Action of 11 September 1779

Action of 11 September 1779 Part of the War of the American Independence Date 11 September 1779 Location off Charles Town Result French victory Belligerents  France  Great Britain Commanders and leaders unknown Thomas Mackenzie Strength Frigate Amazone (36 guns) Post ship Ariel (24 guns) Casualties and losses light Ariel captured

Southern theater 1775–79 Gunpowder Incident Kemp's Landing Snow Campaign Savage's Old Fields Great Cane Brake Great Bridge Norfolk Moore's Creek Bridge Rice Boats Sullivan's Island Lindley's Fort Thomas Creek Alligator Bridge 1st Savannah Beaufort Kettle Creek Brier Creek Chesapeake raid Stono Ferry Charles Town 2nd Savannah Anglo-French War 1778–1783 Europe 17 June 1778 1st Ushant 1st Jersey English Channel Plymouth Gibraltar Flamborough Head 6 October 1779 Cape Santa Maria 13 August 1780 2nd Jersey Minorca 2nd Ushant 3rd Ushant Île-de-Batz Cape Spartel 12 December 1782 Caribbean Dominica 1st St. Lucia 2nd St. Lucia Saint Vincent 1st Grenada 2nd Grenada 1st Martinique Guadeloupe 2nd Martinique Bermuda Fort Royal Tobago Brimstone Hill Frigate Bay Demerara & Essequibo Montserrat The Saintes Mona Passage 18 October 1782 6 December 1782 15 February 1783 Grand Turk North America Rhode Island Charles Town Savannah 1st Long Island Cape Henry Cape Breton Cape Ann Yorktown Chesapeake Yorktown Hudson Bay 2nd Long Island Delaware Bay 2nd Chesapeake East Indies Pondicherry Porto Praya Sadras Providien Negapatam Pisang Trincomalee 1st Cuddalore 2nd Cuddalore

The Action of 11 September 1779 was a minor naval engagement that took place off Charles Town in the War of the American Independence between the French Navy and the Royal Navy. The battle ended with the capture of the British post ship Ariel by Amazone.

On 11 September 1779, whilst the Ariel was cruising off Charles Town under Captain Thomas Mackenzie, she sighted a strange sail and approached to investigate, unaware that a French fleet under the Admiral comte d'Estaing had entered the theatre from the West Indies. As Mackenzie got closer he realized that the stranger was actually a frigate, accompanied by two brigs and a schooner, and that she was not responding to his signals, he had to retreat for the Georgia shore. The frigate gradually overhauled Ariel and Mackenzie was forced to stand and fight. The enemy vessel was the 36-gun French Amazone.^[1] After a ninety-minute flight in which lost her mizzen-mast and all her rigging and sustained casualties of four men dead and another 20 wounded, Mackenzie surrendered Ariel.^[2] d'Estaing immediately exchanged the crew of Ariel and Experiment, which he had captured the year before, for French prisoners. The crews of these two vessels then went to man a variety of British vessels on the North America Station.^[3] The French took the captured ship into service as Ariel.

Ariel underwent repair and refitting at Lorient between March and October 1780.^[4] The French lent her to the American Continental Navy in October, where she served briefly as USS Ariel under John Paul Jones.

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). ISBN 2-906381-23-3
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.