Against the established conventions of warfare, he forced the captured crew to assist in bringing Leander safely into Corfu, and denied them food and medical treatment unless they co-operated with their captors.

Lejoille's published account of the action greatly exaggerated the scale of his success, and, although he was highly praised in the French press, he was castigated in Britain for his conduct.

The fleet was too large to anchor in Alexandria harbour and instead Bonaparte ordered its commander, Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers to take up station in Aboukir Bay.

[7] During the next two days, the lightly damaged Leander was employed in forcing the surrender of several grounded French vessels, and by the afternoon of 3 August Nelson was in complete control of Aboukir Bay.

[8] Having won the battle, Nelson needed to send despatches to his commander, Vice-Admiral Earl St. Vincent reporting on the destruction of the French Mediterranean fleet.

[11] After fleeing Aboukir Bay, Admiral Villeneuve had been delayed in the Eastern Mediterranean by northeasterly winds, and on 17 August he decided to split his forces, sailing for Malta with his flagship Guillaume Tell and the two frigates while Captain Louis-Jean-Nicolas Lejoille on Généreux was ordered to the French possession of Corfu.

Despite the collapsed wreckage of the mizzenmast and fore topmast, his gunnery teams managed to cut away enough of the obstruction to fire a raking broadside at the French vessel.

[15] Unable to continue fighting due to the wreckage that lay across the forward guns, Thompson ordered a French flag raised on a pike, which was sufficient for Lejoille to cease firing.

[14] Leander had lost a third of the crew: 35 men killed and 57 wounded, the latter including Thompson three times and Berry, who had a piece of human skull lodged in his arm.

[21] Rather than tossing the men into the sea, as historian William James suggests they should have done, Thompson instead ordered one of the British boats to be repaired and launched to transport him to the French ship and bring back Captain Lejoille in the belief that he would end the looting.

[24] When Captain Berry complained, Lejoille replied "J'en suis fâché, mais le fait est, que les Français sont bons au pillage" ("I'm sorry, but the fact is, that the French are good at plunder").

[25] For ten days after the engagement the battered ships sailed northwards against the wind, Généreux forced to attach a tow to Leander to avoid leaving the prize behind.

The new arrival was in fact the 16-gun British sloop HMS Mutine under Lieutenant Thomas Bladen Capel, carrying the second copies of Nelson's despatches to Britain.

[24] The British officers were eventually paroled and returned to Britain, although the carpenter Thomas Jarrat was detained because he refused to supply Lejoille with the specifications of Leander's masts.

Lejoille's demands were met with a response from a maintopman named George Bannister, who called out "No, you damned French rascal, give us back our little ship, and we'll fight you again until we sink".

[28] Leander was captured by a Russian force that seized Corfu in March 1799 and was returned to the Royal Navy by Tsar Paul, along with the sailors held on the island.

[32] Thompson was knighted in January 1799 and given a pension of £200 per annum, returning to service that spring as captain of HMS Bellona attached to the Channel Fleet under Lord Bridport.

[33] Captain Peune, who had commanded the bomb-ship chartered to ferry Thompson and his staff from Corfu to Trieste, wrote a letter to answer the charges of pillage.