Lord Howe’s action,or First June 1794

[Anatol]

The stamp 50 dirhams depicts copy of the painting Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg- Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June.1795
The battle was fought between the British, with 34 line-of-battle ships under the command of Admiral Earl Howe and a French fleet of 26 ships of the line under Rear-Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse.
Howe's plans were for his ships to run down onto the French fleet, break through all along their line and individually engage their opposite numbers. These intentions were difficult to transmit by signal and not all his captains fully understood or complied with what was wanted of them. In the event, only a few ships (Howe's flagship Queen Charlotte, Defence, Marlborough, Royal George, Queen and Brunswick ) penetrated the French line and brought about the general melee Howe had hoped to provoke. The first ship to break through, HMS Defencewas severely handled and totally dismasted. Her captain, Sir James Gambier, was a noted evangelical and something of a figure of fun in the Navy, and Captain Packenham of the Invincible , coming to Defence’s aid could not resist hailing him, 'Jemmy, whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth!'. The Queen Charlotte forced her way between the French flagship Montagne and the Jacobin , a tricky and dangerous manoeuvre which so absorbed the attention of the ship's senior officers that the order to open fire had to be given by a midshipman. Only the loss of her foretopmast prevented the Queen Charlotte reaching a position from which Villaret-Joyeuse's Montagne must, it seemed, have been taken. Elsewhere, the battle became a series of single combats between ships, none more fiercely fought than the duel between the Brunswick and the Vengeur . Locked together so closely that the Brunswick’s gun crews had to blast away their own portlids, they pounded each other for nearly four hours before the Vengeur surrendered, already in a sinking state.
Ras al Khaima 50dirhams;SG ?
For more details see: http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-and-sh ... st-of-june