Action of 13 January 1797

The Action of 13 January 1797 was a small naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the action the frigates successfully outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it on shore in heavy seas, resulting in the deaths of between 400 to over 900 of the 1,300 persons aboard, depending on the sources. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement, running onto a sandbank after failing to escape a lee shore.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action of 13 January 1797