Action of 3 February 1812

Action of 3 February 1812
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
HMS Southampton in 1789
Date 3 February 1812 Location Gulf of Gonâve, Caribbean Sea Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Haiti
Commanders and leaders
James Yeo	Gaspard †
Strength
1 frigate	1 frigate 1 corvette 1 brig
Casualties and losses
1 killed 10 wounded	105 killed 120 wounded 1 frigate captured

The action of 3 February 1812 was a single-ship action fought off the western coast of Haiti between the British Royal Navy and a Haitian warship during the Napoleonic Wars. It was fought against the background of the collapse of the First Empire of Haiti in 1806 after the Haitian Revolution; after Haiti became independent from French colonial rule in 1804, it was first ruled by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who was assassinated in 1806 and replaced by two of his advisors, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Pétion. They divided the country between them and in the confused political situation that followed a number of minor fiefdoms appeared, including one ruled by warlord Jérôme-Maximilien Borgella in the department of Sud. The small Haitian Navy defected from Christophe to Borgella, who crewed his new ships with sailors from various countries.

In 1812, the British frigate HMS Southampton was stationed off Haiti under Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo, who was tasked with observing Haiti's political situation but was ordered not to interfere in the intermittent conflict between Christophe and Pétion. Yeo's orders did not mention Borgella's ships and Yeo reasoned that the Haitian Navy's flagship, the 44-gun frigate Heureuse Réunion under the command of a French privateer named Gaspard, presented a serious threat to international trade in the region.

Sailing to intercept Heureuse Réunion, Yeo discovered her in the Gulf of Gonâve on 3 February and ordered Gaspard to surrender. He refused to do so, and the two frigates exchanged shots at 06:30. The superior seamanship and discipline on Southampton prevented Gaspard from boarding her with the larger crew under his command, and within half an hour Heureuse Réunion was dismasted and battered. At 07:45 she surrendered, with Yeo depositing the remaining crew ashore and bringing Heureuse Réunion to Port Royal, Jamaica. At Jamaica, his actions were approved by his superiors and Heureuse Réunion, renamed Améthyste, was returned to Christophe by the British.