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Alexandria was captured the next day.Īt the Battle of the Pyramids, fought outside Cairo on 21 July, the French easily dispatched the medieval cavalry of the Mamluks – the warrior race that actually ruled Egypt, though it was in theory a Turkish province – capturing the city itself the following day. Napoleon, who had set sail from Toulon on 19 May with 35,000 men and a corps of scientists for good measure, surprised and took Malta on 12 June, before landing in Egypt on 1 July. As a first step, this would be via Egypt, a country that had long fascinated French political thinkers. What was Napoleon up to? He fancied an invasion of England but had convinced himself, reluctantly, that a Channel crossing was impracticable, at least for now.Įager to deliver a blow to Britain’s prestige and power, the French military leader instead convinced the country’s ruling Directory that a strike at the enemy’s Indian empire was possible.

It was in the spring of 1798 that a French expedition had set off from the southern port of Toulon on its way to Egypt. Instead, to mark the anniversary of Aboukir Bay, I want to look at what actually happened off Egypt’s coast, and what we can learn from it about the abilities of this archetypal British naval hero. That has been done too many times before. But it is not my intention here to retell the story of Nelson’s entire career. He had lost his right eye commanding the naval brigade at the reduction of Bastia and Calvi during the invasion of Corsica (1794) three years later, action at Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands saw him part company with the corresponding arm. Inset: A 1799 portrait by Lemuel Francis Abbott depicts Nelson wearing his Nile decorations, along with a hat bearing the distinctive diamond ‘chelengk’ given to him by the Sultan of Turkey in recognition of his victory at Aboukir Bay.īy the time the Egyptian action took place, the 39-year-old Nelson was already disabled.

The destruction of L’Orient, the 120-gun flagship of Nelson’s opponent, Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers, Comte de Brueys, at the Battle of Aboukir Bay.