Editing Valerie engagement

In late 1805, two French frigates, supported by a [[Fleur-de-Nuit]], launched a surprise attack on the [[HMS Allegiance|HMS ''Allegiance'']]. The Fleur-de-Nuit began dropping bombs on the ''Allegiance''. [[Temeraire]], who was alone on the dragondeck at the time, took flight and engaged by himself. The ''Allegiance'''s captain, [[Tom Riley]], turned the ship broadside to engage, knowing the slow, heavy dragon transport had no hope of outrunning the frigates. French boarders, however, had arrived by small boat to attempt to take the ship.  

It was a difficult fight for Temeraire, surprised and unarmed, as the Fleur had the advantage of its night vision and a fully battle-ready crew.  [[William Laurence|Laurence's]] crew used flares to attempt to aid Temeraire by providing light that could blind the Fleur. As they were repacking a pepper-gun ball with flash powder, Chinese envoy [[Sun Kai]] arrived with fireworks, which provided more light than the flares. [[Harris]] was able to hit and wound the Fleur-de-Nuit; unfortunately, Harris was killed by a bomb dropped as the dragon fled.

Laurence managed to get aboard Temeraire while his officers and men helped engage the boarders. He refrained from pursuing the Fleur, and directed Temeraire toward the French ships, the true threat to the ''Allegiance'', instead. Temeraire used the [[Divine Wind]] against one of them, and a wave that formed in his wake capsized the ship, [[Valerie|''Valérie'']], resulting in the loss of its entire complement of some 300 men.  

[[Lily]]'s [[formation]], including [[Maximus]], [[Dulcia]], [[Messoria]] and [[Nitidus]], were conducting night maneuvers near Brest with the British fleet when they saw the fireworks and came to assist. The French promptly surrendered. The second French frigate, [[Chanteuse|''Chanteuse'']], was taken as a prize.  

Although the British prevailed, the losses were heavy, especially for Laurence's crew. Temeraire himself was injured. Among the officers, first lieutenant [[John Granby]], second lieutenant [[Evans]] and midwingman [[Ezekiah Martin|Martin]] were wounded; Granby and Martin stayed with the ''Allegiance'', but Evans's broken leg required him to return to England.  

Among the crew, two of the topmen were wounded, bellman [[Miggsy]] was killed. Among the riflemen, [[Dunne]] was wounded and [[Donnell]] killed.  Four harness-men were killed. Cadet [[Andrew Morgan]], working with the harness-men, was also killed.
To help replace the crew, Capt. [[Berkley]] left two of Laurence's former topmen, [[Portis]] and [[Macdonaugh]], who had been reassigned to [[Maximus]] while Temeraire was grounded.

Granby's injury was to have further consequences, as he took a fever and was out of commission for quite a while.  In the absence of him and Evans, third lieutenant [[Ferris]] was left in charge of the crew.  Quite young and not as experienced as Granby, he did not know how to convince the other aviators to take no notice of the jibes of the sailors.  This led to an incident in which [[Blythe]] struck naval midshipman [[Reynolds]] to prevent him from challenging [[Ezekiah Martin|Martin]] to a duel in which Martin could not engage.

[[Category:A-Z]]
[[Category:Aerial Corps]]
[[Category:Battles]]
[[Category:Royal Navy]]