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Battle of the Saintes
The
Battle of the Saintes: surrender
of the Ville de Paris
by Thomas Whitcombe, painted
1783, shows Hood's
Barfleur,
centre, attacking the French flagship Ville
de Paris, right.
The Battle of the
Saintes (known to the French as the Battle of Dominica) took place over
four days, from the 9th to the 12th of 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 battle is sometimes credited with pioneering the
tactic of "breaking the line"; this is however erroneous as Danish
admiral
Niels
Juel did this in the Battle
of Køge Bay more than a hundred years earlier.
Battle of the Saintes - A Diorama by Patrick
Chevailler (1982)
Origins: On the 7th of April 1782, the Comte de Grasse set out from Martinique
with thirty five ships
of the line, including two fifty-gun ships and a large convoy of more
than a hundred cargo ships, to meet with a Spanish fleet consisting of twelve
ships of the line and fifteen thousand troops for the purpose of capturing the
British island of Jamaica.
He was pursued by Rodney with thirty six ships
of the line. On the 9th of April 1782, De Grasse sent his convoy into
Guadeloupe, escorted by his two fifty-gunships. There was an initial
inconclusive clash during which the French got the better of the van division of
the British fleet which had become separated from the centre and rear divisions.
Two French ships of the line were damaged.
Battle: On the 12th of April, De Grasse bore up with his fleet to
protect a dismasted ship (Zélé,
seventy four guns) that was being chased by four British ships as he made for
Guadeloupe. Rodney recalled his chasing ships and made the signal for line
of battle. As the French line passed down the British line, a sudden
shift of wind let Rodney's flagship Formidable and several other ships,
including the Duke and the
Bedford, break through the
French line, raking the ships as they did so. The resultant confusion in the
French line and the severe damage to several of the French ships including De
Grasse's flagship Ville
de Paris, of one hundred and four guns, led eventually to De Grasse’s
surrender and the retreat of many of his ships in disorder. This action split
the French battle line into two. A general chase ensued. In all, four French
ships were captured and one, César, blew up after she was
taken.
A 1785 engraving of de Grasse surrendering to
Rodney
The British lost two hundred and forty three killed and eight hundred
and sixteen wounded, (two captains out of thirty six were killed). The
French losses and wounded has never been stated, but of captains alone, six were
killed out of thirty. It is estimated that the French loss may have been as much
as two thousand. More than five thousand French soldiers and sailors were
captured. 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 four
hundred had been killed and more than seven hundred were wounded. When the César
blew up, she killed over four hundred French and fifty British sailors when her
magazine exploded.
The hull of a first rank vessel
could be up to three feet thick, made of solid oak - or two thousand oak
trees
.
Aftermath: The battle frustrated French and Spanish hopes of capturing Jamaica
from the British. Rodney 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. The battle has caused controversy ever since, for three reasons:
Rodney’s failure to follow up the victory by a pursuit was much
criticised. Rear-Admiral Hood said that the twenty French ships would have been
captured had the commander-in-chief maintained the chase. On the 17th of April,
Hood was sent in pursuit of the enemy. He promptly captured two sixty-four-gun
ships of the line and two smaller warships in the Battle
of the Mona Passage on the 19th of April. 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. But there is considerable
controversy about whether the tactic was intentional, and, if so, who was
responsible for the idea (Rodney, his Captain-of-the-Fleet Sir
Charles Douglas, or John Clerk of Eldin).
On the French side, de Grasse blamed his subordinates, Vaudreuil
and Bougainville,
for his defeat.
Order of Battle:- Admiral
Sir George Rodney's fleet. The name of the British ship - followed by the Captains Name:
VAN. HMS Royal Oak – Capt Thomas Burnett, HMS Alfred – Capt William Bayne,
HMS Montagu – Capt George Bowen, HMS Yarmouth – Capt Anthony Parrey, HMS Valiant
– Capt Samuel Granston Goodall, HMS Barfleur – Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and
Capt John Knight (Flagship of Van), HMS Monarch – Capt Francis Reynolds, HMS
Warrior – Capt Sir James Wallace, HMS Belliqueux – Capt Andrew Sutherland, HMS
Centaur – Capt John Nicholas-Inglefield, HMS Magnificent – Capt Robert Linzee
and HMS Prince William – Capt George Wilkinson.
CENTRE: HMS Bedford – Commodore
Edmund Affleck and Capt Thomas Graves, HMS Ajax – Capt Nicholas Charrington, HMS
Repulse – Capt Thomas Dumaresq, HMS Canada – Capt William Cornwallis, HMS St
Albans – Capt Charles Inglis, HMS Namur – Capt Robert Fanshawe, HMS Formidable –
Admiral George Rodney, Capt Charles Douglas and 2nd Capt Charles
Symons, HMS Duke – Capt Alan Gardner,
HMS Agamamnon – Capt Benjamin Caldwell, HMS Resolution – Capt Lord Robert
Manners, HMS Prothee – Capt Charles Buckner, HMS Hercules – Capt Henry Savage
and HMS America – Capt Samuel Thompson
REAR: HMS Russell – Capt James Saumarez, HMS Fame – Capt Robert Barbor, HMS
Anson – Capt William Blair, HMS Torbay – Capt John Lewis Gigoin, HMS Prince
George – Capt James Williams, HMS Princessa – Rear-Admiral Francis Samuel Drake
and Capt Charles Knatchbull (Flagship of Rear), HMS Conqueror – Capt George
Balfour, HMS Nonsuch – Capt William Truscott, HMS Alcide – Capt Charles
Thompson, HMS Arrogant – Capt Samuel Pitchford Cornish and HMS Marlborough –
Capt Taylor Penny.
The Cesar is seen here sinking. In
fact she sank at about ten pm following a fire started in the afternoon by the
English crew who were drinking to celebrate their victory. The fire started near
a barrel of rum and soon reached the powder holds, thus causing a massive
explosion "It's better like this, the English won't have it" said the injured
Captain M de Manguy, refusing to be evacuated. .
French Ships: Ardent (Captured), Auguste – Capt Louis Antoine de Bourgainville,
Bourgogne, Brave, Cesar (Captured but burnt),
Citoven, Conquerant, Couronne – Capt Claude Mithon de Genouilly, Dauphin Royal,
Destin, Diademe, Duc de Bourgogne, Eveille, Glorieux (Captured), Hector
(Captured), Hercule, Languedoc, Magnanime, Magnifique, Marsailles, Neptune,
Northumberland, Palmier, Pluton, Reflechi, Richemond, Sceptre, Scipion,
Souverain, Triomphant – Capt Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil and Ville de Paris –
Comtet Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse (Captured).
HMS Formidable - A ninety-cannon Ship of the
Line. Ordered in November 1767, She was laid down in Chatham Dockyard (I spent
many years in Chatham, going to school there - so Formidable is a personal
favourite) on the 17th of August 1768 and launched on the 20th of August 1768.
Formidable was the flagship of Admiral Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes.
After a long career she was dismantled in 1813.
ALL IN ALL QUITE SOMETHING TO LEARN
ABOUT
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