HMS Sybille defeats French frigate Forte

Background. By spring 1796 the Royal Navy held supremacy in the East Indies, confining the French to two frigates blockaded at Port Louis on Île de France. As Île de France could no longer support Sercey's squadron, four ships returned to France in 1797–1798, and with crews growing rebellious he dispatched Forte and Prudente on commerce raiding in autumn 1798. Malartic then seized Prudente, sold her to a privateer concern, and ordered Forte to operate independently in the Bay of Bengal, which was largely undefended at the start of 1799.

The Pursuit. Forte, an exceptionally large and powerful frigate, raided British merchant shipping off Calcutta. To eliminate this threat Sybille sailed from Madras on 19 February with instructions to search for her. Acting on information from released prisoners, Captain Edward Cooke was off Balasore when distant gunfire alerted him to Forte on the evening of 28 February; the French ship lay at anchor in the Hooghly sandbanks with two recently captured British merchant ships.

Aftermath and Assessment. The captured merchant ships escaped under their French prize crews while Lieutenant Lucius Hardyman repaired both vessels and took them into Calcutta, where Forte was commissioned into the Royal Navy as a 44-gun fifth rate under Hardyman; she was wrecked near Jeddah in June 1801. Cooke died at Calcutta on 25 May 1799 and was buried with full military honours. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the clasp "SYBILLE 28 FEBRUARY 1799" to surviving participants, and British historians credited Sybille's unusually disciplined gunnery, trained by Cooke, plus soldier musket fire that disrupted French aim.