The Battle of Fort Royal 29 April 1781.

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This was a naval battle fought off Fort Royal, Martinique in the West Indies during the Anglo-French War on 29 April 1781, between fleets of the British Royal Navy and the French Navy. After an engagement lasting four hours, the British squadron under Sir Samuel Hood broke off and retreated. Admiral Comte de Grasse offered a desultory chase before seeing the French convoys safe to port.

Background.

In March 1781, a large French fleet under the command of Comte de Grasse left the port of Brest. Most of this fleet was headed for the West Indies. Of the 26 ships of the line, one was sent to North America, and five, under the command of the Bailli de Suffren, were destined for India. The remaining twenty arrived off to Martinique on April 28. Before sailing to the lee (western) side of the island, de Grasse anchored the fleet and sent someone ashore for news. He learned that a British fleet of 17 ships of the line under Samuel Hood was blockading Fort Royal, preventing the four French ships anchored there from leaving.
Hood was under orders from the fleet's station commander, Admiral George Brydges Rodney, to maintain the blockade of the port on the lee side, despite his protests that this would put him at a disadvantage should any other fleet arrive. Though disadvantaged by his position and his inferior firepower, the fact that all of his ships had copper bottoms, which required little maintenance compared to the alternative, and that he was not burdened with the responsibility of escorting a convoy both allowed him to focus his efforts on maintaining the blockade.

Battle.

De Grasse ordered his fleet to prepare for action on the morning of April 29, and sailed for Fort Royal with the convoy ships hugging the coast and the armed ships in battle line. Hood's fleet was spotted bearing toward them around 8:00 AM, but de Grasse held the advantageous weather gauge. At about 9:20 AM, Hood was joined by the Prince William, a 64-gun ship that had been at St. Lucia. The two fleets continued to push for advantageous positions, however Hood's leeward position meant he was unable to prevent de Grasse from bringing the convoy to the harbor, and de Grasse's fleet and the four blockaded ships soon met. Around 11 AM, de Grasse's van began firing at long range, with no effect. By 12:30 PM the two fleets were aligned, but de Grasse refused to take advantage of the weather gauge to close with Hood, despite Hood's efforts to bring the French to him. The fleets then exchanged cannonades and broadsides for the next hour; though at long range, the damage incurred was modest. The four British ships on the southern end of the line suffered the most damage due to being targeted and outnumbered by eight French ships. Hood finally drew away toward St. Lucia.

Aftermath.

Hood dispatched the Russell, which had been holed below the waterline to St. Eustatius for repairs, and to bring news of the action to Admiral Rodney. Hood spent the next day in fruitless attempts to gain the windward and eventually made sail to the north. He met Rodney on May 11 between St. Kitts and Antigua, the latter having left St. Eustatius on May 5. Reports of French casualties vary from as few as 74 killed and wounded to more than 250.

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Great Britain
British squadron, Sir Samuel Hood (1st Baronet Hood) (1724-1816)
This fleet was doing the Fort Royal port blockade.
Ship Name	Guns	Commander	Notes
Name : Barfleur (90)	98	John Knight	Fleet Flagship Rear-Admiral Samuel Hood
Name : Gibraltar (80)	80	Charles Knatchbull	Squadron Flagship Rear-Admiral Francis Samuel Drake
Name : Torbay (90)	74	John Lewis Gidoin (d.1796)
Name : Alfred (74)	74	William Bayne (1730-1782)
Name : Alcide (74)	74	Charles Thompson (1740-1799)
Name : Invincible (74)	74	Richard Hussey Bickerton (1759-1832)
Name : Monarch (74)	74	Lord Francis Reynolds (1739-1808)
Name : Terrible (74)	74	James Ferguson (1723-1793)
Name : Ajax (74)	74	John Symons (d.1799)
Name : Resolution (74)	74	Lord Robert Manners (1758-1782)
Name : Montagu (74)	74	George Bowen
Name : Centaur (74)	74	John Neale Pleydell Nott (d.1781)
Name : Shrewsbury (74)	74	Mark Robinson (1722-1799)
Name : Princessa (70)	70	Sir Thomas Rich (5th Baronet Rich) (1733-1803)
Name : Intrepid (64)	64	Henry Harvey (1737-1810), Anthony James Pye Molloy (d.1815)
Name : Belliqueux (64)	64	James Brine (d.1814)
Name : Prince William (64)	64	Stair Douglas (d.1789)
Name : Lizard (28)	28	Edmund Dod (1734-1815)

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Captain John Knight.





John Knight was born in Dundee in February 1747, the son of Rear-Admiral John Knight and his wife Jean Hay. In 1758, aged 11, he followed his father into service with the Royal Navy aboard HMS Tartar, participating in the Raid on Cherbourg that year during the Seven Years' War. Knight remained with his father for five more years, until moving at the end of the war in 1763 to HMS Romney on the North American station. Off North America, Knight participated in surveying operations and although he returned to Europe some years later, he went back to North America in 1775 at the start of the American Revolutionary War.

Serving on the sloop HMS Falcon, Knight witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill while anchored off Boston, and in 1776 he was captured in an attack on an American schooner. He was exchanged in December 1776 and given the independent hired vessel HMS Haerlem to conduct raiding operations along the Eastern Seaboard. In 1777 he was aboard Lord Howe's flagship HMS Eagle, and his knowledge of the coast played a vital part in Howe outmanoeuvring the French fleet of d'Estaing. The same year he married a woman named Prudence Reynolds in America, with whom he would have eight children, and in February 1778 he returned to Britain.

