Battle of the Saintes

The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), or Battle of Dominica was an important naval battle that took place over 4 days, 9 April 1782 – 12 April 1782, during the American War of Independence, and was a victory of a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney over a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica.

The battle is named after the Saintes (or Saints), a group of islands between Guadeloupe and Dominica in the West Indies. The French fleet defeated here by the Royal Navy was the same French fleet that had blockaded the British Army during the Siege of Yorktown. The French suffered heavy casualties and many were taken prisoner including the Comte de Grasse. Four French ships of the line were captured (including the flagship) as well as one destroyed. Rodney was credited with pioneering the tactic of "breaking the line" in the battle, though this is disputed.

Origins

Main article: Caribbean theater of the American Revolutionary War

In October 1781 a plan had been worked out between Admiral Comte de Grasse, commander of the French fleet in the West Indies, and Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, General Bureau for the Spanish Indies, court representative and aide to the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez. The strategic objectives of this plan were to guide the Franco-Spanish military forces in the West Indies to accomplish the following objectives:

• To aid the Americans and defeat the British naval squadron at New York
• The capture of the British Windward Islands and
• The conquest of Jamaica.

This plan became known as the De Grasse – Saavedra Convention and the first objective was essentially met with the surrender of the British army under General Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown in September 1781. De Grasse and his fleet had played a decisive part in that victory, after which they then sailed to the Caribbean. On arrival in Saint Domingue November 1781 he was given news that the plan was given the go ahead: to proceed with the conquest of Jamaica.

Naval Commanders
Comte De Grasse George Rodney

Jamaica was the largest and most profitable British island in the Caribbean, mainly for sugar; it was more valuable to the British economy than the thirteen American colonies. In a letter from King George III to Lord Sandwich he declared that he would risk protecting Britain's important Caribbean islands at the risk of Britain herself, and this was strategy implemented in 1779. Sugar made up 20% of all British imports and was worth five times as much as tobacco. As well as the gradual expulsion of the British from the West Indies by the French and Spanish, the conquest was to force a massive blow on the British economy. The invasion itself though was perceived in the courts at Paris and Madrid as an alternative to the Spanish and French attempts to take Gibraltar which for two years had been a costly disaster.

While de Grasse waited for reinforcements to undertake the Jamaica campaign, he captured St. Kitts in February 1782. The rest of the Windward Islands Antigua, St Lucia, and Barbados still remained under British control while Admiral George Rodney arrived in the Caribbean theater the following month having brought reinforcements. These included seventeen ships of the line, and gave the British a slight advantage in number.

On 7 April 1782, de Grasse set out from Martinique with 35 ships of the line, including two 50-gun ships and a large convoy of more than 100 cargo ships, to meet with a Spanish fleet consisting of 12 ships of the line. In addition de Grasse was to rendezvous with 15,000 troops at Saint Domingue earmarked for the conquest by landing on Jamaica's North coast. Rodney on learning of this then sailed from St Lucia in pursuit now with 36 ships of the line the following day.

The British hulls by this time had been given copper sheathing, to protect them from marine growth and fouling as well as salt water corrosion. The result of this was that the speed and sailing performance as a whole in good wind improved dramatically.

Battle

On 9 April 1782, the copper hulled British fleet soon caught up with the French who were surprised by their speed. De Grasse ordered the French convoy to head into Guadeloupe for repair, forcing him to escort two fifty-gun ships (Fier and Experiment) and placing its fleet in line of battle in order to cover the retreat. The British fleet became separated from the centre and rear divisions and eight ships of their vanguard under Rear-Admiral Samuel Hood, however, moved against de Grasse's retreating ships and waged a fight. After an inconclusive encounter in which both sides suffered damage, de Grasse soon realized that the main British fleet would soon be upon them. He broke off the engagement to return to protect the merchant convoy.

Main stages of the battle

In the following days the two fleets faced each other parallel but both sides kept their distance as they repaired their ships.

On 12 April, the French were sighted a short distance away as the two fleets maneuvered between the northern end of Dominica and the Saintes. A French straggler, Zélé (74 guns), was spotted and was being chased by four British ships as De Grasse made for Guadeloupe. He bore up with his fleet to protect the ship which led him to Guadeloupe and at the same time Rodney recalled his chasing ships and made the signal for line of battle.

