The Sea lion of India- Part 3

In the previous part of the blog, we saw that the Fraam was unable to even touch Vijaydurg and the British were utterly disappointed and feared that their greatest investment would turn futile. 

In this part, let us see how the British navy tried to salvage their position and ultimately faced utter humiliation and chaos at the hands of the able Maratha navy. 

THE BATTLE CONTINUES-

After the Fraam's cannons were unable to reach even 20-30 yards away from the Fraam, the British decided to inspect the construction of the ship. It was found that the some areas of the ship were not optimally designed to enable the ship to throw cannon balls at a large distance while avoiding the enemy fire. Such were the designing skills of the so-called most powerful navy of the Indian coast at the time.

The said areas were re designed which led to weakening of some areas of the Fraam. Now the distance of the cannon balls fired from the Fraam increased a little. 

Meanwhile, the warships Chandos and Pelham carried some of the naval soldiers to the coast of Vijaydurg. After the Fraam was redesigned, it re joined the British offensive. 19th September 1720 was the day of the big attack. However, the Fraam was still not able to reach anywhere close to Vijaydurg. In fact, the British feared that their golden goose would sink one of their own ships that had headed for the coast of Vijaydurg.

And suddenly, there was a bang! A cannon ball from Vijaydurg had struck the Fraam. And it had hit the exact spot which was weakened a little to increase the range of the cannon balls fired from the Fraam!

The section of the Fraam was set ablaze. The troops that were sent to the coast of Vijaydurg saw this counterattack of the Marathas and started to remember the fierce attack they faced on Khanderi. They started going back to their ships and retreating! Browne was watching all this and was disappointed and utterly demoralized. 

CHAOS IN THE SEAS-

Seeint this offensive fail, Browne decided to attack Vijaydurg at night. Taking advantage of the fog and thr darkness of the night, the Fraam advanced further towards Vijaydurg and orders were given to fire cannon balls. But half of the British of the Fraam were under the influence of alcohol and whoever was sober started to fire towards Vijaydurg. There was no discipline in the British fire. One of the cannons even fired and hit one of the British ships itself and another exploded on the Fraam and the ship itself was damaged! 

The Marathas, however, were alert and Rudraji Anant saw that Fraam was firing by advancing towards Vijaydurg. Marathas were not drunk and responded with apt fire towards the Fraam which led to major destruction of the ship. However, the British had managed to damage some of the Maratha ships, which Browne triumphantly reported to Boone while skipping all the damage faced by the British. A normal European way of trumpeting small wins and ignoring big humiliating losses. 

As the British could not attain any significant goals, the Fraam retreated and Browne decided to repair his ships and have some rest. The Sawants of Wadi, who were not entirely favourable to Marathas approached the British and offered help against Vijaydurg if the British helped them win Devgad which was about 50-60 kms away from Vijaydurg. 

Seeing that this can help heal the recent wounds of defeat, Browne decided to attack Devgad. However, the Sawants did not send reinforcements on time and the offensive failed miserably. Finally, Browne decided to save whatever face he had left and leave for Mumbai along with his ships. 

                            Devgad fort

HUMILIATION OF THE BRITISH NAVY-

As the English warships headed for Mumbai neared Vijaydurg, they noticed that some Maratha ships were tailing them along with some Arab ships circling them from the front. 

In panic, Browne ordered his ships to head towards Vihaydurg. Now the British navy was caught between the Maratha and the Arab warships. However, seeing the number of British ships, the Arabs retreated. Browne was again left to decide the next course of action while Rudraji Anant silently observed the British movement. 

By the next morning, the British navy was in utter chaos with some ships tailing the Arabs, some docked near Vijaydurg and some heading towards Mumbai. 

Seeing the chaos, Marathas and Arabs decided to attack the British navy. Kanhoji Angre is said to be present in this attack. The Charlotte warship he abducted from the British was used against them in this attack. Meanwhile, the British navy was in utter chaos as none of their plans had bore fruit and some of the soldiers were angry on Browne's decision to retreat. Amidst all this chaos, as if, not enough to destroy British dreams to win Vihaydurg, Rudraji Anant opened an offensive on the British from Vujaydurg. The British navy was utterly helpless and could not do anything.

They could not even move fast as it was very difficult to move the Fraam, the floating fortress. Chandos which was moving the Fraam was brutally attacked by the Marathas. Finally, in utter humiliation and defeat, Browne decided to destroy the Fraam and all the cannons present on it lest it fall in the hands of the Arabs and the Marathas. 

In this way, the floating fortress and the golden goose of the British navy which was built to destroy Kanhoji Angre's Vijaydurg and Maratha navy was itself destroyed by its creators and it sunk to the bottom of the sea in front of Vujaydurg in the most dramatic way possible!

Rudraji Anant and Kanhoji Angre had utterly humiliated the British navy and the British did not ever again dare to go against the Marathas in a direct way. 

This concludes Part 3 of the series of the blogs where we explored the heroics of Kanhoji Angre, the undefeated Indian admiral. The British were humiliated many times after this. 

After this battle, Kanhoji was even more feared amongst the coastal powers and the Marathas were reckoned as a power that was not to be messed with!

We will explore another masterpiece of strategy of the Marathas in the next series of blogs, till then, peace!✌🏻✌🏻

Sources-

1) The Era of Bajirao by Dr. Uday S. Kulkarni

2) https://youtu.be/ZIrs-mc_gdo?si=UOKS1R5T5zjNJRsz