Qualla: Action of 18 June 1793 https://qualla.com/action-of-18-june-1793 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/m/action-of-18-june-1793-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Action of 18 June 1793 https://qualla.com/action-of-18-june-1793 Action of 18 June 1793: Introduction https://qualla.com/action-of-18-june-1793/ Photo credit Thomas Elliott, Public domain. It was barely past dawn off Start Point on 18 June 1793, and the French frigate Cleopatre's wheel had just been shot to splinters for the fourth time. Four helmsmen had taken the spokes since sunrise; four helmsmen had been killed. The mizzenmast snapped off twelve feet above the deck. With nothing left to steer her, Cleopatre lurched into the side of HMS Nymphe, her jib boom jamming between Captain Edward Pellew's masts as the two ships drifted together off the Devon coast. Pellew, who had readied his men to repel a boarding party, looked at the tangle of rigging and shouted the opposite order. Climb across. Take her.

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Image: Thomas Elliott | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/m/action-of-18-june-1793-wp/gbvm-action-of-18-june-1793-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Action of 18 June 1793: A New War, a Different Navy https://qualla.com/action-of-18-june-1793/ Photo credit Thomas Elliott, Public domain. France had been at war with Britain only four months when this fight broke out. The National Convention had voted to expand the Revolutionary Wars in February 1793, and the French navy that had once been the Royal Navy's equal was no longer the same service. The Revolution had gu...

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Image: Thomas Elliott | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/m/action-of-18-june-1793-wp/gbvm-action-of-18-june-1793-a-new-war-a-different-navy.mp3 0:06 2 full Action of 18 June 1793: Edward and Israel https://qualla.com/action-of-18-june-1793/ Photo credit Thomas Elliott, Public domain. Edward Pellew was thirty-six and already a name in the service, but the man at his side that morning was his younger brother Israel - an unemployed reserve officer who had volunteered to come along as a passenger. The Pellew brothers would become two of the most consequential fri...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/m/action-of-18-june-1793-wp/gbvm-action-of-18-june-1793-edward-and-israel.mp3 0:06 3 full Action of 18 June 1793: Cheers and a Cap of Liberty https://qualla.com/action-of-18-june-1793/ Photo credit Thomas Elliott, Public domain. What followed had the strange ceremony of an older war. At 06:00 the ships drifted into hailing range. Mullon called something across the water; the words were lost. Pellew's men cheered three times - some accounts say for King George. The French cheered back - Vive la nation, or...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/m/action-of-18-june-1793-wp/gbvm-action-of-18-june-1793-cheers-and-a-cap-of-liberty.mp3 0:06 4 full Action of 18 June 1793: Ten Minutes on the Maindeck https://qualla.com/action-of-18-june-1793/ Photo credit Thomas Elliott, Public domain. The hand-to-hand fighting on Cleopatre's deck took ten minutes. Without officers, the French crew broke. More than a hundred prisoners were ferried across to Nymphe; another hundred and fifty stayed under guard on the prize. The butcher's bill ran to sixty-three French casualties...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/m/action-of-18-june-1793-wp/gbvm-action-of-18-june-1793-ten-minutes-on-the-maindeck.mp3 0:06 5 full Action of 18 June 1793: What the Action Bought https://qualla.com/action-of-18-june-1793/ Photo credit Thomas Elliott, Public domain. Historian William James, looking back from the Victorian era, judged the fight evenly matched - Nymphe slightly heavier in tonnage and broadside weight, but Cleopatre carrying eighty more hands who had been a crew longer. What broke the French was the loss of their officers under...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/m/action-of-18-june-1793-wp/gbvm-action-of-18-june-1793-what-the-action-bought.mp3 0:06 6 full