Action of 13 September 1810

13 September 1810, Off Saint-Denis, Réunion (Île Bourbon)

Africaine taken by the French, then retaken the same day

After Grand Port the French frigates on Île de France outnumbered Commodore Josias Rowley's squadron on Réunion, and reinforcements were rushed out from India and the Cape. The first to arrive was the frigate Africaine under Captain Robert Corbet, a notoriously brutal officer. Three days after reaching the island she went out to drive off two French frigates blockading Saint-Denis, Iphigénie (the former British Iphigenia) and Astrée. Corbet was badly wounded early in the action, and Africaine was overwhelmed, losing 49 killed and 114 wounded; every officer was hit. She struck, but Rowley came out in Boadicea with Otter and Staunch, and the French abandoned their prize. Corbet died of his wounds. Rumours followed that he had been shot by his own men, or had torn off his bandages rather than survive the defeat, and that his crew had refused to fight for him; none was ever proved.