Battle of Mykonos

Battle of Mykonos
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
Romney and Sibylle at Myconi
Date 17 June 1794 Location off Mykonos, Aegean Sea 37°27′N 25°19′E / 37.450°N 25.317°E / 37.450; 25.317 Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	France
Commanders and leaders
William Paget	Jacques Rondeau
Strength
1 ship of the line	1 frigate 3 merchant ships
Casualties and losses
10 killed 28 wounded	55 killed 103 wounded 1 frigate captured 3 merchant ships captured

The Battle of Mykonos was a minor naval engagement fought in the main harbour of the Cycladic island of Mykonos on 17 June 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars.^[Note] A British Royal Navy squadron led by fourth rate ship HMS Romney was escorting a convoy of eight merchant ships westwards through the Aegean Sea to Smyrna when the French frigate Sibylle was sighted at anchor in the harbour of Mykonos town with three French merchant ships. Ordering the convoy to continue with the rest of the squadron, Captain William Paget diverted the 50-gun Romney to the port and demanded the surrender of the 40-gun French ship and its convoy.

The French Commodore Jacques-Mélanie Rondeau refused Paget's demands, and prepared to defend his ship. After some manoeuvring to ensure that the town was not within his firing arc, Paget brought Romney alongside the French frigate and for an hour and ten minutes the two vessels exchanged broadsides at close range. The engagement was hard fought and both ships suffered heavy casualties, but eventually the greater size of the two-decked Romney was too great for the smaller frigate and Rondeau surrendered. Sibylle was subsequently commissioned into the Royal Navy and participated in a celebrated battle in the Indian Ocean against the French frigate Forte in 1799.