 The Action of 13 September 1810 was an inconclusive frigate engagement during the Napoleonic Wars between British Royal Navy and French Navy frigates during which a British frigate was defeated by two French vessels near Isle de France ( now Mauritius ) , but British reinforcements were able to recapture the ship before the French could secure her . The British frigate was HMS Africaine , a new arrival to the Indian Ocean . She was under the command of Captain Robert Corbet , who had served there the previous year . Corbet was a notoriously unpopular officer and his death in the battle provoked a storm of controversy in Britain over claims that Corbet had either committed suicide at the shame of losing his ship , been murdered by his disaffected crew , or been abandoned by his men , who were said to have refused to load their guns while he remained in command . Whether any of these rumours were accurate has never been satisfactorily determined , but the issue has been discussed in several prominent naval histories and was the subject of at least one lawsuit . 
