MT History: Battle of Grand Port Mauritius

- By Henri Lewi

On the island of Île de la Passe at the entrance to the Grand Port on the east coast of Mauritius, is an abandoned fort that played a small part in the recapture of Mauritius from the French during the Napoleonic Wars. On many of the abandoned stone blockhouses and stores are numerous engraved graffiti inscribed by the soldiers who served as part of the garrison in the fort, some of which relate to the time spent by members of the 56th Regiment of Foot (West Essex) who served there as part of the Mauritian Garrison.

The Battle of Grand Port in August 1810 was the only sea battle of the Napoleonic Wars that was lost by Britain as they attempted to block and capture the French ships that had taken refuge in the bay. The aim of securing Grand Port on the Isle de France (which we now call Mauritius) was to secure the important sea routes between India and Great Britain as ships of the East India Company sailed from Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata) via the Indian Ocean round the tip of South Africa onward to the home ports.

Both the islands of Île de Bourbon (Reunion) and Isle de France (Mauritius) lying in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa some 500 miles to the east of Madagascar, were separated by 100 miles with Reunion lying to the south west of Mauritius. These two islands, both being French possessions at the time, were important naval bases for the ships of the French navy who were able to attack with impunity the heavily laden ships of the East India Company sailing from Indian ports. In July 1810, a strong British force under the joint command of Commodore Josias Rowley and Colonel Henry Keating successfully landed and very quickly took the island of Reunion, which remained under British rule until it was returned to France in 1814. Interestingly, Reunion is still a department of France and as such remains within the European Union.

Attention was now turned to the Isle de France and an attempt was made in August 1810 to block the Eastern Grand Port where French ships sheltered before sailing out on their raids on British merchantmen in the Indian Ocean. The blockade by 4 British frigates failed, as 4 of 5 French frigates of their Indian Ocean Squadron slipped into the Grand Port to take shelter.

A British landing party successfully took the fort of Île de Passé overlooking the bay of Grand Port, but in the ensuing battle failed to play an effective role. The entrance to the bay was guarded by sandbanks and shallow passages and the British squadron, eschewing the use of a local pilot to guide them into the harbour, grounded two of their frigates on the sandbanks. A further frigate was severely damaged by French guns and subsequently captured, and the fourth frigate was captured by the French as it tried to sail away from Grand Port. This defeat of the British navy left the Indian Ocean again wide open to attacks by French raiding parties. This was the only French naval victory that is celebrated as a naval engagement inscribed amongst the numerous French victories on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

In late November 1810, a strong British force under the overall command of Admiral Albermarle Bertie consisting of 22 ships of Bertie’s naval squadron and almost 7,000 British troops landed in the north of the island of Mauritius, and by the 3rd of December the French forces had capitulated and Mauritius was subsequently garrisoned by British troops as a British colony well into the 20th century. Mauritius remained a British colony until its independence in 1968.