Action of 10 September 1782

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Action of 10 September 1782
Part of the
Pisang Island, Strait of Malacca
1°28′03″N 105°15′17″E / 1.46750°N 105.25472°E / 1.46750; 105.25472
Result Indecisive
Belligerents East India Company  FranceCommanders and leaders Patrick Lawson Jacques NuguyStrength 5 merchantmen 1 frigateCasualties and losses 2 killed 4 killed

The action of 10 September 1782 was a minor engagement between five merchant vessels — four

East Indiamen of the British East India Company
and a country-ship — on the one side, and a French frigate on the other. The action resulted in only a few casualties and was inconclusive. What was noteworthy was that the Indiamen sought out the French man-of-war and attacked it; it would have been more usual for the merchantmen to have avoided combat as they had little to gain from a battle.

Background

Since at least the mid-18th Century, and to a great degree even earlier, the EIC would annually dispatch a fleet of Indiamen from England to trade with

Calcutta), and on. During wartime the Royal Navy would often provide warships to escort the fleet well into the Atlantic, and possibly as far as St Helena
. Country ships, i.e., ships based in India, some sailing for the EIC, some independent, might join up in India with vessels going on to China, again for mutual protection against pirates, and in wartime privateers and enemy vessels.

On the homeward journey, the vessels that had gone to China would return in convoy, generally stopping at St Helena to pick up escorts back to England. Frequently other vessels, such as whalers returning from the South Seas fisheries might join at St Helena too.

The British vessels involved in the action of 9 September 1782, had sailed from Portsmouth on 13 March 1781, bound for

Île de France (Mauritius), and Pondicherry. The two squadrons, including the Indiamen, met in the battle of Porto Praya
. Though the battle was inconclusive, it did enable the French to forestall the British attack on the Cape.

The British sailed on to the Cape, where Johnstone captured five Dutch East Indiamen at the battle of Saldanha Bay. The British Indiamen then sailed on, directly, or indirectly, to India.

The action

On 8 August 1782 the Indiamen Asia, Essex, Locko, and Osterley, and the country ship Shah Byram Gore, left Bombay, bound for China.[2][Note 1] The captains were Patrick Lawson of Locko, who was the senior captain, Samuel Rodgers of Osterley, Robert Maw of Asia, Arthur Morris of Essex,[Note 2] and Maugham of Shah Byram Gore.

As the squadron was sailing through the

Pulo Pisang, and that the captain of the frigate had asked him if he had seen five ships coming from Bombay. The intelligence led Lawson to believe that the French were cruising, looking for his squadron, but did not believe themselves stronger than the Indiamen.[2]

On 9 September the ships encountered the 38-gun French frigate Pourvoyeuse, which was under the command of Lieutenant de Lannuguy-Tromelin.[5][Note 3] That evening Locko and Pourvoyeuse came quite close, but no engagement ensured. Locko did fire on and take possession of a Malay sloop that he feared the French captain had dispatched to summon the two brigs that had been reported accompanying the frigate.[2]

The engagement began at 10 minutes past 2p.m. on 10 September when Pourvoyeuse opened fire with her

bow chasers. Locko, Osterley, and Shah Byram Gore were closest but withheld their fire. When Pourvoyeuse fired her broadside at Locko, Lawson responded with a broadside. The engagement lasted some two-and-a-half hours, with Locko and Osterley bearing the brunt of it. Although Asia and Essex did fire on Pourvoyeuse, Lawson tried to keep them out of the battle as felt they were weakly manned, with a large portion of their crews being lascars.[2]

Towards dusk the two opponents separated. Locko pursued Pourvoyeuse, whose two 18-pounder stern guns took away some of Locko's rigging. At about 8p.m. Pourvoyeuse extinguished her lights and steered towards Malacca. At 8:15 Lawson gave up the chase, which would have taken the squadron in the opposite direction from China, and signaled to his squadron to resume their voyage. Locko brought up the rear as they sailed so that should Pourvoyeuse wish to resume the action Locko would be the first vessel she would encounter.[2]

Outcome

On the British side, Osterley had two men killed, and Locko and Essex had several men injured from exploding cartridges.[2] Pourvoyeuse had four seamen killed, and two officers and several seamen wounded.

