The Battle of Pulo Aura was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large convoy of Honourable East India Company (HEIC) East Indiamen, well-armed merchant ships, intimidated, drove off and chased away a powerful French naval squadron. Although the French force was much stronger than the British convoy, Commodore Nathaniel Dance's aggressive tactics persuaded Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois to retire after only a brief exchange of shot. Dance then chased the French warships until his convoy was out of danger, whereupon he resumed his passage toward British India. Linois later claimed that the unescorted British merchant fleet was defended by eight ships of the line, a claim criticised by contemporary officers and later historians.
Commodore Dance's celebrated action against a French squadron in the Straits of Malacca on 15th February 1804, Robert Dodd
A printed key for a view of the Battle, showing the China Fleet a painting by Francis Sartorius, the younger after a drawing by an officer on board the Henry Addington
Defeat of Adml. Linois by Commodore Dance, Feby. 15th. 1804, William Daniell
The East Indiaman Warley, Robert Salmon, 1801, National Maritime Museum
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vessels belonging to the Austrian, Danish, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese or Swedish companies.
The East Indiaman Repulse (1820) in the East India Dock Basin
A full-scale replica of the Dutch Indiaman Amsterdam
East Indiamen in a Gale, by Charles Brooking, c. 1759
East Indiaman Grosvenor by George Carter