Battle of Jobourg

Battle of Jobourg
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
Capture of the Étoile by the Hebrus off Cape La Hogue, Nicholas Pocock
Date 26–27 March 1814 Location Off Jobourg, Normandy, English Channel 49°42′N 01°58′W / 49.700°N 1.967°W / 49.700; -1.967 Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	French Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sir Michael Seymour Edmund Palmer	Pierre-Henri Philibert Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars
Strength
1 ship of the line 1 frigate 1 brig	2 frigates
Casualties and losses
14 killed, 26 wounded	40 killed, 73 wounded 2 frigates captured

The Battle of Jobourg was a minor naval engagement between British and French frigate squadrons during the last weeks of the War of the Sixth Coalition in the 22nd and penultimate year of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In October 1813 the French Navy, unable to challenge the Royal Navy's dominance at sea, sent two small squadrons of frigates to harass British trade in the Atlantic Ocean. One was brought to battle in January 1814 and defeated near the Canary Islands but the second, from Nantes and consisting of the frigates Etoile and Sultane, fought an inconclusive engagement against British frigate HMS Severn on 4 January in the mid-Atlantic and a furious battle against HMS Astrea and HMS Creole on 23 January near Maio in the Cape Verde Islands.

Attempting to return to Saint Malo in March, with the Allied armies at the gates of Paris and the war coming to a close, the French squadron was intercepted near the Île de Batz by a much stronger British squadron including the ship of the line HMS Hannibal, frigate HMS Hebrus and brig HMS Sparrow. Sultane, badly damaged in the engagement with Creole, was soon chased down by Hannibal and surrendered without a fight but Etoile, faced with only the Hebrus, turned away in an attempt to escape. Early in the morning of 27 March, Hebrus succeeded in reaching its quarry off Jobourg in Normandy and the frigates fought a fierce engagement close inshore. After more than two hours, Etoile's colours were struck and she surrendered. Casualties were heavy on both ships, but both prizes were successfully returned to Britain and commissioned into the Royal Navy. This was the final naval engagement of the War of the Sixth Coalition, which came to an end with Emperor Napoleon's abdication on 11 April.