Abukir Bay

Which naval battle took place between the British and French in Aboukir Bay, Egypt, in 1798?

Although suffering the impact of a severed sea-line of communication, a fact brought about by Admiral Horatio Nelson's brilliant victory at Aboukir Bay, Napoleon nonetheless was able to place military pressure on the Ottoman and coalition forces arrayed against him, winning several critical victories.

At the mouth of the Nile, the French scholar Franck Goddio is mapping Alexandria's imposing Classical harbour and also investigating warships sunk during the epochal Battle of Aboukir Bay in 1798, where Nelson destroyed an anchored French fleet.

But he bargained without the Royal Navy, and so his ships were sunk by Horatio Nelson in Aboukir Bay and his army was soundly beaten at Acre by another brilliant naval officer, Sir Sidney Smith.

The second came the following year, when Nelson's well-trained squadron of 14 ships caught the French fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay, off the Egyptian coast, and captured or destroyed 11 of the French ships of the line.

But, finding the French fleet in Aboukir Bay on the Nile, Nelson fulfilled his mission.

Detailed descriptions of Rossbach (1757), Belgrade (1789), Valmy (1792), Fleurus (1794), Lodi (1796), Aboukir Bay (1797), and Marengo (1800)--confusingly placed at the start of each chapter rather than where they belong chronologically--brilliantly evoke the drama of these wars and their effect on Europe's future.

Vincent (Cabo de Sao Vicente) (1797); Aboukir Bay (Abu Qir) (1798); Copenhagen (1801); Cabo Trafalgar (1805).

1798: The Battle of the Nile saw Nelson beat the French fleet, which he attacked on finding it at anchor at Aboukir Bay.

Among the crowned heads who left their mark on the necklace were Charles II of Bourbon; Maria Amalia of Saxony; and Marie Antoinette's sister Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples in 1798 when Horatio Nelson, fresh from conquering the French fleet in Aboukir Bay, stopped by to conquer her friend Emma Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador.

Of interest to geologists as well as archaeologists, the five chapters of this volume describe exploration and analysis of the region now known as Aboukir Bay in Egypt.