In 1780, Knight returned to the Americas again aboard HMS Barfleur and participated in the Battle of Fort Royal and the Battle of the Chesapeake, briefly becoming post captain in command of HMS Shrewsbury in 1782 before returning to Barfleur as captain and fighting at the Battle of St. Kitts and the Battle of the Saintes. At the end of the war, Knight remained in command of Barfleur and was given personal responsibility for the naval education of the young Prince William who served aboard.


After the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, Knight had periods in command of Barfleur in the Channel Fleet and HMS Victory in the Mediterranean, before taking over HMS Monatgu with the North Sea fleet. At the Nore Mutiny in 1797, Montagu was heavily involved, but Knight resumed command once the uprising had collapsed, and in October he was engaged at the Battle of Camperdown against the Dutch fleet. In 1798 he commanded a squadron off Ireland and the following year was in command of the blockade squadron off Brest. He also remarried, his first wife having died sometime previously, to a widow named Love Pickman Oliver. In 1801 Knight was promoted to rear-admiral, and in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars he was named as commander at Gibraltar, where he remained for another ten years until the war's end in 185 when he retired from the Navy as a full admiral and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.
He settled with his family at Woodend House in Soberton, Hampshire, and died there in June 1831. Although he was respected professionally, Knight was not popular with his men or his fellow officers. Discipline aboard his ship was considered poor by naval standards, and his habit of bringing his wife and children to sea with him was criticized.

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Rear-Admiral Samuel Hood.





He was the son of Alexander Hood (son of Alexander Hood and Elizabeth, née Beach), and Ann, née Way, He entered the Royal Navy in 1776 at the start of the American Revolutionary War. His first engagement was the First Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778, and, soon afterwards transferred to the West Indies, he was present, under the command of his cousin, at all the actions which culminated in Admiral George Rodney's victory of 12 April 1782 in the Battle of the Saintes.

After the peace, like many other British naval officers, Hood spent some time in France, and on his return to England was given the command of a sloop, from which he proceeded in succession to various frigates. In the 32-gun fifth-rate frigate Juno his gallant rescue of some shipwrecked seamen won him a vote of thanks and a sword of honour from the Jamaica assembly.

French Revolutionary Wars.

Early in 1793, after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, Hood went to the Mediterranean in Juno under his cousin Lord Hood, and distinguished himself by an audacious feat of coolness and seamanship in extricating his vessel from the harbour of Toulon, which he had entered in ignorance of Lord Hood's withdrawal. In 1795, in Aigle, he was put in command of a squadron for the protection of Levantine commerce, and in early 1797 he was given command of the 74-gun ship of the line Zealous, in which he was present at Admiral Horatio Nelson's unsuccessful attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Captain Hood conducted the negotiations which relieved the squadron from the consequences of its failure.

Napoleonic Wars.

Zealous played an important part at the Battle of the Nile. Her first opponent was put out of action in twelve minutes. Hood immediately engaged other ships, the Guerriere being left powerless to fire a shot.

When Nelson left the coast of Egypt, Hood commanded the blockading force off Alexandria and Rosetta. Later he rejoined Nelson on the coast of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, receiving for his services the order of St Ferdinand.

In the 74-gun third-rate Venerable Hood was present at the Battle of Algeciras on 8 July 1801 and the action in the Straits of Gibraltar that followed. In the Straits his ship suffered heavily, losing 130 officers and men.

In 1802, Hood was employed in Trinidad as a commissioner, and, upon the death of the flag officer commanding the Leeward Islands Station, he succeeded him as Commodore. Island after island fell to him, and soon, outside Martinique, the French had scarcely a foothold in the West Indies. Amongst other measures Hood took one may mention the garrisoning of Diamond Rock, which he commissioned as a sloop-of-war to blockade the approaches of Martinique. For these successes he was, amongst other rewards, appointed a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath (KB).

In command next of the squadron blockading Rochefort, Sir Samuel Hood lost an arm during the Action of 25 September 1806 against a French frigate squadron. Promoted to Rear Admiral a few days after this action, Hood was in 1807 entrusted with the operations against Madeira, which he brought to a successful conclusion.

In 1808 Hood sailed to the Baltic Sea, with his flag in the 74-gun Centaur, to take part in the Russo-Swedish war. In one of the actions of this war Centaur and Implacable, while unsupported by the Swedish ships (which lay to leeward), cut out the Russian 50-gun ship Sevolod from the enemy's line and, after a desperate fight, forced her to strike. King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden rewarded Admiral Hood with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword. He became a baronet on 1 April 1809.

Late career.

Present in the roads of A Coruña at the re-embarkation of the army of Sir John Moore after the Battle of A Coruña, Hood thence returned to the Mediterranean, where for two years he commanded a division of the British fleet. In 1811 he became Vice Admiral.

In his last command, that of the East Indies Station, he carried out many salutary reforms, especially in matters of discipline and victualling. He died without issue at Madras in 1814, having married Mary Elizabeth Frederica Mackenzie, eldest daughter and heiress of Francis Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth.

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Captain Charles Knatchbull.





