Battle of the Malta Convoy (1800) fleet was surprised and attacked by a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson. In the ensuing Battle of the Nile, eleven of the thirteen French ships of the line, and two of the four frigates were captured or destroyed. Brueys was killed, and the survivors of the French fleet struggled out of the bay on 2 August, splitting up near Crete. "Généreux" sailed north to Corfu, encountering and capturing the British fourth rate ship HMS "Leander" en route. The other ships, "Guillaume Tell" and two frigates under Contre-amirals Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and Denis Decrès, sailed westwards to Malta, arriving just
HMS Aboukir (1900) sank at 07:15. "Cressy" attempted to ram the submarine, but did not hit anything and resumed her rescue efforts until she too was torpedoed at 07:20. She too took on a heavy list and then capsized, before sinking at 07:55. Several Dutch ships began rescuing survivors at 08:30 and were joined by British fishing trawlers before Tyrwhitt and his ships arrived at 10:45. The combined total from all three ships was 837 men rescued and 62 officers and 1,397 enlisted men lost. Of these, "Aboukir" lost a total of 527 men. In 1954 the British government sold the salvage rights