Battle of Lissa (1811)
1811 CE
The Battle of Lissa (sometimes called the Battle of Vis; French: Bataille de Lissa; Italian: Battaglia di Lissa; Croatian: Viška bitka) is a naval action fought between a British frigate squadron and a larger squadron of French and Italian frigates and smaller ships on March 13.1811 during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars.
The engagement is fought in the Adriatic Sea for possession of the strategically important island of Lissa (also known as Vis), from which the British squadron had been disrupting French shipping in the Adriatic./
The French need to control the Adriatic to supply a growing army in the Illyrian Provinces, and consequently dispatch an invasion force in March 1811 consisting of six frigates, numerous smaller craft and a battalion of Italian soldiers.
The French invasion force under Bernard Dubourdieu is met by Captain William Hoste and his four ships based on the island.
In the subsequent battle, Hoste sinks the French flagship, captures two others, and scatters the remainder of the Franco-Venetian squadron.
The battle has been hailed as an important British victory, due to both the disparity between the forces and the signal raised by Hoste, a former subordinate of Horatio Nelson.
Hoste had raised the message "Remember Nelson" as the French bore down, and had then maneuvered to drive Dubourdieu's flagship ashore and scatter his squadron.
Subject
Related Events
Showing 2 events out of 2 total
The British ships suffer one hundred and ninety killed or wounded in the battle and a number lost afterwards in the fire aboard Corona.
Captains Hoste and Hornby are both badly wounded and the entire British squadron is in need of urgent repair before resuming the campaign.
In the French and Italian squadron the situation is even worse, although precise losses are not known.
At least one hundred and fifty have been killed aboard Favorite either in the action or the wreck, and the two hundred survivors of her crew and passengers are all made prisoner.
Bellona has suffered at least seventy casualties and Corona's losses aere also severe.
Among the ships that escaped less is known of their casualties, but all require repair and reinforcement before the campaign can resume.
Total French and Italian losses are estimated at no less than seven hundred.
Losses among the officers of the combined squadron are especially high, with Commodore Dubourdieu and captains Meillerie and Duodo killed and Péridier seriously wounded.
Throughout the remainder of 1811 however, British and French frigate squadrons have continued to spar across the Adriatic, the most significant engagement being the action of November 29, 1811, in which a second French squadron is destroyed.
The action has significant long-term effects; the destruction of one of the best-trained and best-led squadrons in the French Navy and the death of the aggressive Dubourdieu ends the French ability to strike into the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire.