 For nearly two weeks the French frigates remained at anchor , Malcolm and Grant drawing up plans for an attack with fireships , when Amazone successfully slipped out of harbour on 27 November , returning successfully to Le Havre before dawn the following day . With Amazone gone , Grant maintained a closer watch on Elisa , calling up a bomb vessel to attack the anchorage on 6 December . This proved no more accurate than the rockets , but Elisa was again driven into shallow waters to avoid the attack , this time becoming irretrievably grounded on a shoal . Over the next two weeks Elisa remained grounded , the frigate gradually being reduced to the state of a total wreck . On 23 December Grant sent his boats , commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Rowe , into the anchorage under cover of darkness and set the wreck on fire to ensure that the frigate 's stores could not be salvaged . 
