Britain joined the French Revolutionary Wars in February 1793, but the news did not reach the Indian Ocean for four months. The immediate priority of the British squadron based at ports in British India under Commodore William Cornwallis was the capture of the French colonies in India, especially the main port in Pondicherry, and once this operation was completed at the end of August 1793, the squadron returned to Europe. This left British commerce in Eastern waters badly exposed, and privateers and warships operating from Isle de France captured a number of merchant vessels, including the large East Indiaman Princess Royal which was seized in the Sunda Strait on 27 September by three privateer corvettes.
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| - Britain joined the French Revolutionary Wars in February 1793, but the news did not reach the Indian Ocean for four months. The immediate priority of the British squadron based at ports in British India under Commodore William Cornwallis was the capture of the French colonies in India, especially the main port in Pondicherry, and once this operation was completed at the end of August 1793, the squadron returned to Europe. This left British commerce in Eastern waters badly exposed, and privateers and warships operating from Isle de France captured a number of merchant vessels, including the large East Indiaman Princess Royal which was seized in the Sunda Strait on 27 September by three privateer corvettes.
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| Strength
| - Frigate Duguay Trouin and brig Vulcain
- Frigate HMS Orpheus, distantly supported by HMS Centurion and HMS Resistance
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| dbkwik:military/pr...iPageUsesTemplate
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| Partof
| - the French Revolutionary Wars
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| Date
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| Commander
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| Casualties
| - 1(xsd:integer)
- 21(xsd:integer)
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| combatant
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| Place
| - Off Île de France, Indian Ocean
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| Conflict
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| abstract
| - Britain joined the French Revolutionary Wars in February 1793, but the news did not reach the Indian Ocean for four months. The immediate priority of the British squadron based at ports in British India under Commodore William Cornwallis was the capture of the French colonies in India, especially the main port in Pondicherry, and once this operation was completed at the end of August 1793, the squadron returned to Europe. This left British commerce in Eastern waters badly exposed, and privateers and warships operating from Isle de France captured a number of merchant vessels, including the large East Indiaman Princess Royal which was seized in the Sunda Strait on 27 September by three privateer corvettes. Princess Royal was a well-armed ship, carrying 26 12-pounder cannon and a number of smaller calibre guns on the maindeck, and the ship was rapidly taken over by the French Navy as a 34-gun frigate named Duguay Trouin. Duguay Trouin was subsequently attached to the Isle de France squadron of the frigates Prudente and Cybèle and the brig Vulcain under Captain Jean-Marie Renaud. This force skirmished inconclusively with a squadron of East India Company ships in the Sunda Strait in January 1794, before returning to Isle de France with the captured East Indiaman Pigot. By the early spring of 1794, Cornwallis' squadron had been replaced by three vessels sent from Europe: the 32-gun frigate HMS Orpheus under Captain Henry Newcome, the 50-gun fifth rate HMS Centurion under Captain Samuel Osbourne and the 44-gun HMS Resistance under Captain Edward Pakenham. These ships were instructed to blockade the French bases on Isle de France, and had some success against French merchant vessels: Orpheus alone sent three officers and twenty men back to India in captured merchant ships. The French too had ships at sea during this period, Duguay Trouin and Vulcain cruising together in the Indian Ocean during the spring before returning to Isle de France.
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