Action of 18 August 1798 Action of 18 August 1798 The Action of 18 August 1798 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought between the British fourth rate ship HMS "Leander" and the French ship of the line "Généreux". Both ships had been engaged at the Battle of the Nile three weeks earlier, in which a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson had destroyed a French fleet at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. "Généreux" was one of only four French ships to survive the battle, while "Leander" had been detached from the British fleet by Nelson on
Mediterranean campaign of 1798 main body of the French fleet, Bonaparte ordered Brueys to sail his squadron to the wider Aboukir Bay, northeast of Alexandria. Brueys was instructed that if he considered the anchorage to be unsafe then he was to sail for Corfu, leaving only a small light force that could anchor comfortably in Alexandria. There Brueys held a conference with his officers to decide on their response should Nelson discover them in the bay. Although Rear-Admiral Armand Blanquet of "Franklin" argued that the fleet was safest sailing out to meet the British, he was outvoted and overruled, Brueys ordering that the ships