Battle of Mahé Louis in December 1799 had restored absolute British control. The importance of the East Indies to British trade encouraged a number of French plans to threaten the region, of which the most advanced was the invasion, in 1798, of Egypt by a French Army under General Napoleon Bonaparte. Although the campaign saw initial success, the annihilation of the French Mediterranean Fleet by Sir Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798 effectively doomed the campaign to failure. Later in the year Bonaparte considered building a squadron at Suez in the Red Sea, but the plans were
HMS Canopus (1798) service. "Franklin" was built to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané at the Toulon shipyard between November 1794 and March 1798, having been launched on 25 June 1797. She was named after the American scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin. Commanded by Captain Maurice Gillet and flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Armand Blanquet du Chayla, "Franklin" was one of the ships that accompanied Vice Admiral François-Paul Brueys's fleet, carrying Napoleon Bonaparte and the French troops to invade Egypt."Franklin" was anchored with Brueys's fleet in Aboukir Bay on 1 August, when they were discovered in the evening by a British fleet under Rear-Admiral