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| 1810 | Capture of the Isle of France | 325 |
Vice-admiral Bertie, and the military under Major-general Abercromby, on the morning of the 22d set sail for the Isle of France, but, owing to the light and baffling winds, did not, until the evening of the 28th, arrive in sight of the island.
The whole of the ships of war attached to the expedition, including a portion that blockaded Port-Louis, consisted as follows:
| Gun-ship | ||
| 74 | Illustrious | Captain William Robert Broughton |
| Gun-frig: | ||
| 44 | Cornwallis | Captain James Caulfield. |
| 38 | Africaine |
Vice: ad. (r.) Albemarle Bertie Captain Charles Gordon, acting |
| Boadicea | Captain Josias Rowley. | |
| Nisus | Captain Philip Beaver. | |
| Clorinde | Captain Thomas Briggs. | |
| Menelaus | Captain Peter Parker. | |
| Néréide | Captain Robert Henderson, acting. | |
| 36 | Phoebe | Captain James Hillyar. |
| Doris | Captain William Jones Lye. | |
| 32 | Cornelia | Captain Henry Folkes Edgell. |
| Psyché | Captain John Edgcumbe. | |
| Ceylon | Captain James Tomkinson, acting | |
Sloops, Hesper, Captain William Paterson, Eclipse, Captain Henry Lynne, acting, Hecate, Captain George Rennie, acting, Acteon, Captain Ralph Viscount Neville ; gun-brig Staunch, Lieutenant Craig, acting ; government-ship Emma, Captain Benjamin Street, acting, and three smaller government-vessels, and a great many transports. The number of troops accompanying the expedition appears to have been about 10,000.
On the 29th, in the morning, the men of war and transports, numbering altogether nearly 70 sail, anchored in Grande-Baie, situated about 12 miles to the north-eastward of Port-Louis. The great obstacle to an attack upon the Isle of France had always been, the supposed impossibility to effect a landing, with any considerable force, owing to the reefs that surround the coast, as well as to find anchorage for a numerous fleet of transports. But these difficulties had been surmounted by the indefatigable exertions of Commodore Rowley ; who, assisted by Lieutenant Street, then of the Staunch, Lieutenant Black1ston of the Madras engineers, and the masters of the Africaine and Boadicea, had sounded and minutely examined every part of the leeward side of the island. So that, in the course of the same day, the army, with its artillery, stores, and ammunition, the several detachments of marines serving in the squadron, and a large body of seamen under the orders of Captain William Augustus Montagu, disembarked without opposition or casualty. On the morning of the 30th there was a slight skirmishing between the adverse pickets ; and on the 1st and 2d of December an affair, rather more serious, took place between the British main body and a corps of the enemy, who with several field
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