A remarkable relic from the attempted French landing in Bantry Bay during the winter of 1796

This time last year I was happily play testing my new scenario that presupposed a partially successful landing by French forces in Bantry Bay in the winter of 1796 instead of the actual events that saw the naval expeditionary force abandon the attempt in the face of terrible winter storms that frustrated the landing of troops and led to a withdrawal, not without significant losses, back to France.

The planned French invasion site of Bear Haven in Bantry Bay, Ireland, 1797

Whilst doing the research for my game and the associated orders of battle, I remembered seeing some French cannon that were identified as likely relics from two French frigates wrecked in Bantry Bay during the aborted landings, part of many wonderful treasures held in Cardiff Castle as reported about in my post from 2021.

At the time of our visit I had only given the cannons a cursory glance, their real significance only occurring to me as I sat down two years later to look at the historical circumstances that characterised L’Expédition d’Irlande, as I composed my ‘What If’ ideas for the scenario that finally became my game plan for Bantry Bay as seen below in action at the NWS meeting at Yeovilton in 2023.

My French invasion force recreated for our Bantry Bay game played at the NWS meeting at the FAA Museum Yeovilton in 2023. A link for ‘Bantry Bay 1796’ can be found in the ‘My Scenarios’ section in the left hand bar of the blog page.

L’Expédition d’Irlande, that was due to depart in September 1796, was dogged by delays, but by December a forty-three ship fleet, comprising seventeen ships of the line, thirteen frigates, corvettes and transport ships, commanded by Vice-Admiral Morand de Galles, together with 13,975 veteran troops under General Lazare Hoche, stood ready at the Atlantic seaport of Brest in Brittany. 

On the mild morning of the 16th December, the signal was given to ‘heave short’, as the ships’ cables were pulled short over their anchors; two hours later anchors were weighed and the fleet cleared port.

They eventually arrived at the rendezvous point off Mizen Head on the 21st December and opened their sealed orders, written by Morand and Hoche, containing the location of the proposed landing—Bantry Bay. They were to disembark there and march on Cork, join forces with the United Irishmen and their supporters and push northwards.

The fleet coasted close to Mizen Head before standing out to sea for their approach to Bantry Bay. French fortunes changed when off Duresy Island they picked up a number of Irish pilots, who had sailed out in a hooker in the belief that the French ships were British. Nevertheless, they agreed to guide them into the bay. 

Armee-d’Irlande

The French ships, pitching and rolling, tacked for hours in the strong easterly head winds but made little progress as they navigated Bantry’s natural harbour, with only fifteen ships, including the Immortalité 40-guns, carrying General Emmanuel de Grouchy, the second-in-command, entering the bay. 

A longboat from the frigate Résolue, blown ashore when she was launched to tow the damaged frigate after her collision with the 80-gun Indomptable

The frigate Résolue 32-guns collided with the 80-gun Indomptable and launched a longboat to tow the frigate, but it was blown ashore and taken as a prize, along with Lt. Prointeau and his crew. Meanwhile, the ships outside the bay’s mouth dropped anchor when the gale developed into a storm that lasted two days, preventing their passage into the bay; others were blown back into the open sea.

For four more days the French ships were battered by the high winds, none able to approach the shore without severe risk of being destroyed on the rocky coast, and many losing their anchors as the cables snapped, forcing ships to run before the wind and scatter into the Western Approaches. 

Others were less fortunate: an American ship named Ellis, passing close to Crookhaven on the 29th December, encountered a vessel wallowing in the waves, dismasted and with the deck strewn with bodies. The American captain, Harvey, reported that he approached the ship but was unable to assist her due to the storm and as he watched, the ship was driven ashore and destroyed. This was the 44-gun frigate Impatiente, of which only seven men survived from her complement of 550 crew and passengers. 

