Battle of Lissa

Overview

The Battle of Lissa, also known as the Battle of Vis, was a naval action fought between a British frigate squadron and a much larger squadron of French and Italian frigates and smaller vessels on Wednesday, 13 March 1811 during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. The engagement was fought in the Adriatic Sea for possession of the strategically important Croatian island of Vis, from which the British squadron had been disrupting French shipping in the Adriatic. The French needed to control the Adriatic to supply a growing army in the Illyrian Provinces and consequently dispatched an invasion force in March 1811 consisting of six frigates, numerous smaller craft and a battalion of Italian troops.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The 1811 Battle of Lissa resulted in a British frigate squadron under William Hoste defeating a combined French and Venetian fleet commanded by Bernard Dubourdieu. French and allied casualties totaled 700 against 145 British, indicating a decisive engagement in terms of human cost. The battle demonstrated British frigate capability in Adriatic waters during the Napoleonic Wars, where maintaining naval presence was critical to contesting French control of the eastern Mediterranean littoral. The lopsided casualty figures suggest the French-Venetian force suffered severe losses, limiting their operational reach in the region.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)