1747-1826. He was born on 23 May 1747, the son of the Reverend Wadham Knatchbull, a prebendary of Durham and rector of Chilham, Kent, and his wife, Harriet Parry.



In May 1769 Knatchbull was appointed a midshipman aboard the Dunkirk 60, Captain Walter Stirling, flying the broad pennant of Commodore Arthur Forrest at Jamaica. In August 1770 he removed on the same station to the Lowestoffe 32, Captain Robert Carkett, as her acting second lieutenant, and when he was officially commissioned lieutenant on 9 November 1770 he was listed as belonging to the Dunkirk, although by 1771 he was back with the Lowestoffe and Captain Carkett. In March 1772, whilst still on the Jamaican station, he joined the schooner Earl of Northampton as her commander. In the early part of 1773 he returned to England aboard the Achilles 60, Captain Richard Onslow, which vessel was paid off in April.



Knatchbull was promoted commander on 11 August 1779, and having succeeded Captain Walter Stirling aboard the Gibraltar 80 after his old commander had gone home with despatches following the capture of St. Eustatius on 3 February 1781 he was posted captain on 13 May. He thereafter flew the flag of Rear-Admiral Francis Samuel Drake and saw action at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April before transferring with that officer to the Princessa 70. He subsequently fought at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay on 5 September where his ship suffered casualties of six men killed and eleven wounded, at the Battle of St. Kitts on 25 January 1782, and at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April. The Princessa sailed for North America with Admiral Hugh Pigot’s fleet in July, returning to the Leeward Islands towards the end of the year by which time Captain Lambert Brabazon had assumed command. Knatchbull returned to England in command of the Nymphe 32, which was paid off in June 1783.



Having resigned from the service he did not see any further employment, and he died on Christmas Day 1826.



He married his first cousin, Frances Knatchbull, the daughter of Major Norton Knatchbull, on 31 July 1785 but did not have any issue. He inherited Babington House, near Frome in Somerset, which was extended under his occupancy in the 1790’s.

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Rear Admiral Sir Francis Samuel Drake 1st Baronet.





1728-89. He was baptised on 14 September 1729, having been born a year before at the ancestral Drake home of Buckland Abbey in Buckland Monachorum, Devon. He was the fourth born but third surviving of Sir Francis Henry Drake, the 4th baronet in the line of succession from the conqueror of the Spanish Armada, Sir Francis Drake, and of his wife, Anne Heathcote. His immediate elder brother was Vice-Admiral Francis William Drake.

Samuel Drake was schooled at Plymouth from the age of twelve, and only entered the Navy at the age of sixteen as something of an afterthought on behalf of his widowed mother, the boy having returned from school to the family home without a plan for his future.

He was commissioned lieutenant on 21 August 1749 and served aboard the Torrington 44, Captain Thomas Hutchenson, going out to Newfoundland in 1751 and North America in April 1753. Further employment was aboard the Otter 14,
Commander Edward Le Cras, and from the early part of 1755 Commander Alexander Innes, although a clash of personalities with the latter officer saw him transferred in May to the Windsor 60, Captain Samuel Faulkner. Meanwhile, to the wrath of his family, he had quickly squandered a patrimonial inheritance and then made matters worse by marrying a penniless young woman.

Drake was promoted commander of the newly commissioned sloop Viper 10 on 30 March 1756, and was posted into the Biddeford 20 on 15 November of the same year. On 11 March 1757 he exchanged with his ailing brother, Francis William, into the Falkland 50 as part of a special arrangement between his oldest brother and the first lord of the Admiralty, Lord Anson. Going out to North America with the Highland Regiment in July, he commanded her in the Leeward Islands through 1758, and sailed for St Helena to bring home the East India convoy in the spring of 1759. He then served under Commodore Robert Duff off Brittany in the autumn of 1759, and fought at the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November.

During 1760 he sailed with the Falkland under the orders of Commodore Robert Swanton to relieve Quebec, and thereafter saw employment with Admirals Sir James Douglas and Rear-Admiral George Rodney in the Leeward Islands, being present at the surrender of Dominica in January 1761 and the capture of Martinique in June 1762. In November 1762 he transferred to the Rochester 50, and he retained her until paid off at Chatham in April 1764.

After a substantial period of unemployment he commanded the guard-ship Torbay 74 at Plymouth from 1772-5.

Drake commissioned the Russell 74 in September 1777, sailing for North America with Vice-Admiral Hon. John Byron’s fleet on 9 June, but being forced back to Lisbon as a consequence of the great storm which disrupted the expedition. In December he sailed under the orders of Vice-Admiral Lord Shuldham from Plymouth with the West and East India convoys, but whilst still in the Channel his ship rammed a merchantman, the London, which sunk inside a half-hour with one hundred fatalities. The Russell was obliged to return to Spithead where the opportunity was taken to copper-bottom her, and this allowed Drake to sit on Admiral Hon. Augustus Keppel’s court-martial subsequent to the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778. The verdict in Keppel’s favour pleased him, as his preferment was for the commander-in-chief over his rival, Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser.

