Ascension Day in that year fell on the 23rd of May, and as the fishermen were about to attend Mass there was a gun fired from the castle, and simultaneously there rushed into sight 2000 infantry and cavalry, consisting of Moors, Turks and Levanters. Fire was opened on the poor fishermen, and practically the whole lot were massacred. The English flags were then torn to pieces and trampled on, the British Vice-Consul's house was pillaged, as well as the supplies of coral which had been obtained by the fishermen.
As soon as news of this incident reached England the country was roused to immediate action, and a punitive expedition was got together and sent out under Admiral Lord Exmouth. He had been delayed by head winds, but got under way in the last week of July. His flagship was the 120-gun Queen Charlotte, Rear-Admiral Sir David Milne being second in command in the 90-gun Impregnable. There were also three 74-gun ships in addition to a number of frigates, brigs, bombs, fireships and several smaller ships well supplied with shrapnel and the ordinary means of warfare of those times. By the 9th of August the fleet had arrived and anchored at Gibraltar, where it was joined by the Dutch fleet of five frigates and a corvette under Admiral Van Cappillen. Meanwhile H.M.S. Prometheus had been dispatched ahead to Algiers to bring away the British Consul and his family, but did not succeed in the entire task. By disguising them in midshipmen's uniform the Consul's wife and daughter were able to escape, but the Consul had been seized by the Dey and thrown into chains. For the Algerine had learnt from French papers of the forthcoming British expedition, and having heard of the escape of Mrs. and Miss Macdonell, he immediately ordered the detention of two of the boats from the Prometheus
