August 1, 1798

Battle of the Nile

Nelson attacks Brueys’s fleet at the Battle of the Nile

Nelson's official casualty return listed 218 killed and 677 wounded, and left out one conspicuous wounded officer: Nelson himself.

Attacking at sunset instead of waiting for morning

On the afternoon of 1 August 1798, Nelson's squadron found Vice-Admiral Brueys's French fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay, stated as 15 miles east of Alexandria. He attacked at sunset rather than wait for daylight.

The leading British captains exploited the gap between the French van and the shoal, passing around the head of the anchored line so that French ships were engaged from the landward and seaward sides at once.

That manoeuvre was not a prearranged split into two divisions. Nelson's intended concentration was on the French van and centre; captains acting under his general doctrine took the landward passage as the action developed.

The 120-gun flagship that lit the bay

Nelson took a head wound and was carried below. His own dispatch states that Captain Edward Berry maintained command of the immediate service while he was incapacitated.

Brueys was killed by enemy fire before the magazine of his flagship Orient exploded at about 10 p.m. The blast briefly shocked both fleets into silence.

It did not end the battle. Several French ships had already struck, and the fighting resumed and ran into the early hours of 2 August.

Eleven ships of thirteen

Of the 13 French ships of the line present, 11 were captured, burned or destroyed; only two ships of the line and two frigates got away. French casualty totals vary substantially between sources.

French naval communication between Egypt and France was severely disrupted, leaving Bonaparte's army strategically isolated — though not cut off from every supply, message and reinforcement.

The French army went on campaigning in Egypt and Syria and did not capitulate until 1801, and French naval power was not eliminated: this was a battle of the French Revolutionary Wars, not a settlement of the Napoleonic ones.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The battle began on 1 August but continued into the early hours of 2 August; some institutional summaries extend the action through 3 August because of later surrenders and destruction.
French casualty totals vary substantially among sources, so no single total is presented as verified here.