French brig Alerte (1787) at Venice between June and July 1797. On 1 August 1798 she was at the battle of Aboukir Bay (Battle of the Nile). Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers hoped to lure the British fleet onto the shoals at Aboukir Island, sending the brigs "Alerte" and "Railleur" to act as decoys in the shallow waters, but the plan failed. Then, as the British fleet approached, Brueys sent "Alerte" ahead, passing close to the leading British ships and then steering sharply to the west over the shoal in the hope that the ships of the line might follow and become grounded. None of
Action of 13 August 1780 Action of 13 August 1780 The Action of 13 August 1780 was a minor naval battle fought off the Old Head of Kinsale (County Cork, Ireland) in which the 64-gun French "private man of war" (privateer) "Comte d'Artois" fought two British Royal Navy ships, "Bienfaisant" and "Charon", during the American Revolutionary War. After Royal Navy admiral George Rodney successfully brought relief to the defenders of Gibraltar, capturing a Spanish convoy off Cape Finisterre and eight days later winning the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, his fleet returned to Britain in March 1780. One of the ships of his fleet, HMS