Rear-Admiral Hood's van division were still making repairs from the action three days earlier, so he directed his rear division, under Rear Admiral Francis S. Drake, to take the lead. At 7:40 HMS Marlborough under Captain Taylor Penny, led the British line and opened the battle when he approached the center of the French line. Having remained parallel with the French, the ships of Drake's division then passed the remaining length of de Grasse's line and the two sides exchanged broadsides; a typical naval engagement of this time.

Breaking of the line

As the battle progressed, the strong winds of the previous day and night began to temper and became more variable. As the French line passed down the British line, the sudden shift of wind let Rodney's flagship HMS Formidable and several other ships, including HMS Duke and HMS Bedford, sail towards the French line.

Lord Rodney’s flagship ‘Formidable’ breaking through the French line at the battle of the Saintes, 12th April 1782; painted by William Elliott

At 8 am Formidable opened fire and engaged the French center and as she slowed, duelled de Grasse's flagship Ville de Paris of 104 guns. The rest of the ships soon followed raking the French as they did so causing huge casualties amongst the soldiers and sailors. Around 9:00am, Drake's rearmost ship, HMS Russell cleared the end of the French fleet and hauled wind and while his ships had taken some damage, they had inflicted a severe battering on them.

With an hour the wind had shifted to the south and thus forced the French line to separate and bear to the west as it could not hold its course into the wind. This allowed the British to use their guns on each side of their ships without any fear of return fire from the front and rear of the French ships they were passing between. The affect was more telling with the use of carronades which the British had just equipped nearly half their fleet; this relatively new weapon at close range was devastating. Glorieux was the first to be taken advantage of; virtually a sitting duck she was quickly pounded and dismasted by intense fire. Four French ships in the confusion began milling around; Formidable turned to starboard and had brought its port guns to bear on them. As a result Formidable sailed through the French line blasting her way through; this piercing was followed by five other British ships.

At the same time Commodore Edmund Affleck to the south, also immediately capitalized on the opportunity and led the rearmost of the British ships through the French line inflicting significant damage. The French tried to restore order; around 1:30 pm, De Grasse signaled line on the port tack but this was not fulfilled; he was soon battling Hood's 90-gun HMS Barfleur. With their formation shattered and many of their ships severely damaged, the French fell away to the southwest in small groups. Rodney attempted to redeploy and make repairs before pursuing the French. By 2:00pm the wind freshened and a general chase ensued, and as the British pressed south they took possession of Glorieux and caught up to the French rear around 3:00pm. In succession, Rodney's ships had isolated the other three ships; César which was soon totally dismasted and in flames, was captured by HMS Centaur. Hector, a complete dismasted wreck struck after having battled HMS Canada and HMS Alcide. Ardent soon followed being taken by the rest of the British centre.

The end of the César, by François Aimé Louis Dumoulin

At 4pm De Grasse with Ville de Paris, alone and being battered by Barfleur, with little support and suffering huge losses in men made another attempt to signal the fleet, by ordering "to build the line on the starboard tack" but again this was not fulfilled. By this time most of the French fleet apart from those surrounded had retreated; Louis Antoine de Bougainville who commanded Auguste, succeeded in rallying eight ships of his own division.

Finally the isolated Ville de Paris being overwhelmed and suffering horrific losses eventually struck her colours. Hood took the surrender and the boarding crew which included the British fleet surgeon Gilbert Blane were horrified at the carnage; Remarkably de Grasse appeared not to have a scratch on him while every one of his officers were either killed or wounded. Rodney boarded soon after and Hood then presented de Grasse to him. With his surrender the battle had effectively finished except for a few long range desultory shots and the retreat of many of the French ships in disorder. With the fire now out of control the magazine aboard the César exploded, killing over 400 French and 50 British sailors despite many of them jumping overboard.

The Comte de Vaudreuil in Sceptre learning of de Grasse's fate assumed command of the scattered French naval fleet. On 13 April he had ten ships with him and sailed towards Cap-Français.

Aftermath

The British lost 243 killed and 816 wounded, and two captains out of 36 were killed. The French loss in killed and wounded has never been stated, but of captains alone, six were killed out of 30. It is estimated that the French loss may have been as much as 3,000 and more than 5,000 French soldiers and sailors were captured, in addition to the captured French ships several of their ships were severely damaged. The large number shows what a considerable force the French were willing to put ashore with the invasion of Jamaica. Of the Ville de Paris' crew, over 400 were killed and more than 700 were wounded- more than the entire casualties of the British fleet.

A 1785 engraving of de Grasse surrendering to Rodney.

