 The Action of 27 June 1798 was a minor naval engagement between British and French frigates in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea . The engagement formed part of a wider campaign , in which a major French convoy sailed from Toulon to Alexandria at the start of the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt . The French frigate Sensible had been detached from the convoy after the capture of Malta , under orders to carry wounded soldiers and looted treasure back to France while the main body continued to Egypt . The British frigate HMS Seahorse was one of a number of vessels detached from the main British Mediterranean Fleet in the Tagus River , sent to augment the fleet under Sir Horatio Nelson that was actively hunting the French convoy . 