In May 1779 he sailed with Vice-Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot’s convoy for North America, the force being temporarily diverted to protect Jersey from a French invasion, but after joining the expedition to attack Charleston in the spring he had to return to New York before its capture on 11 May 1780, the Russell and the other sail of the line being unable to cross the bar. He remained for a short time in command at New York, and then hoisting a broad pennant with Captain Robert Haswell serving under him he sailed with the Russell to join Admiral Sir George Rodney in the Leeward Islands in June, prior to returning with Rodney to North America at the onset of the hurricane season.
The promotions to rear-admiral on 26 September 1780 were extended to include Drake as he was one of the few officers prepared to fight for the government. He raised his flag aboard the very spacious Princessa 70, Captain Sir Thomas Rich, later shifting it to the Gibraltar 80, with his flag captain at this time being Charles Knatchbull. When Rodney sailed to attack St. Eustatius on 3 February 1781 Drake was left on watch Martinique with six sail of the line covering four French ships. He later served under Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood in the blockade of Martinique, and the Gibraltar was engaged at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April where she lost five men killed and six wounded.

In May Drake was sent to protect Tobago with six sail of the line, but unfortunately de Grasse arrived there with the French fleet before him and he was obliged to retreat to Barbados. He shifted his flag back to the Princessa when sailing with the fleet to North America in August, and he commanded the van at the Battle of the Chesapeake on 5 September 1781. As a result of damage to his flagship he temporarily transferred to the Alcide 74, Captain Charles Thompson.

Drake sailed back to the West Indies with Hood in December, and was present at the Battle of St. Kitts on 25/26 January 1782. He subsequently commanded the van under Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782, and he was honoured for his part in the victory by being created a baronet on 28 May and being granted the freedom of the City of London. He remained in the West Indies until the peace, towards the latter end of which time he became ill with fever. After returning home in 1783 he saw no further active service.

On 12 August 1789 Drake was appointed a junior lord of the admiralty, a position he held for only three months before his death on 18 November after being taken ill at an Admiralty Board meeting. In the same year he had been nominated as the M.P. for Plymouth in the Admiralty interest but he never took his seat.

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Captain John Lewis Gidoin.




Died 1796.

Gidoin was commissioned lieutenant on 19 January 1755 and promoted commander in September 1759, at which time he had been captaining the storeship Port Royal 12 for six months and would continue to do so until July 1761. From April 1762 he had the brig Zephyr 10 off the coast of Portugal, and in July 1763 recommissioned the Jamaica 10, going out to New England in November 1763 and spending most of his time on that station before paying her off in February 1767.

He was posted captain of the Surprise 20 for purposes of rank only on 26 May 1768, and during the Falklands Islands dispute of 1770-1 he was the captain of the impress service at Falmouth.

Having been recommissioned at Chatham in March 1776, Gidoin took the Richmond 32 out to North America in September. He commanded her in Vice-Admiral Lord Howe’s fleet during 1777-8, serving in the North River and the Philadelphia Campaign of August-November. After wintering in the Chesapeake the Richmond was present in the defence off New York in July 1778 and operations off Rhode Island in August. He captured the rebel privateer Black Prince on 15 August and remained on that station over the ensuing winter before returning to England.

In May 1779 Gidoin was detached from Portsmouth in command of a small frigate squadron to protect the Channel Islands from a French threat, rendezvousing with the Experiment 50, Captain Sir James Wallace, who defeated a French squadron in Cancale Bay on 13 May.

Transferring to the Torbay 74 which had begun recommissioning in December 1779, he arrived in the Leeward Islands during July 1780 and was present at the occupation of St. Eustatius from 3 February 1781, and in the Battle of Fort Royal off Martinique on 29 April when his command was badly damaged. After repairs at Jamaica the Torbay sailed for North America but did not arrive in time to participate in the Battle of the Chesapeake on 5 September. Continuing in the Torbay, Gidoin fought at the Battle of St. Kitts on 25-26 January 1782 but did not suffer any casualties, and at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782, where she lost ten men killed and twenty-five wounded and helped bring about the surrender of the French flagship.

On 17 October 1782 he was in company with the London 98, Captain James Kempthorne, when they fell in with the French Scipion 74 and Sibylle 40 off San Domingo. The London was faster in the chase and brought the Frenchmen to action at long-range, eventually going yardarm to yardarm with the Scipion. The French sail of the line then managed to rake the London and make good her escape but she sank in Samana Bay after striking a rock the next day.

Gidoin was promoted rear-admiral on 12 April 1794 and vice-admiral on 1 June 1795. He died in the ensuing winter, being buried at St. George’s Church, Modbury, Devon on 15 February 1796.

He married Mary Legassicke on 15 November 1763 and lived at Modbury then Mothecombe in South Devon. Rear-Admiral James Walker was his protégé.

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Captain William Bayne.




William Bayne (died 9 April 1782), was an officer of the Royal Navy. He saw service during the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence, being killed in action in a brief engagement prior to the Battle of the Saintes.

Seven Years' War.

Bayne became a lieutenant on 5 April 1749; in 1755 he served in that rank on board HMS Torbay, in North American waters, with Admiral Edward Boscawen, and in November 1756 was advanced to the command of a sloop of war. In 1760 he was promoted to post captain and given command of the 44-gun HMS Woolwich, and served in that ship at the reduction of Martinique in 1762, and continued there aboard the frigate HMS Stag, under the command of Vice-Admiral George Brydges Rodney.

American War of Independence.

