At 06:15, "Queen Charlotte" passed "Alexandre" and began firing on "Formidable", Linois returning fire against his much larger enemy for fifteen minutes before a fire broke out on the poop deck. As the French crew scrambled to extinguish it, "Sans Pareil", flagship of Rear-Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour, reached the ship and fired a broadside in passing, causing "Formidable" to lose speed and fall further back from the main body of the French. The fire from "Queen Charlotte" had reduced Linois's ship to a wreck, with the rigging torn and more than 320 men killed or wounded from a crew of 717. As "Sans Pareil" passed ahead of the battered ship, the mizzenmast on "Formidable" collapsed over the side and Linois, seeing the rest of the British fleet rapidly approaching, struck his colours and surrendered. As "Sans Pareil" and "Queen Charlotte" battled "Formidable", "Colossus" and "Russell", joined by the second rates HMS "London" and HMS "Queen", pushed on to the French centre where Villaret's ships were awaiting them, the French admiral repeatedly attempting to form his ships into a line of battle to receive the British attack, without success.