon, weighed anchor and put to
sea.
About midnight the English frigate Penelope, which was on guard off the
harbor, discovered the French ship, under a press of sail, with the
wind on the starboard quarter. The Penelope at once made the necessary
signals to the other blockading ships, and then tacked, and stood after
the Tell. In half an hour she was close up with the chase, and luffed
up, and gave the Tell her whole broadside; receiving in return, only
the Tell’s chase guns.
The French ship, aware that if she brought to, she would soon have upon
her the whole of the English blockading ships, whose lights could be
already seen on the horizon, wisely kept her course to the northward.
The Penelope was faster than the Tell, and was commanded by an
experienced seaman, and she continued to follow her, and to
occasionally luff, and pour in a broadside, so that, just before
daybreak, the Guillaume Tell’s main and mizzen-top-masts, and her
main-yard came down. She was thus reduced, except her mizzen, to her
head-sails; and these were greatly damaged by the Penelope’s shot. She
had also lost many men from the English frigate’s raking shots.
The Penelope skillfully avoided exposing herself to a broadside from so
powerful a ship, and had the good fortune to escape much damage to her
sails and rigging. She had lost her master, killed, and a few wounded.
About five in the morning the Lion, 64, after pressing sail, arrived
up. Steering between the Penelope and the crippled Guillaume Tell,
and so near to the latter that the yard-arms of the two ships barely
passed clear, the Lion ranged up on the port side of her opponent,
and poured in a destructive double-shotted broadside. The Lion then
luffed up across the bow of the Guillaume Tell, the jib-boom of the
latter passing between the main and mizzen shrouds of the former. Of
course, with an inferior complement of men, the Lion did not wish to
be boarded, and, fortunately for her, the Tell’s jib-boom soon carried
away, leaving the Lion inaccessible to boarders, but in an excellent
position across the Guillaume Tell’s bows. Here the Lion, aided by the
Penelope kept up a heavy fire, for about half an hour, when the Tell
had so damaged the Lion that she was forced to drop astern; still
firing, however, as did the Penelope, whenever an opportunity offered.
At six o’clock the Foudroyant came up. Lord Nelson was not on board,
having been left, sick, at Palermo; and Captain Dixon, of the Lion, was
the senior officer to Captain Sir Edward Perry, of the Foudroyant. The
latter ship, under a crowd of sail, ranged up so close to the Guillaume
Tell that her spare anchor just cleared the Tell’s mizzen-chains, and
called to her to strike; accompanying the summons by a treble-shotted
broadside. The only answer of the French ship was a similar broadside,
which cut away a good deal of the Foudroyant’s rigging. The latter,
having so much sail set, necessarily shot ahead, and did not again
get alongside the Tell for several minutes. Then the two large ships
engaged, and the Guillaume Tell’s second broadside brought down many of
the English ship’s spars, and cut her sails to pieces. She then dropped
alongside the Tell, still firing occasionally; as did the Lion, on the
Tell’s port side, and the Penelope, on her port quarter. Under this
unremitting and galling fire the gallant French ship’s main and mizzen
masts came down; and the Foudroyant, having cleared away the wreck of
her fallen spars, and to some extent refitted her rigging, again closed
with the Guillaume Tell, and after a few broadsides, was nearly on
board her. At eight o’clock the foremast of the Tell fell, and she was
totally dismasted. At a few minutes after eight the gallant Frenchman
was rolling, an unmanageable hulk, with the wreck of her masts
disabling her port guns, and the violent rolling, in her dismasted
state, requiring the lower deck ports, on both sides, to be closed.
The Foudroyant was on one quarter, the Lion on the other, and the
Penelope close ahead. Under these circumstances the Guillaume Tell
struck her colors.
Both the Foudroyant, 80, and the Lion, 64, were in too disabled a
state to be able to take possession of the French 80-gun ship. That
duty devolved upon the Penelope. The other vessels had enough to do to
take care of themselves. Some English brig sloops and a bomb-vessel
witnessed this singular engagement, but appear to have taken no part in
it.
A more heroic defence than that of the Guillaume Tell is not be found
in the record of naval actions; and the defeat in this case was more
honorable than half the single ship victories which have been so
loudly praised. To the Penelope belongs the special credit, next to
the Guillaume Tell herself. Next to the frigate, credit is due to the
Lion. It was, of course, the arrival of the Foudroyant which turned
the scale. Had that ship, single handed, and so nearly matched, met
the Tell, the contest would have been between two of the most powerful
ships that had ever so met, and the chances are that the Guillaume
Tell, so gallantly manned, and so ably commanded, would have come off
the conqueror. This is conceded by all the English accounts.
All of the vessels engaged, except the Penelope, were so damaged that
it was with difficulty they reached port; the Penelope towing the prize
into Syracuse.
The Guillaume Tell was eventually taken to England, and received into
the Royal Navy under the name of Malta, and she long remained one of
the finest ships in the English service.