After this he had no command till 1778, when he was appointed to the newly built 74-gun HMS Alfred, and served in the Channel Fleet through 1779 and 1780. He afterwards went to the West Indies as part of the squadron with Sir Samuel Hood, and was present in the action off Fort Royal in Martinique on 29 April 1781, and in the action off the Chesapeake on 5 September. Owing to the faulty system of tactics then in vogue and almost compulsory, the Alfred had no active share in either of these battles, the circumstances of which were afterwards much discussed.

On returning to the West Indies the Alfred was with Sir Samuel Hood at the Battle of Saint Kitts, where she accidentally fouled the frigate HMS Nymphe, cutting her down to the water, and losing her own bowsprit. This delayed the fleet at the very critical moment when Hood had proposed an unexpected attack on the French at anchor. No blame was attached to Captain Bayne for the accident, which was mainly due to the darkness of the night. Bayne quickly refitted his ship and resumed his station in the line, which won him credit, as did his distinguished conduct in the battle. When the fleet was reunited under the flag of Sir George Rodney, the Alfred continued under the immediate orders of Sir Samuel Hood, and with other ships of Hood's division was engaged in the partial action with the French on 9 April 1782, just prior to the Battle of the Saintes. It was little more than a distant interchange of fire between the respective vans; but one shot carried off Captain Bayne's leg about mid-thigh. Before a tourniquet could be applied, he was dead. To his memory, jointly with that of Captains William Blair and Lord Robert Manners, who were killed in the battle three days later, a national monument was placed in Westminster Abbey.

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Captain Charles Thompson.



His father is thought to have been Norborne Berkeley, later Baron Botetourt, of Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire, governor of Virginia, his mother was Margaret Thompson. (Charles was illegitimate). He, his mother and sister Elizabeth Thompson were all beneficiarys in Norborne Berkeley's will. He married Jane, daughter and heiress of Robert Selby of Bonnington, near Edinburgh in 1783, by whom he had issue: Norborne Charles (1785–1826) who joined the navy but was court martialed for insubordination; Charles Robert (1788–1801) who died at sea aged 13; Elizabeth (1790-, Jane (1794–1815) who died in Portugal aged 21, and is buried at the English Cemetery, Lisbon; and Henry (1796–1868).

Naval service.

His first service at sea was on a merchantman, but he soon joined the Royal Navy on HMS Nassau in 1755, just before the outbreak of the Seven Years' War. In the following five years he served on that ship then on HMS Prince Frederick and (under Captain Samuel Barrington) HMS Achilles. He passed his examination for lieutenant in 1760 and was commissioned as the fifth lieutenant of HMS Arrogant on 16 January 1761, serving on her in the Channel Fleet and then in the Mediterranean.

When peace came, this ship was paid off and Thompson transferred to the sloop HMS Cygnet, serving on her on the North American station from August 1763 to her paying-off in July 1768 in South Carolina (with no transport provided to get her officers back to England, though they were later paid £39 0s. 6d each for the journey).

Thompson was back in North America as HMS Salisbury's first lieutenant from May 1770, and there Commodore James Gambier promoted him to commander in February 1771, commanding the sloop HMS Senegal and then (after 3 months) appointed acting captain of HMS Mermaid. He took the later ship back to England in December 1771 and, though his acting captaincy was not confirmed by the admiralty, they did on 7 March 1772 promote him to full captain, commanding HMS Chatham.

Service in the West Indies.

Thompson sailed to the West Indies commanding HMS Chatham, the flagship of Vice-Admiral William Parry, and later moved to the frigate HMS Crescent. He returned to England in 1774, and then went back to the West Indies in command of the HMS Boreas in early 1776 (capturing the 20 gun French ship Le Compas). He accompanied a merchant convoy to England in October 1777, before yet again going out to the West Indies in 1780. Sir John Laforey was appointed commissioner of the shipyard at Antigua in 1780, but Thompson refused to recognize this authority, leading to a long feud.

In the Caribbean, Thompson was moved by Sir George Rodney to the 74 gun HMS Alcide, commanding her throughout the American War of Independence, including at the battles of the Chesapeake, St Kitts, under Sir Samuel Hood). In April 1782, Thompson was present in the rear division at the Battle of the Saintes. Sir George Rodney's decisive victory over the French in the Caribbean. He sailed Alcide back to England at the end of the War.

Later service.

In 1787 Thompson commanded HMS Edgar at Portsmouth, and in 1790 HMS Elephant (during the crisis of the Spanish armament). When the War of the First Coalition broke out in 1793 he was put in command of HMS Vengeance, as part of Sir John Jervis and Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Grey's expedition against France's West Indian possessions, participating in the capture of Martinique (directing the boat attacks on Fort Royal) and Guadeloupe as a commodore.

Also during this time in the Indies, Laforey and Thompson's feud reignited over Laforey conduct as commander-in-chief at the Leeward Islands, thus providing an excuse for First Lord of the Admiralty to recall Laforey but causing alarm amidst the other Admiralty commissioners (Sir Charles Middleton resigned over the affair). In the course of promotions through seniority, Thompson was promoted to rear-admiral of the blue on 12 April 1794, and sailed back to England the following year (with HMS Vanguard as his flagship) to be made vice admiral on 1 June 1795 (with his flag in HMS London).

Mediterranean service.