On 17 April, Hood was sent in pursuit of the French and promptly captured two 64-gun ships of the line (Jason and Caton) and two smaller warships in the Battle of the Mona Passage on 19 April.

Soon after the defeat, the French fleet reached Cap Francois in several waves, the main corps under Vaudreuil arrived on 25 April; Marseillois, along with Hercule, Pluton and Éveillé, arrived on 11 May.

In May all French ships from the battle arrived from Martinique and which then numbered twenty-six ships and were soon joined by twelve Spanish ships. Disease then took a hold of the French forces in particular the soldiers in which thousands died. The allies now hesitated and indecisions soon led to the abandonment of the enterprise upon Jamaica.

The battle has caused controversy ever since, for three reasons:

• Rodney’s failure to follow up the victory by a pursuit was much criticised. Samuel Hood said that the 20 French ships would have been captured had the commander-in-chief maintained the chase. One hundred and twenty years later, the Navy Records Society published the Dispatches and Letters Relating to the Blockading of Brest. In the introduction they include a small biography of Admiral William Cornwallis who commanded the Canada at the Saintes. A poem purportedly written by him includes the lines:

Had a chief worthy Britain commanded our fleet,
Twenty-five good French ships had been laid at our feet.

• The battle is famous for the innovative tactic of "breaking the line", in which the British ships passed though a gap in the French line, engaging the enemy from leeward and throwing them into disorder. There is however considerable controversy about whether the tactic was intentional, and, if so, who was responsible for the idea: Rodney, his Scottish Captain-of-the-Fleet and Aide-de-camp Sir Charles Douglas or John Clerk of Eldin Arguably the battle was not the first time a line had been broken; Dano–Norwegian admiral Niels Juel did this in the Battle of Køge Bay more than a hundred years earlier and even earlier the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter used it for the first time in the last day of the Four Days' Battle in 1666 (and again in the Battle of Schooneveld and the Battle of Texel of 1673).
• On the French side, de Grasse blamed his subordinates, Vaudreuil and Bougainville, for his defeat.

Captive French ships after the battle by Dominic Serres

Nevertheless France and Spain's plan to invade Jamaica were ruined, and it remained a British colony with no further threat, as indeed were Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua. Rodney was feted a hero on his return; he presented the Comte De Grasse as his prisoner personally to the King. He was created a peer with £2,000 a year settled on the title in perpetuity for this victory. Hood was elevated to the peerage as well while Drake and Affleck were both made a baronet.

Following the Franco-American victory at Yorktown the previous year, and the change of Government in England, peace negotiations between Britain, the American colonies, France and Spain had begun in early 1782. The Battle of the Saintes transferred the strategic initiative to the British, with the most likely further military action being an attack on the French sugar islands, and the French, in particular, were consequently inclined to ameliorate their terms. Britain's dominance at sea was reasserted and it also became clear to the Americans that they could look forward to less French support in the future. The Siege of Gibraltar exacerbated this, when later in the year the defeat of the huge Franco-Spanish assault and the subsequent relief by Richard Howe led to the lifting of the siege in February 1783. Initial articles of peace were signed in July, with a full treaty in September 1783.

As a result of the battle naval warfare changed along the tactical lines employed and would be used again by the British, including in the all-important Battle of Trafalgar, where Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated Napoleon’s fleet using similar tactics.

