| Action of 7 May 1794 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the French Revolutionary Wars | |||||||
 A portrait of Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois, by Antoine Maurin | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Great Britain |
 France | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Charles Boyles |
Charles Linois | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2 ships of the line |
1 frigate 1 corvette | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 killed |
10 killed 32 wounded 1 frigate captured | ||||||
The action of 7 May 1794 was a minor naval action fought between a British ship of the line and a French frigate early in the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Navy sought to disrupt British trade by intercepting and capturing merchant ships with roving frigates, a strategy countered by protecting British convoys with heavier warships, particularly in European waters. On 5 May 1794, the British escorts of a convoy from Cork sighted two French ships approaching and gave chase. The ships, a frigate and a corvette, outmatched by their opponents, separated and the convoy escorts did likewise, each following one of the raiders on a separate course.
By the evening one of the French ships had successfully escaped, but the other was still under pursuit, Captain Charles Linois of Atalante attempting a number of tactics to drive off his opponent but without success. Eventually, after a chase lasting nearly two days, the French ship came within range of the much larger British 74-gun third rate HMS Swiftsure and despite a brave defence was soon forced to surrender after suffering more than 40 casualties. Although he had surrendered his ship, Linois was widely praised for his actions in defending his ship against such heavy odds.[Note 1]
In the aftermath of the engagement, a French battle squadron that formed part of the developing Atlantic campaign of May 1794 pursued both ships for the rest of the day; their quarry eventually escaped after dark. Atalante was later taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Espion.
Cite error: There are <ref group=Note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=Note}} template (see the help page).