Thompson was next put in command of a detached squadron as part of the British blockade of Brest, before being transferred to HMS Britannia, in which he served in the Mediterranean. In the Britannia he acted as second in command at the battle of Cape St Vincent, disregarding Jervis's signal to tack to counter a Spanish attacking move and thus nearly losing the battle. This angered Jervis but he chose not to bring the issue into the public sphere, and so later that year Thompson's and Jervis's contribution to the battle were rewarded with a baronetcy and an earldom respectively whilst still on station. Continuing on the station for a time, Thompson's next disagreement with Jervis (over the latter's insistence on hanging two mutineers on the Sabbath on Sunday 9 July 1797) gave Jervis sufficient justification to insist that the Admiralty recall Thompson. After Thompson's death, Jervis wrote of him as a ‘gallant man, but the most timid officer’, and drew attention to his having ‘the manner of a rough seaman’ which Thompson cultivated by his habit of dressing casually in a sailor's frock and straw hat.

On his recall, Thompson was then given a post in the Brest-blockade fleet which he held until 1798 despite failing health, his health eventually forcing him to strike his flag and return to England early in 1799, where he died later that year.

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Captain Richard Hussey Bickerton.




Richard Bickerton was born in Southampton on 11 October 1759, the son of Vice-admiral Sir Richard Bickerton and Mary Anne Hussey.

Naval career.

Bickerton joined the Royal Navy, aged 12, on 14 December 1771, although this was in name only: He was entered in the muster of his father's ships, Marlborough and later Princess Augusta, but did not actually serve until June 1774, when he joined HMS Medway as a captain's servant. Subsequently, promoted to midshipman, he served under Captain William Affleck in the Mediterranean, returning home in 1777 on board Invincible, commanded by Hyde Parker.

Master and Commander.

Bickerton was promoted to lieutenant on 16 December 1777 and served under Charles Middleton first on board the 90-gun HMS Prince George, then the seventy-four, Royal Oak in March 1778. In May, Bickerton joined HMS Jupiter in the Bay of Biscay, under the command of Francis Reynolds. On 20 October Jupiter attacked the much larger French ship-of-the-line Triton, forcing her to retire; as a reward for his conduct, Bickerton, on Middleton's recommendation, was in March 1779, promoted master and given command of HM Sloop Swallow. Swallow spent just under two years in The Channel, cruising and undertaking escort duties. While on convoy duty during the Summer of 1779, Bickerton gave the order to disperse, having heard of the arrival of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet in The Channel. His prompt action allowed the convoy to escape. After assisting in the capture of a Dutch convoy, on 2 January 1780, Bickerton and his vessel were sent to the West Indies to join Rodney's squadron and subsequently take part in the capture of Sint Eustatius in 1781.

Post Captain.

Rodney promoted Bickerton to the rank of post captain on 8 February 1781 and gave him temporary command of HMS Invincible. It was in her that Bickerton took part in the Battle of Fort Royal, an action fought on 29 April 1781, off the coast of Martinique. Bickerton acquired his own ship, HMS Russell, in May, before briefly transferring to Terrible but, finding her unfit, moved to the frigate, HMS Amazon, in July.

After service in the Leeward Islands and North American waters, Bickerton returned to England in Amazon, arriving in Portsmouth in February 1782. In September, Bickerton was given the newly repaired HMS Brune; she was decommissioned in May the following year and Bickerton was without a ship until January 1787, when he commissioned HMS Sibyl and in her sailed for the Leeward Islands once more.

French Revolutionary War.

When France declared war in 1793, Bickerton was given command of HMS Ruby and served in her in The Channel until September 1794 when he moved to HMS Ramillies and joined Lord Howe in the Bay of Biscay. In October 1794 he transported General Sir John Vaughan to the West Indies, to succeed Lieutenant-general Sir Charles Grey as the Commander-in-chief of British land forces there. Bickerton remained on this station until July 1795, when he was sent to Newfoundland.

Bickerton returned home in November 1795 where he joined Admiral Adam Duncan's fleet on blockade duty in the North Sea. Bickerton served under Duncan for the whole of the following year, then in 1797, he and his ship transferred to the Channel Fleet under Admiral Alexander Hood. In 1798, Bickerton took command of the new HMS Terrible, built in 1785 to replace the old Terrible, scuttled after the Battle of Chesapeake. Later in 1798, Bickerton was given the title of Colonel of Marines, then on 14 February 1799, Bickerton attained the rank of rear-admiral and, towards the end of the year, took up the position of Assistant Port Admiral at Portsmouth.

Service in the Mediterranean.

Bickerton hoisted his flag in Seahorse on 13 May 1800 and was ordered to transport generals Abercromby, Moore and Hutchinson to the Mediterranean; after which he spent the rest of the war under Lord Keith, on blockade duty. On 10 June, Bickerton transferred his flag to the 74-gun Swiftsure and began a five-month command of a squadron off Cádiz before maintaining a blockade on the port of Alexandria until its capitulation on 27 August. Left to oversee the French withdrawal, Bickerton conducted this duty with such efficiency that he earned the respect of the French general, Jacques-François Menou, who also acknowledged that, " ...the vigilance of Sir Richard's squadron had accelerated the reduction of that place, as it cut them off from all supply". For his part in the British victory, the grateful Turks awarded Bickerton with the Order of the Crescent on 8 October 1801. Following the Treaty of Amiens, Bickerton, with his flag in HMS Kent, was left behind in command of the Mediterranean Fleet.

Napoleonic Wars.

