At the end of March 1800 the Guillaume Tell, the last French ship of the line from the Battle of the Nile, broke out of blockaded Valletta by night. The British Penelope, Lion and Foudroyant caught her off Sicily and forced her surrender after a hard fight. On 31 March 1866 a Spanish squadron bombarded Valparaíso.
Action of 31 March 1800
31 March 1800 · 226 years ago
A trapped survivor of the Nile
The Guillaume Tell was one of the only two French ships of the line that escaped from the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. By 1800 she lay in the harbor of Valletta, where the British were blockading the French garrison of Malta. Food was running out: the garrison could not hold out beyond June, and Rear-Admiral Denis Decrès was to sail in her to report the island's situation to the government in France.1
Nelson had gone to Palermo in poor health. Off the island cruised the Lion under Captain Manley Dixon, the Foudroyant under Captain Sir Edward Berry, the Alexander and the frigate Penelope under Captain Henry Blackwood, with smaller vessels.2
The frigate that would not let go
The Guillaume Tell put to sea late at night, after the moon had set, with a strong southerly wind behind her and the British batteries ashore firing at her. The Penelope sighted her at about midnight and gave chase. The frigate was the faster ship: keeping astern, she raked the Frenchman with broadside after broadside, while the Guillaume Tell could answer only with her stern guns, because stopping to fight would let the British ships of the line catch up.3
By daybreak the frigate's fire had brought down the Guillaume Tell's main and mizen topmasts and her main yard. The Royal Museums Greenwich describe the same damage.4
Three ships against one
At first light the Lion, a much smaller ship with a short crew, came up, steered between the frigate and the Frenchman, fired a broadside of three round shot in each gun and took up a position across the enemy's bow. The heavier French fire soon cut up her rigging, and she dropped back.5
About six in the morning the Foudroyant arrived under a press of sail. Berry hailed the French ship to strike; the answer was a broadside, and a fierce exchange followed at close range. One by one the Guillaume Tell's masts came down, until she lay rolling, totally dismasted, unable to work many of her guns. That morning, about 20 miles south of Cape Passero in Sicily, she struck her colors; the times given for the surrender range from about eight to half past nine.6
Counting the cost
The sources rate the Guillaume Tell at 80 to 86 guns and give her crew as anything from 919 to 1,200 men. The return signed by Dixon counts 17 British killed and 101 wounded in the three ships, the figures James also gives. Among the dead was the Penelope's master. French losses were put at upwards of 200 killed and wounded.7
The naval biographer John Marshall judged that "a more heroic defence than that of the Guillaume Tell is not to be found among the records of naval actions", and William James repeated his words. The Penelope towed the prize to Syracuse, and the Royal Navy took her into service as the Malta. With her the last French ship of the line from the Nile had been taken. For the admiral of the Nile, see our article on Horatio Nelson.8
30 or 31 March?
The British records written at the time date the capture to 30 March 1800: Lord Keith wrote that she tried to escape on the evening of the 29th and was taken the following morning, and Dixon's letter of 31 March says she surrendered "yesterday morning". Berry's note and the Foudroyant's journal are dated 30 March too. The French historian Troude and the Royal Museums Greenwich also give the 30th. The historians Marshall and James, however, put the breakout on the night of the 30th and the fighting on 31 March, the date this page follows.9
Also on 31 March: Valparaíso, 1866
In 1866, during Spain's war with Chile, the Spanish squadron under Casto Méndez Núñez bombarded Valparaíso on 31 March, as both the United States minister in Chile, Hugh Kilpatrick, and Méndez Núñez himself reported. Fire opened at about nine in the morning from the frigates Blanca, Villa de Madrid and Resolución and the Vencedora, aimed at the government warehouses, the governor's residence (the intendencia) and the railway station. The port was not defended and did not fire back. The warehouses, full of goods, went up in flames.10
Also on this day
Battle of Christmas Island
31 March 1942 · 84 years ago
Japanese troops landed on British-held Christmas Island, south of Java, in World War II after Indian soldiers of the garrison mutinied against their British officers. The island fell without resistance on land, while the US submarine Seawolf badly damaged the cruiser Naka.
