Battle of Lissa (1811)

Battle of Lissa
Part of the Adriatic Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars
Battle of Lissa, 13 March 1811, Nicholas Pocock
Date 13 March 1811 Location Off Lissa, Adriatic Sea 43°05′21″N 16°10′18″E / 43.08917°N 16.17167°E / 43.08917; 16.17167 Result British victory[1]
Belligerents
United Kingdom	France Italy
Commanders and leaders
William Hoste	Bernard Dubourdieu †
Strength
3 frigates 1 post ship	6 frigates 1 brig 2 schooners 1 xebec 2 gunboats
Casualties and losses
45 killed 145 wounded[2]	700 killed, wounded and captured 2 frigates captured[2] 1 frigate destroyed

The Battle of Lissa, also known as the Battle of Vis (French: Bataille de Lissa; Italian: Battaglia di Lissa; Croatian: Viška bitka), was a naval action fought between a British frigate squadron and a much larger squadron of French and Italian frigates and smaller vessels on Wednesday, 13 March on 1811 during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. The engagement was fought in the Adriatic Sea for possession of the strategically important Croatian island of Vis (Lissa in Italian), from which the British squadron had been disrupting French shipping in the Adriatic. The French needed to control the Adriatic to supply a growing army in the Illyrian Provinces, and consequently dispatched an invasion force in March 1811 consisting of six frigates, numerous smaller craft and a battalion of Italian soldiers.

The French invasion force under Bernard Dubourdieu was met by Captain William Hoste and his four ships based on the island. In the subsequent battle, Hoste sank the French flagship, captured two others, and scattered the remainder of the Franco-Venetian squadron. The battle has been hailed as an important British victory, due to both the disparity between the forces and the signal raised by Hoste, a former subordinate of Horatio Nelson. Hoste had raised the message "Remember Nelson" as the French bore down, and had then manoeuvred to drive Dubourdieu's flagship ashore and scatter his squadron in what has been described as "one of the most brilliant naval achievements of the war".^[3]