By 1804, still in the Mediterranean and having transferred to Sovereign, Bickerton was serving as Second-in-Command to Admiral Lord Nelson, maintaining a close blockade on the French port of Toulon and when Nelson received the thanks of the Corporation of London, he insisted that Bickerton received equal recognition. Bickerton was elevated to Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean when Nelson left to pursue the French Fleet across the Atlantic.

Later career.

In spring 1805, a liver complaint forced Bickerton to return to England. He was promoted to vice-admiral on 9 November 1805^] and then appointed to the Board of Admiralty in April 1807. He became First Naval Lord in the second Portland ministry in May 1808. On 31 July 1810 Bickerton attained the rank of full admiral and in March 1812 he left the Admiralty Board^] and, one month later, was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth^] with Puissant as his flagship. Bickerton still held this post in 1814 when the Treaty of Paris was celebrated with a Grand Naval Review at Spithead. The event took place on 24 and 25 June, before the Prince Regent and his allies. Bickerton was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 2 January 1815. On 5 January 1818 Bickerton was promoted to Lieutenant-general of the Marines, then General of the Marines in June 1830.

Death.

Bickerton died at his home, No. 15 The Circus, Bath, at the age of 72 on 9 February 1832. His wife outlived him by several years, dying on 2 March 1850.

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Captain the Lord Francis Reynolds.




1739-1808. He was born on 28 March 1739 at Strangeways, Manchester, the second son of Francis Reynolds, heir to a South Sea Company director, and of Hon. Elizabeth Moreton, eldest daughter of the 1st Lord Ducie. He was the nephew of Matthew, 2nd Lord Ducie.

Having served under Captain Lord Richard Howe aboard the Magnanime 74, Reynolds was commissioned lieutenant on 28 April 1758, seeing further service on the Melampe 36, Captain William Hotham, in the North Sea.

He was promoted commander on 21 November 1760, joining the Weasel 16 in the Channel and taking the privateer Duc de Bourbon on 18 October 1761. He was posted captain of the Garland 24 on 12 April 1762, serving off the coast of France and, prior to being paid off at the peace, off Africa.

In April 1763 he recommissioned the Flamborough 24, going out to the Mediterranean in August and commanding the Faversham 44 in the Mediterranean from 1764. He later had the frigate Quebec 32 in the Leeward Islands from the summer of 1769 until paid off in August 1772.

He recomissioned the Augusta 64 in the autumn of 1776, going out to North America in the following March. During the Philadelphia campaign of August-November 1777 this vessel was destroyed by fire at Mud Island on 23 October, with Reynolds being personally saved by Captain Andrew Snape Hamond’s barge from the Roebuck. At the court-martial into the loss of Augusta presided over by Captain George Ourry aboard the Somerset 64 off Billingsport on 26 November Reynolds was acquitted of any failure in her loss. He returned to England shortly afterwards aboard the transport Dutton with Vice-Admiral Lord Howe’s dispatches,

His next command was the Jupiter 50, which he joined in August 1778. Off Cape Finisterre on 20 October, and being in company with the Medea 28, Captain James Montagu, he fell in with the French Triton 64 commanded by the Comte de Ligondés. A ferocious night time engagement took place over the next couple of hours in squally weather, but the Medea was forced out of action within thirty minutes, and the difficulties of fighting in the darkness prevented Reynolds from driving home a victory. The French vessel suffered thirteen killed and thirty wounded including her commander who had been obliged to leave the deck, the Jupiter three killed and eleven wounded, three of them fatally. Curiously stories later surfaced in the press that the Jupiter had surrendered and had been carried as a prize to Brest.


On 26 May 1779, having left for the Mediterranean with the trade two months earlier and then undertaken a cruise, the Jupiter again found herself in action off Cape Finisterre. On this occasion she fell in with a French convoy escorted by men-of war including sail of the line under the command of Admiral La-Motte Picquet. Even so, Reynolds pitched into the middle of the enemy in the hope that he could take a prize and gain intelligence of their destination. Despite coming under hot fire from the Blanche 32 and personally sustaining splinter wounds he did manage to capture one vessel and put a prize crew aboard before being driven off without his capture by seven of the enemy.

He later commanded the Jupiter in the Channel fleet retreat of August 1779 and subsequently saw service in the North Sea. On 3 October, having been sent to the River Shannon with a squadron of frigates to bring home an East India convoy, and being in company with the Apollo 32, Captain Philemon Pownall, and the Crescent 28, Captain Charles Hope, he took two French cutters off the Lizard, these being added to the navy under their own names, Pilote and Mutine.

Towards the end of 1780 Reynolds was appointed to the Monarch 74, joining Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood’s reinforcements going out to the West Indies at the end of October in the place of Captain Adam Duncan who did not wish to serve on that station on account of his health. He was present at the capture of St. Eustatius on 3 February 1781 and was selected by Admiral Sir George Rodney to take three vessels in pursuit of the Dutch sail of the line Mars 60 and a richly-laden thirty-strong convoy which had departed the island the day before. On 4 February he brought the Mars to action and she struck after her senior officer, Rear-Admiral Willem Crul, was slain. On 29 April 1781 the Monarch fought at the Battle of Fort Royal, and on 5 September was present but barely engaged at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay.

