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
Action of 18 August 1798 the battle, Captain Thomas Thompson of "Leander" abandoned the stranded "Culloden" and joined the second wave of attack against the French centre, focusing fire on the bow of the 120-gun French first rate "Orient". Within an hour, "Orient" caught fire under the combined attack of three ships and later exploded, effectively concluding the engagement in Nelson's favour. During the next two days, the lightly damaged "Leander" was employed in forcing the surrender of several grounded French vessels, and by the afternoon of 3 August Nelson was in complete control of Aboukir Bay. Only four French ships, two ships of the