Coog
08-02-2012, 23:52
At 14:30 on 3 August 1801, a squadron of patrolling frigates, HMS Phoenix under Captain Lawrence Halsted, HMS Pomone under Captain Edward Leveson-Gower and HMS Pearl under Captain Samuel James Ballard discovered a sail off the western shore of Elba and gave chase.
The ship was the 38-gun Carrère under Captain Claude-Pascal Morel-Beaulieu, carrying 300 barrels of powder and escorting a convoy of small coastal vessels carrying military supplies from Porto Ercole to Porto Longone. Although Carrère turned away from the British pursuit and actively engaged the lead ship Pomone with stern-chaser cannon mounted in the rear of the frigate, the vessel was too laden to escape its opponents and after a ten minute chase as Pearl cut off the route to Porto Longone and Pomone manoeuvered into a firing position, Captain Morel-Beaulieu surrendered. The delay caused by the brief chase had however allowed the coastal ships to disperse and flee so that all of them avoided capture and some even reached Porto Longone. Carrère was a modern ship seized from the Republic of Venice after the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 and had suffered "tolerably severe" casualties in the engagement from a complement of 352. The ship was subsequently taken into the Royal Navy under the same name, although its active service lasted less than a year before the ship was retired. Losses on Pomone were limited to two killed and four wounded, two of whom subsequently died.
The ship was the 38-gun Carrère under Captain Claude-Pascal Morel-Beaulieu, carrying 300 barrels of powder and escorting a convoy of small coastal vessels carrying military supplies from Porto Ercole to Porto Longone. Although Carrère turned away from the British pursuit and actively engaged the lead ship Pomone with stern-chaser cannon mounted in the rear of the frigate, the vessel was too laden to escape its opponents and after a ten minute chase as Pearl cut off the route to Porto Longone and Pomone manoeuvered into a firing position, Captain Morel-Beaulieu surrendered. The delay caused by the brief chase had however allowed the coastal ships to disperse and flee so that all of them avoided capture and some even reached Porto Longone. Carrère was a modern ship seized from the Republic of Venice after the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 and had suffered "tolerably severe" casualties in the engagement from a complement of 352. The ship was subsequently taken into the Royal Navy under the same name, although its active service lasted less than a year before the ship was retired. Losses on Pomone were limited to two killed and four wounded, two of whom subsequently died.