Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois

Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, Comte de Linois (27 January 1761 – 2 December 1848) was a French admiral during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. He won a victory over the British at the Battle of Algeciras in 1801 and was reasonably successful in a campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea in 1803.

Biography
Born in Brest, Linois joined the French Navy in 1776, serving in the English Channel and Spanish waters, followed by voyages to Isle de France (now Mauritius) and Réunion and the French West Indies. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1789 before being posted to the Indian Ocean. After his return to France in 1794, he was based in Brest. Linois was captured by the Royal Navy at the Action of 7 May 1794 while his ship was protecting a convoy of wheat from the United States. He was exchanged and promoted to captain, taking command of the 74-gun Formidable. The following year he was captured again at the battle of Groix, where he was twice wounded and lost an eye; he was again exchanged. In 1796 he took part in the Expédition d'Irlande as a chief of division, leading a 3-ship of the line and 4-frigate squadron, with his flag on Nestor. Arrived in Bantry Bay, the generals opposed a landing, and the squadron headed back to Brest, taking three prizes on the way.

On 12 April 1796 he was captain of the Unité when HMS Révolutionnaire (1794) captured her. Revolutionnaire had no casualties because the French had fired high, aiming for her rigging; the British fired into their quarry with the result that Unité suffered nine men killed and 11 wounded.

In 1799 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral (contre-amiral) and sent to the Mediterranean under Admiral Bruix. As second in command of the squadron under Admiral Ganteaume, he attacked Elba in 1801. Then in command of a small squadron based in Cadiz, he fought a larger British squadron under Sir James Saumarez in the Battle of Algeciras. His squadron prevailed during the first part of the battle, capturing HMS Hannibal, but on the return to Cadiz, two Spanish ships who had joined him were fooled into firing on each other by a British night attack and were lost.

In 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte appointed him to command the French forces in the Indian Ocean and, flying his flag aboard the 74-gun-ship Marengo, he harried British merchant ships across the ocean and into the China Seas. One embarrassing incident was the Battle of Pulo Aura in 1804 when a squadron of French naval ships commanded by Linois encountered the British China Fleet which consisted of lightly armed merchant ships. The British ships outnumbered Linois and they manoeuvred as though would fight to defend themselves and some of the ships flew naval ensigns. The tactics of the convoy commodore Nathaniel Dance convinced Linois that the fleet was defended by a number of naval escorts and so he retired instead of attacking the virtually defenceless fleet.

However, on his return to France he ran into a large British squadron under Admiral Warren off Cape Verde at the Action of 13 March 1806. He was wounded and captured again but this time as Napoleon had stopped the practice of exchanging officers he was held until Napoleon fell in 1814. He was appointed comte de Linois in 1810 by Napoleon.

Following the Bourbon restoration, Louis XVIII named him to be Governor of Guadeloupe but as Linois supported Napoleon during the Hundred Days he was forced to resign after the battle of Waterloo. He was court martialled but acquitted in 1816. However, he was placed in retirement and never served again, although he was appointed as an honorary Vice-Admiral (vice-amiral) in 1825. He lived in Versailles, where he died in 1848.

Honours

 * Name inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe

In fiction
Linois is a minor recurring character in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. The Battle of Pulo Aura is also described in Newton Forster, or The Merchant Service, written in 1832 by Frederick Marryat.