This had allowed the Royal Navy's Channel Fleet to institute a close blockade on the French naval ports of the Biscay coast, particularly Brest in Brittany.

Pique and Jason continued the chase full speed through the night, until suddenly all three frigates crashed headlong into the sandbanks off La Tranche-sur-Mer on the Vendée coast.

The losses inflicted on the French Atlantic fleet in these battles were compounded by large numbers of ships wrecked in storms during the disastrous Croisière du Grand Hiver and Expédition d'Irlande operations.

[1] By 1798 the Royal Navy was unopposed in its control of the Atlantic, enforcing its supremacy by a strategy of close blockade, maintaining a battle fleet at sea off Brittany and an inshore squadron of frigates watching the approaches to Brest.

[6] By the end of the year the Colonial Assembly, which were unhappy with plans of the French Directory to abolish slavery, refused to continue supplying the squadron and garrison, forcing Sercey to disperse his ships.

[7] First Régénérée and Vertu were ordered back to France, and then in early 1798 the 40-gun Seine was instructed to follow them, carrying 280 soldiers from the garrison no longer supported by the Colonial Assembly.

Seine, still commanded by Lieutenant Julien-Gabriel Bigot following the death of Captain Latour off Sumatra in 1796, sailed on 24 March, overcrowded with the stores and dependents accompanying the soldiers.

[12] It took some time for boarding parties to reach Seine and a number of the French crew had taken the delay in seizure of the ship to dive overboard and swim for the beach, making an accounting of casualties difficult.

As the day continued, boat parties of French civilians sailed out to the ship and climbed aboard, breaking into the liquor stores leading to drunken confusion on deck.

Bigot was allowed to go ashore temporarily, as were four men escorting a lady from Île de France: all five French sailors subsequently returned to captivity voluntarily.

French losses were enormous, the effects of concentrated cannon fire on the packed decks producing casualties of approximately 170 killed and 100 wounded, the former including a number who drowned after the ship grounded.

[13] Bigot and his crew were brought to Britain as prisoners of war, the commander later exchanged and twice promoted on his return to France in recognition of his resistance during the engagement,[9] although unsubstantiated rumours persisted that he had personally shot some of his men when they abandoned their guns.