On This Day 19 June

[Coog]

On 19 June 1793, as the 32-gun French frigate Cléopâtre sailed off Guernsey under Lieutenant de vaisseau Mullon, she encountered HMS Nymphe, under Captain Edward Pellew. During the short but sharp action, Cléopâtre lost her mizenmast and wheel, and the ship, being unmanageable, fell foul of the Nymphe. The British then boarded and captured her in a fierce rush. Mullon, mortally wounded, died while trying to swallow his commission, which, in his dying agony, he had mistaken for the vessel's secret signals. Pellew then sent the signals to the Admiralty.

In the battle Nymphe had 23 men killed and 27 wounded. Pellew estimated the number of French casualties at about 60.

Cléopâtre was the first frigate taken in the war. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Nymphe 19 June 1793" to the four surviving claimants from the action.

[Coog]

On 19 June 1808, off the Naze of Norway in the vicinity of the port of Kristiansand, the brig-sloop HMS Seagull, Commander Robert B. Cathcart, chased the Dano-Norwegian brig Lougen, which was armed with 18 short 18-pounder guns and two long 6-pounder guns. Lougen, under the command of 1st Lieutenant Peter Frederik Wulff (1774-1842), tried to stand off Seagull to take advantage of the longer range of her 18-pounders relative to the range of Seagull's 24-pounder carronades.

The chase brought both vessels close in shore where the breeze was lessening to a near calm. Seagull tried to get between Lougen and the shore to prevent the Dane from reaching Kristiansand.

Unfortunately for Seagull, about 20 minutes into the engagement six Danish gunboats arrived from behind some rocks and in two divisions of three each took up positions on Seagull's quarter, where they fired on her with their 24-pounder guns while Lougen fired on her larboard bow. Within half an hour the Danish fire had badly damaged Seagull's rigging and dismounted five of her guns. Eventually Cathcart, who was himself severely wounded, struck, having lost eight men killed and 20 wounded. Vice-Admiral Thomas Wells, on reading the battle report, expressed his strong opinion that such gallantry should be made public. Lougen had only one man killed and a dozen men slightly wounded.

The Danes held Cathcart as a prisoner of war until October 1808. In November he, his officers and crew were tried aboard Gladiator for the loss of their ship. The court honourably acquitted them all and the senior officer of the board returned Cathcart's sword to him. Cathcart received promotion to post-captain and his first lieutenant, Villiers Francis Hatton, received promotion to commander. Cathcart's promotion was backdated to the date of the action. He received command of Ganymede and took the survivors from Seagull with him.

Shortly after the action the Danes promoted Wulff to lieutenant-commander and he was elevated to knight of Danneborg.

[Coog]

On 19 June 1815 The Battle off Cape Palos occurred, the last battle of the Second Barbary War. The battle began when an American squadron under Commodore Stephen Decatur in the 44-gun USS Guerriere attacked and captured the 22-gun Algerian brig Estedio.

After capturing the Algerian flagship the 44-gun Meshuda and sending her to Cartagena under the escort of USS Macedonian, Decatur and his squadron continued on their way towards Algiers. On June 19, 1815 the Estedio was sighted.

Decatur began pursuit of the Algerians and chased them into shoal waters near the coast of Spain off Cape Palos. Fearing that his larger vessels might get beached he sent the smaller vessels in his squadron the USS Epervier, USS Spark, USS Torch, and USS Spitfire to deal with the brig. Here the vessels fought a short engagement lasting a half an hour before the Algerians began to abandon their vessel and surrender. As the Estedio crewmembers began to flee towards the cape in the ship's open boats, the American vessels began firing upon the boats and sunk one. The remaining 80 crew on the Estedio surrendered. Besides the eighty captured the Estedio lost at least 23 men killed.

After the battle the Estedio was taken to Cartagena and interned, being returned to Algiers at the end of the war. Decatur's squadron regrouped and continued on its way to Algiers to force the dey to terms.