Page "Battle of the Nile" Paragraph 57

The Battle of the Nile has been called " arguably, the most decisive naval engagement of the great age of sail ", and " the most splendid and glorious success which the British Navy gained.

" Historian and novelist C. S. Forester, writing in 1929, compared the Nile to the great naval actions in history and concluded that " it still only stands rivalled by Tsu-Shima as an example of the annihilation of one fleet by another of approximately equal material force ".

The effect on the strategic situation in the Mediterranean was immediate, reversing the balance of the conflict and giving the British control at sea that they maintained for the remainder of the war.

The destruction of the French Mediterranean fleet allowed the Royal Navy to return to the sea in force, as British squadrons set up blockades off French and allied ports.

In particular, British ships cut Malta off from France, aided by the rebellion among the native Maltese population that forced the French garrison to retreat to Valletta and shut the gates.

The ensuing Siege of Malta lasted for two years before the defenders were finally starved into surrender.

In 1799, British ships harassed Bonaparte's army as it marched east and north through Palestine, and played a crucial part in Bonaparte's defeat at the Siege of Acre, when the barges carrying the siege train were captured and the French storming parties were bombarded by British ships anchored offshore.

It was during one of these latter engagements that Captain Miller of Theseus was killed in an ammunition explosion.

The defeat at Acre forced Bonaparte to retreat to Egypt and effectively ended his efforts to carve an empire in the Middle East.

The French general returned to France without his army late in the year, leaving Kléber in command of Egypt.