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
French fleet at the Siege of Toulon the Battle of Genoa and another in July at the Battle of Hyères Islands. These engagements marked the only encounters between the British fleet and the French fleet they so briefly held before the Royal Navy was forced to withdraw from the Mediterranean by the 1796 Treaty of San Ildefonso at which the Spanish changed sides, allying with France against Britain. "The ships in the orders of battle below are listed by class and then approximately grouped by their positions on 18 December 1793. Note that although the Rating system for ships of the line was a Royal Navy measure,