The Wreck of the Aigle – 18 July 1798
The loss of a frigate on the Barbary coast caused by navigational error required not only skill to save all of the crew, but also tact to mollify the local Bey after the wreck had been burned to prevent it falling into his hands.
On 11 June 1798, the frigate Aigle 36, Captain Charles Tyler, departed Portsmouth with the Lisbon convoy. Having delivered her charges, she was next ordered by the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral the Earl of St. Vincent, to carry dispatches and post to Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, who was somewhere in the Mediterranean desperately seeking the whereabouts of a huge French expedition that had set out from Toulon.
The Aigle was a French-built frigate which had been commissioned at St. Malo in the late spring of 1782, only to be captured in the Delaware River by a British squadron under the command of Captain Hon. George Keith Elphinstone later that year. For the ensuing decade of peace, she had largely remained in Ordinary, andl she was recommissioned at the end of 1792, just prior to the commencement of the French Revolutionary War. Sailing for the Mediterranean in the spring of 1794, she had seen service in Greek waters under Captain Sam Hood before the command had passed to Captain Tyler in February 1796. An Irishman in his 38th year who suffered from a degree of lameness caused by an injury whilst still a teenager, Tyler was one of many officers who had been posted captain at the conclusion of the Spanish Armament in November 1790. A favourite of the previous commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral William Hotham, he was regarded as a kind-hearted man and a good officer, although perhaps too passive for the exacting Earl of St. Vincent.
On 18 July, the Aigle was sailing along the African coast in an easterly direction, and during the morning she passed the high cliffs of Galite Island, situated three quarters of the way between the southern tip of Sardinia and the Tunisian coast. As the afternoon wore on, land came in sight which was identified as Cape Farina on the north-western extremity of the Gulf of Tunis, whereupon a course was set to pass Cape Bon, almost fifty miles to the east. At about 8 p.m., land was seen again which was accepted to be that of Cape Bon, and with the night setting in and the wind getting up, a new course was set, and the sail plan was reduced to the foresail and reefed topsails.
Despite the darkness of night and a heavy sea, the Aigle was still bowling along when suddenly the cry went out for rocks ahead. Captain Tyler, who had been heading for his cabin, ran back up the quarterdeck ladder to hear the frantic order ‘put you helm a’port – there are rocks ahead!’. It was too late, and the Aigle crashed into the reef with such violence that her fore and main masts toppled overboard, and her rudder was unshipped, whilst down below decks the off-watch officers were thrown out of their cots.
The land the Aigle had stuck was known as the Plane Rock, which lies some two miles off Cape Farina. Initially, efforts were made to sail on across the reef, but this only added to the Aigle’s predicament, and she became stuck fast. Soon, the amount of water pouring in overcame the efforts of the men at the pumps and it became clear that the ship had to be abandoned. Captain Tyler ordered the mizzen mast cut away to provide a bridge onto the rocks, and by the early hours of the next morning all the men were safely ashore.
First light revealed that the wreck had yet to break up, and being anxious that she was destroyed before any enemy could make use of her, Captain Tyler ordered his men to burn her. His decision overrode the advice of the Aigle’s sailing master, who voiced concerns that the Bey of Tunis, Hammuda Ibn Ali, would consider a wrecked ship on his territory to be his property, and sure enough, after a passing merchant ship had answered their distress calls and landed the frigate’s men, the Bey made his displeasure known. Patiently, Tyler explained that his duty required him to destroy the wreck, and in due course he was able to mollify the Bey by agreeing that anything salvageable could be taken by the Tunisians. Unfortunately, this offer was taken by the natives to include the officers’ watches and other valuables.
Two months later, Captain Tyler and his officers were acquitted of blame for the Aigle’s loss at a court martial aboard the Prince 98 at Gibraltar that was presided over by Rear-Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, the disaster being blamed on an error of navigation. First news of the wreck reached Britian via the French newspapers in early September, and at the end of November, Tyler returned to Portsmouth aboard the Orion 74, Captain Sir James Saumarez.
The loss of the Aigle did not affect Captain Tyler’s career, for just six months later he was appointed to a sail of the line. A further severe wound to his leg from a musket ball whilst commanding the Tonnant 80 at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 inhibited his employment for some time, but he eventually recovered sufficiently to undertake important duties both with a commodore’s broad pennant and an admiral’s flag.