This project is a two stage program designed to provide Wikipedia with comprehensive coverage of the career of Edward Pellew, later Viscount Exmouth, one of the most prominent naval officers of the Napoleonic Wars. The first stage is to give a comprehensive series of articles covering his naval engagements, from his frigate actions of 1793-1797 right up to his quasi-fleet actions of 1813, all promoted to GA standard. These will then hopefully be used as a stepping stone to an overhaul of his biography, eventually to FA standard.
There are (I believe), two decent biographies of Pellew avaliable (in addition to monographs, dictionary entries etc.), one by Ostler in 1835 and another by C. Northcote Parkinson in 1934. The former is retrievable on Google Books and is avaliable for purchase, while the latter seems out of reach at the moment (unless I can find a library copy). However, coverage in naval history texts should be more than sufficient for the first stage, giving me time to locate the materials for the second. I have a very busy few months coming up (and a few other on-Wiki things to do), so I don't expect the first stage to be complete for some time, with the second timetabled beyond that.
As always, (and hopefully with some assistance from other editors), short articles on ships, places and persons involved will be created as part of the editing process.
Stage One - Pellew's Actions edit
- French frigate Cleopatre captured by HMS Nymphe. - The first successful frigate engagement of the war.
- French frigates Pomone and Engageante captured by British frigate squadron.
- French frigate Volontaire destroyed by British frigate squadron. - Sources are highly contradictory about this action.
- French frigate Revolutionnaire captured by HMS Artois. - Pellew present but not engaged
- French frigate Unite captured by HMS Revolutionnaire. - Pellew present but not engaged
- French frigate Virginie captured by HMS Indefatigable.
- French ship Droits de l'homme is destroyed by HMS Amazon and HMS Indefatigable.
- Dutch frigate Phoenix destroyed in Batavia by British squadron.
- Clashes off Toulon in 1811