French warships, labeled Le Révolutionaire, L’Egalité and The Revolutionary Jolly Boat, being tossed about during a storm blown up by Pitt, Dundas, Grenville and Windham, whose heads appear from the clouds. Charles Fox is the figurehead on Le Révolutionaire which is floundering with broken mast. The Revolutionary Jolly Boat is being swamped, throwing Sheridan, Hall, Erskine, M.A. Taylor and Thelwall overboard.

Harvey also recounted coming across the Révolution and frigate Scévola. Captain Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley was in the process of removing the crew and passengers from Scévola before she foundered, the heavy weather having reduced the 40-gun razee frigate to a sinking condition. 

Rigging layout for a typical upper deck French 6 or 8-pounder gun. Note the securing rope passed through the carriage rather than over the cascabel as seen on British guns, a typically French arrangement.

Ellis was not the only ship to discover Révolution; the long-delayed Fraternité encountered the ships and observed the destruction of the Scévola, which was burnt once she had been abandoned.

With amphibious landings impossible due to the weather conditions, which were the worst recorded since 1708, the fleet had broken up within a week, that left small squadrons and individual ships making their way back to Brest through storms, fog and British patrols.

The British were largely unable to interfere with the French fleet before, during or after the attempted invasion. A few ships operating from Cork captured isolated French warships and transports, but the only significant British response came from Captain Sir Edward Pellew, who was able to drive the French ship-of-the-line Droits de l’Homme ashore in the action of 13th January 1797 with the loss of over 1,000 lives. 

In total, the French lost twelve ships captured or wrecked and thousands of soldiers and sailors drowned, without a single man reaching Ireland except as prisoners of war.

A 40-gun French frigate, as depicted by Antoine Roux, that would have typically carried guns like these on her upper deck.

As seen in the picture of the information plate close by one of the guns, these are thought to be 6 or 8-pounders, although my research found a picture below of a very similar gun also held in the Museum of Wales and also recovered from the Glamorganshire Canal which they record as being an 8-pounder.

It also has an inscription in common with these guns, namely the R F either side of an anchor although lacking the Phrygian Cap symbol as seen on the museum piece.

No doubting the French Revolutionary origins of these guns with Égalité and Liberté inscribed on the barrels

As also indicated on the information plate, French 8-pounder naval guns like these are not a common site, with most examples brought on land and used as fortress pieces normally of the heavier types, 18-pounders or larger, carried by ships of the line, and given the history attached to them makes them even more interesting.

There were three French frigates wrecked in and near to Bantry Bay at Crookhaven just along the coast from Mizzen Head:

Surveillante 32-guns wrecked in Bantry Bay on 30th December 1796.

Scévola 44-guns scuttled off Crookhaven after storm damage on 30th December 1796.

Impatiente 40-guns wrecked on 30th December 1796 near Crookhaven. Nearly 550 men drowned.

The 8-pounder was the typical upper deck gun carried by French 36/40/44-gun 18-pounder frigates, with 6-pounders mainly carried by the 32-gun 12-pounder smaller types and corvettes.

L’Incorruptable was a 40-gun Romaine-class frigate built in the 1790’s and a sister ship to  Impatiente wrecked near Crookhaven

The French 8-pounder was slightly heavier than a British pound weight, weighing in at 8lbs 10 ounces.

Inscribed Ramus au Creusot indicating their casting at the Royal Foundry at Creusot in 1796

These pictures of the guns outside Cardiff Castle were courtesy of Ollie, Will’s girlfriend, who kindly offered to get me some pictures after I mentioned wanting to get a closer look at them some time during our visit a few weeks ago and she did a great job capturing their detail – cheers Ollie.

Next up – Carolyn and I are off on our travels again at present, this time to another amazing part of the world and I hope to have some interesting stuff to post about here on the blog.

Just to whet the appetite and give a bit of a clue, this place features large in Norse mythology and Sagas, coupled with stunning and often dramatic landscape, and otherwise known as the land of fire and ice.

More anon