Captain Robert Corbet RN (died 13 September 1810), often spelled Corbett, was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who was killed in action in highly controversial circumstances.

Corbet was a strict disciplinarian who regularly beat his men for the slightest infractions: so brutal was his regime that he provoked two mutinies, one simply at the rumour he was coming aboard a ship.

These uprisings caused him to become even more vicious in his use of punishments and when he took the frigate HMS Africaine into action off Île Bourbon in September 1810, his men failed to support him and may even have murdered him.

In addition to his obsession with discipline and obedience, Corbet was regarded as an inefficient commander, whose standards of gunnery and training were so poor that when his ship did go into action it was ill-equipped to fight the French frigates stationed in the Indian Ocean.

In response Corbet requested a formal court martial, but was forced to wait until his ship returned to the Cape of Good Hope due to a shortage of captains of sufficient rank.

[3]: 299  There he united with Rowley's flagship HMS Boadicea and two smaller ships and attacked the French blockading force of the frigates Astrée and Iphigénie under Pierre Bouvet.

Almost immediately rumours spread that his death had not simply been the result of his wound: stories were repeated in reputable histories that Corbet had either been murdered by his crew, or committed suicide to avoid the shame of defeat.

[3]: 307  Though the truth remains unknown, Corbet's crew had indeed displayed an unwillingness to enter action with him in command and once he was dead expressed a desire to pursue the French ships despite their own damage and casualties.

The contemporary historian Basil Hall was the subject of a lawsuit in 1820 over his claim that Corbet's men had refused to load their cannon and preferred death at the hands of the French to continued service under their brutal captain.

Attention has also focused on Corbet's failure to train his men in the accurate and efficient use of their cannon, preferring to maintain the order and cleanliness of his ship than exercise his gun teams.