A routine capture with strategic consequences

The action survives in sparse detail because it resembled a routine British success: a squadron chased down and captured five French vessels. The pursuit began on 17 June, with the firing and captures on 18 June giving the action its date. Its strategic importance lay in the shrinking French naval presence after the Battle of the Nile. Nelson was absent, leaving the capable Lord Keith to direct the fleet and detach the pursuing squadron. British accounts reduce the ending to the French ships striking, while some French accounts present the surrender more heroically. Faced with ships of the line and a decisive battery mismatch, rapid surrender was an understandable choice. Repeated losses of this kind reduced the forces available for French policy in the Mediterranean.