Action of 10 November 1808

10–11 November 1808, Off Lorient, Bay of Biscay

British victory; Thétis taken

Martinique was running short of food and munitions under the British blockade, and the frigate Thétis left Lorient in secret on the evening of 10 November with more than 1,000 barrels of flour and 106 soldiers for its garrison. A battery on Groix fired warning shots at her, and the sound brought Michael Seymour's frigate Amethyst. Seymour chased her south-west and caught her by 21:00. For two hours the frigates fought at close range, each captain trying to cross and rake the other, until both had lost their mizzenmasts. At 23:00 Captain Pinsum swung Thétis alongside to board with his soldiers; Seymour fired a double-shotted broadside into the men massed on her deck, killing or wounding more than 100 of them. Amethyst kept firing for more than an hour, with almost no reply, before her men boarded the burning Thétis. Triumph and Shannon arrived soon afterwards to help secure her. The French lost 135 killed, Pinsum among them, and 102 wounded. Martinique fell to a British invasion in January 1809.