Pourvoyeuse withdrew, sailing for Malacca where she could take shelter under the guns of the Dutch fort there. On December 26 she arrived at Trincomalee, which the French under Bailli de Suffren had captured from the British at the battle of Trincomalee on 3 September 1782, having left him and his squadron at Aceh, where they were wintering. At Trincomalee the memorist William Hickey met Trommelin. Later, Hickey described Pourvoyeuse as "Almost tumbling to pieces, and in want of every kind of stores."[6][Note 4]

The British: Lawson considered pursuing Pourvoyeuse but decided that doing so might take too long. As it was late in the sailing season, if the British vessels lost their passage to China there was no friendly port where they could winter. He lamented the lost opportunity to capture Pourvoyeuse, believing that if there had been one more hour of light he would have been able to capture her.[2] The five British vessels sailed on to China, where they arrived safely in early October.

After the return to Britain of the four captains of the Indiamen, the EIC awarded them prizes. Robert Maw received a silver salver made in 1787 by Joseph Heriot, of London, and inscribed "The Gift of the Hon’ble East India Company to Robert Maw Esq’r Commander of the Asia East Indiaman for gallantly defending the said ship against a French frigate of 44 guns in the Straights of Malacca September, 1782."[9] We can safely assume that Arthur Morris received a similar piece of plate. We do not know what Samuel Rogers received, or if Patrick Lawson even received anything as by 1787 he had fled Britain for India to escape a fine of £100,000 for having smuggled goods back to Britain on Locko.

The French: Upon his return, Tromelin-Lanuguy suffered the scorn of

Suffren, who blamed him for failing to press his attack on the East Indiamen. Suffren repeatedly accused Tromelin-Lanuguy oh "disgracing the flag",[Note 5] but when he offered to resign, Suffren refused.[11] [12]

Notes

  1. ^ The spelling of the country ship's name varies, sometimes being given as Byram Gore, and sometimes as Byramgore, and preceded, or not, by Shah, Shaw, or Shy. She was a ship launched at Bombay Dockyard in 1775 that was lost in 1785.[3] She provides the cover illustration to the book by Bulley (2000), which also has some information on her and her successors, all named for a legendary king of Persia. The cover illustration suggests that she was three-masted, and armed with 18 guns.
  2. ^ Cotton identifies the captain of Locko as Peter Lawson, not Patrick.[4] However, EIC records and other sources, including a court case, confirm the name as Patrick.
  3. ^ Lannuguy-Tromelin was the younger brother of Captain de Tromelin, who in 1779 had captured the previous Osterley.
  4. ^ Hickey and his wife were traveling on the Portuguese merchant vessel Rainha de Portugal from Lisbon. Rainha became caught in a terrible storm off the Malabar Coast that killed 13 of her crew. She put into Trincomalee harbour on 30 November, not knowing that the French had captured the port.[7] The French later seized Rainha on a pretext.[8]
  5. ^ M. de Lanuguy, dont la manoeuvre était l'objet des plaisanteries des matelots, qui en ce genre n'ont pas la main légère, offrit son journal à M. de Suffren ; et, quoiqu'on doive présumer qu'il eût cherché à y atténuer sa faiblesse, le général, discourant peu, louant en peu de mots et blâmant de même, lui dit de sa voix nasillarde, en le lui remettant le lendemain : « Eh bien! M. de Lanuguy, eh bien! je persiste à dire que vous avez entaché le pavillon » [10]

Citations

  1. ^ Lloyd's List no. 1250 - accessed 2 August 2015
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Basset (1962).
  3. ^ Phipps (1840), p. 168.
  4. ^ Cotton (1949), p.39.
  5. ^ D'Unienville (2004), p.260.
  6. ^ Spencer (1913–25), p. 111.
  7. ^ Spencer (1913–25), pp. 20–35.
  8. ^ Middle East and Indian Ocean (1990), Vol. 6, p.94.
  9. ^ "Auction announcement - accessed 30 August 2015". Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  10. ^ Cunat (1852), p. 250.
  11. ^ Cunat (1852), p. 251.
  12. ^ Cunat (1852), p. 183.

References

  • Bassett, D.K. (1962). "A naval battle off Malacca". Malaya in History. 8 (1): 26–31.
  • Bulley, Anne (2000). The Bombay Country Ships, 1790–1833. Routledge.
    ISBN 978-0700712366
    .
  • Cunat, Charles (1852). Histoire du Bailli de Suffren. Rennes: A. Marteville et Lefas. pp. 447.
  • Moyen Orient & océan indien, XVIe-XIXe s. = Middle East & Indian Ocean. (1990) Société d'histoire de l'Orient (Paris).
  • Phipps, John (1840). A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India ...: Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships ... Built in India to the Present Time ... Scott.
  • Spencer, Alfred, ed. (1913–25). The Memoirs of William Hickey. Vol. 3. London: Hurst & Blackett.
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