French brig Lodi (1797)

Lodi (or Lody) was the Venetian brig Pollux, launched in 1796, that the French captured at Corfu in 1797. She took part in a sanguinary and inconclusive single-ship action with a British privateer shortly after her capture. She served in the Mediterranean carrying dispatches between France and Alexandria and then moved to the West Indies where she supported the French attempt to defeat the Haitian Revolution on Saint Domingue. HMS Racoon (1795) captured her in 1803; her subsequent fate is unknown.

Career
On 4 July 1798, Lodi, under the command of Enseigne de vaisseau Sennequier, was sailing down the Piombino Channel from Leghorn with dispatches for Napoleon Bonaparte, then at Alexandria. She encountered a British brig that attacked her and the two vessels exchanged fire. The crew of the brig twice attempted to board Lodi and twice the French repelled them. The French then attempted to board the brig, and the British repelled them. The two vessels separated and continued to exchange fire, with the French succeeding in bringing down the brig's masts. Even so, the French did not capture the brig, which used sweeps to reach the neutral coast of Tuscany, where it took refuge by a fort. Lodi, although she had retained her masts, was sufficiently damaged that she had to stop at Civita Vecchia to effect repairs. Lodi then continued on to Alexandria. Lodi had lost two men killed and more than 25 sailors and soldiers wounded, including Sennequier.

Lodi reported that she had engaged the British sloop of war Aigle, of a "force much superior to her own". Various accounts give Lodi's armament as 12 guns. Sennequier was immediately promoted to the rank of Capitaine de frégate.

There was no Aigle or Eagle in the Royal Navy at the time, nor any mention of the encounter in the logbooks of any British navy vessels matching her description. A Paris newspaper later reported that on 28 July, the British privateer brig Acquila, under the command of Captain Colonna, of 14 guns and 57 men, had arrived at Leghorn in great distress, having engaged a French vessel on 4 July. This may have been the ship Eagle, Captain Colin Campbell, of twelve 6-pounder guns and 317 tons (bm), which had received her letter of marque on 13 June 1797.

On the night of 1 March, or the next morning, Lodi arrived at Alexandria from Toulon. With the failure of Ganteaume's expeditions, she was one of the few French ships to penetrate the British blockade. In mid-May Lodi sailed for France, taking with her General Reynier, dispatched by General Menou, the French commander in Egypt. Lodi reached Toulon on 12 June, bringing with her a captured British vessel with 3-4,000 quintals of wheat.

In June 1799, Lodi sailed from Toulon, in company with Frippone, arriving at Carthage on 24 June. There they joined Vice-Admiral Bruix's squadron, engaged in what became known as the fruitless cruise of Bruix.

West Indies
Lodi sailed to the West Indies. She was escorting 13 vessels, which were carrying 2,270 men of the Polish Legions. Although Napoleon wanted to put down the Haitian Revolution, he had no wish to deplete his main French army any more than he had to.

In 3 November 1802 she was under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Lafosse. General Willaumez sent a letter to General Pierre Quantin, who was besieged at Saint-Marc, apologizing that he, Willaumez, could not spare any other vessels. At the same time, Willaumez instructed Lafosse to gather all the schooners that the captain of port Léogâne could assemble and escort them to Saint-Marc. There he was to put them at Quantin's disposal for the evacuation of the French in the town. Once the schooners were loaded, he was to escort them to Port-au-Prince.

Lodi returned to on 13 December. At some point Lieutenant de vaisseau M. Pierre Isaac Taupier replaced Lafosse. Willaumez then sent her to take up a station below Fort Bizoton. Next, he had Lodi take 100 men to Léogâne, to clear the rebels from the shore front. Lodi arrived too late to do anything immediately, but with the arrival of further reinforcements, the rebels were dispersed.

General Rochambeau, the French commander-in-chief in Haiti, wrote a letter on 15 January 1803 requesting a promotion for Taupier, commander of Lodi, and two other naval commanders, in part for their services at Léogâne. The announcement of Taupier's promotion to Capitaine de frégate appeared on 26 May 1803. On 18 May, Lodi succeeded in intercepting three barges and 50 men between Arcahaie and Léogâne. The air was too calm for Lodi to be able to capture the barges, but through cannon fire she was able to force them ashore near Grand-Goâve.

Capture
On 11 July 1803, Racoon, under Commander Austin Bissell, was sailing between Guanaba and St. Domingo in the West Indies when she sighted a French naval brig anchored in Léogâne Roads. As Racoon sailed towards her, Bissell saw that the French had springs on their cables and were ready to engage. Racoon was flying the French flag, and although he was unaware that the war had broken out again between France and Britain, the French captain was wary, rightly so as things turned out. At 2:45 p.m. Racoon anchored, also with springs, 30 yards from the brig. She then exchanged her French ensign for the British, and opened fire. The two vessels exchanged fire for half an hour before the French vessel cut his cables and tried to sail away. Racoon followed and after about another 10 minutes of fire from Racoon, the French brig surrendered.

The Frenchman was the Lodi, pierced for 20 guns but with only 10 mounted. The French had lost one man killed and 13 or 14 men wounded; Racoon had only one man wounded. One French account gives Lodi's armament as six 6-pounder guns. Whether the number was six, 10, or 12 guns, Racoon, with 18 guns, of which 16 were 32-pounder carronades, heavily outgunned Lodi. Also, Lodi's crew numbered only 40 men, many of them ill. In all, she was not in a position to put up a strong defence.