Order of battle

Britain

Admiral Sir George Rodney's fleet
Van
Ship	Rate	Guns	Commander	Casualties			Notes
				Killed	Wounded	Total
HMS Royal Oak	Third rate	74	Captain Thomas Burnett	8	30	38
HMS Alfred	Third rate	74	Captain William Bayne  †	12	40	52	Bayne killed on 9 April
HMS Montagu	Third rate	74	Captain George Bowen	14	29	43
HMS Yarmouth	Third rate	64	Captain Anthony Parrey	14	33	47
HMS Valiant	Third rate	74	Captain Samuel Granston Goodall	10	28	38
HMS Barfleur	Second rate	98	Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood Captain John Knight	10	37	47	Flagship of van
HMS Monarch	Third rate	74	Captain Francis Reynolds	16	33	49
HMS Warrior	Third rate	74	Captain Sir James Wallace	5	21	26
HMS Belliqueux	Third rate	64	Captain Andrew Sutherland	4	10	14
HMS Centaur	Third rate	74	Captain John Nicholson Inglefield	?	?	?	No casualty returns made
HMS Magnificent	Third rate	74	Captain Robert Linzee	6	11	17
HMS Prince William	Third rate	64	Captain George Wilkinson	0	0	0
Centre
HMS Bedford	Third rate	74	Commodore Edmund Affleck Captain Thomas Graves	0	17	17
HMS Ajax	Third rate	74	Captain Nicholas Charrington	9	40	49
HMS Repulse	Third rate	64	Captain Thomas Dumaresq	3	11	14
HMS Canada	Third rate	74	Captain William Cornwallis	12	23	35
HMS St Albans	Third rate	64	Captain Charles Inglis	0	6	6
HMS Namur	Second rate	90	Captain Robert Fanshawe	6	25	31
HMS Formidable	Second rate	98	Admiral Sir George Rodney Captain Sir Charles Douglas 2nd Captain Charles Symons	15	39	53	Flagship of centre
HMS Duke	Second rate	98	Captain Alan Gardner	13	60	73
HMS Agamemnon	Third rate	64	Captain Benjamin Caldwell	15	23	38
HMS Resolution	Third rate	74	Captain Lord Robert Manners	4	34	38
HMS Prothee	Third rate	64	Captain Charles Buckner	5	25	30
HMS Hercules	Third rate	74	Captain Henry Savage	6	19	25	Captain Savage wounded
HMS America	Third rate	64	Captain Samuel Thompson	1	1	2
Rear
HMS Russell	Third rate	74	Captain James Saumarez	10	29	39
HMS Fame	Third rate	74	Captain Robert Barbor	3	12	15
HMS Anson	Third rate	64	Captain William Blair  †	3	13	16
HMS Torbay	Third rate	74	Captain John Lewis Gidoin	10	25	35
HMS Prince George	Second rate	98	Captain James Williams	9	24	33
HMS Princessa	Third rate	70	Rear-Admiral Francis Samuel Drake Captain Charles Knatchbull	3	22	25	Flagship of rear
HMS Conqueror	Third rate	74	Captain George Balfour	7	23	30
HMS Nonsuch	Third rate	64	Captain William Truscott	3	3	6
HMS Alcide	Third rate	74	Captain Charles Thompson	?	?	?	No casualty returns made
HMS Arrogant	Third rate	74	Captain Samuel Pitchford Cornish	0	0	0
HMS Marlborough	Third rate	74	Captain Taylor Penny	3	16	19
Total recorded casualties: 239 killed, 762 wounded (casualties for two ships unknown)
Source: The London Gazette, 12 December 1782.

France

Admiral the Comte de Grasse's fleet
Ship	Guns	Commander	Fate
Ardent	64	de Gouzillon	captured
Auguste	80	de Castellan Chef d'escadre Louis Antoine de Bougainville	van flag
Bourgogne	74
Brave	74
César	74		captured, but destroyed
Citoyen	74
Conquérant	74
Couronne	80	Claude Mithon de Genouilly
Dauphin Royal	70	Pierre, comte de Roquefeuil
Destin	74
Diadème	74
Duc de Bourgogne	80
Éveillé	64
Glorieux	74		captured
Hector	74		captured
Hercule	74	Jean Isaac Chadeau de la Clocheterie
Languedoc	80
Magnanime	74
Magnifique	74
Marseillais	74
Neptune	74
Northumberland	74
Palmier	74
Pluton	74
Réfléchi	64
Richemond	frigate	Montemart
Sceptre	74	Marquis de Vaudreuil
Scipion	74
Souverain	74
Triomphant	80	Jean-François Du Cheyron  †
Ville de Paris	104	François Joseph Paul de Grasse	captured

See also

• Anglo-French War (1778–83)
• France in the American Revolutionary War
• Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War

References

Footnotes

Citations

Bibliography

• Crossman, Mark World military leaders: a biographical dictionary Facts on File Inc (2006) ISBN 978-0-8160-4732-1
• Fullom, Stephen Watson, Life of General Sir Howard Douglas, Bart. (1865)
• Lebedev, A.A. From the Chesapeake to Dominica: the culmination of a fundamental dispute naval doctrines. Gangut. 2010. № 56 – 57
• Mahan, A.T., Major Operations of the Navies in the War of Independence (1913)
• Mahan, A.T., Types of Naval Officers, Drawn from the History of the British Navy (1901)
• Mundy, Major-General Godfrey Basil, The Life and Correspondence of the Late Admiral Lord Rodney (1830)
• Playfair, John. "On the Naval Tactics of the Late John Clerk, Esq. of Eldin." The Works of John Playfair, Vol. III (1822)

External links

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