Returning to the West Indies with Hood, Reynolds commanded the Monarch 74 at the Battle of St. Kitts on 25-26 January 1782, and at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782 where his casualties of sixteen men killed and thirty-three wounded were amongst the highest in the fleet. Having sailed to North America in September under the orders of the new Leeward Islands commander-in-chief, Admiral Hugh Pigot, he returned to England in the following summer and was paid off.

Reynolds was MP for Lancaster from 1784 and following the death of his brother Thomas he acceded to the reformed title of the 3rd Lord Ducie of Tortworth on 11 September 1785, whereupon he resigned from the navy and parliament.
He assumed the additional name of Moreton in 1786, and died at Tortworth, Glocestershire, on 19 August 1808.

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Captain James Ferguson.




Nationality British
RolesSailor
Date of Birth1723
First Known Service1755
Last Known Service2.1783
Date of Death14.2.1793

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
1755		Passed the Lieutenant's Examination
15.11.1756		Lieutenant
22.9.1759		Commander
22.9.1759	4.1763	Hunter (10), as Commanding Officer
6.6.1763		Captain
6.6.1763	10.1766	Romney (50), as Commanding Officer
12.1775	1779	Brune (32), as Commanding Officer
6.12.1776	8.12.1776	Occupation of Rhode Island
11.1778	10.1780	Venus (36), as Commanding Officer
14.12.1778	15.12.1778	Battle of St. Lucia
17.4.1780		Battle of Martinique
5.1780	12.1780	Intrepid (64), as Commanding Officer
15.5.1780		Action of 15th March 1780
19.5.1780		Action of 19th March 1780
7.1780	6.1781	Terrible (74), as Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
3.1782	2.1783	Surprise (28), as Commanding Officer
7.1782	1783	Egmont (74), as Commanding Officer
20.10.1782		Battle of Cape Spartel
1784	14.2.1793	Appointed Lieutenant-governor of Greenwich Hospital

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Captain John Symons.





He was commissioned lieutenant on 24 April 1755 and promoted commander of the bomb Mortar 8 on 15 January 1761, cruising in the Bay of Biscay and then going out to the Mediterranean in December 1762 with news of the ending of hostilities. She was paid off in June 1763. He later had the Pomona 18 from 1767-9, initially off the north of Ireland and later on the south coast of England.

Symons was posted captain on 28 January 1771 and in March he set sail in the Northumberland 70 as flag captain to Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Harland, the commander-in-chief in the East Indies. Returning home in 1774, he joined the Cerberus 28 in August 1775, going out to North America and creating a great deal of havoc in attacking Falmouth, Maine. His frigate patrolled to the north of Long Island Sound in the early part of 1776, taking a number of rebel vessels off Block Island in April, and she participated on 8 December at the occupation of Rhode Island. On 13 August 1777 a prize being towed by the Cerberus was subject to a combustible attack by one of David Bushnell’s devices near New London, Connecticut, three men being killed outright. She later rescued the crew of the armed schooner Admiral Parker, Lieutenant Robert Deans, which had ran aground off Stonington on 22 September and was set on fire. The Cerberus was herself abandoned and burned at Rhode Island on 7 August 1778 to prevent capture by the French.

In August 1779 Captain Symons held the temporary command of the Defence 74 for Captain James Cranston, participating in the Channel fleet retreat, and in October 1779 he recommissioned the Brune 32, sailing for the Leeward Islands in February 1780. A few months later he was appointed to succeed Captain Samuel Uvedale aboard the Ajax 74 after that officer had returned home following the Battle of Martinique in April, being employed in the Leeward Islands campaign of May-July, and remaining at St. Lucia when the fleet headed north. The Ajax was driven out to sea during the Great Hurricanes of October, and she took eight days to return under her foremast and the stump of a mainmast. He served with the fleet following the occupation of St. Eustatius on 3 February 1781 and fought at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April 1781 off Martinique before leaving her in the next month and departing for Europe in command of the Gibraltar 80 in August with Admiral Rodney a passenger.

He was flag captain of Rodney’s flagship Formidable 98 at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782, although Captain Lord Cranstoun had joined the ship that very morning in order to replace him. Following the battle he removed to the Warrior 74 in June to replace Captain Sir James Wallace, sailing to New York with Admiral Hugh Pigot in command of the fleet and returning to the Leeward Islands before going home and paying her off in 1783.

Symons did not serve thereafter due to the severity of his gout but retired to Bury St. Edmunds. He became a rear-admiral on 12 April 1794, a vice-admiral on 1 June 1795 and died on 16 December 1799 of apoplexy.

Lord Rodney was little enamoured of Symons, complaining that he was slow to refit the Formidable at Plymouth prior to going out to the West Indies in the winter of 1781. In turn Symons was happy to confide in Rodney’s deputy, Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, with whom the commander in chief was also on bad terms, that Rodney was always complaining of his health. He was criticised for his ill-treatment of rebel prisoners when serving in the Cerberus off North America.

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Captain Lord Robert Manners.





1758-82. He was born on 6 February 1758, the second son of Lieutenant-General John Manners, the Marquis of Granby, and grandson of John, 3rd Duke of Rutland. His mother was Lady Frances Seymour.

Manners was educated at Eton from 1763-71 before joining the Navy. On 13 May 1778, as a beneficiary of the King’s fleet review, he was commissioned lieutenant of the Ocean 90, Captain John Laforey, in which ship he was present at the Battle of Ushant on 27 July. He transferred to Admiral Hon. Augustus Keppel’s flagship Victory 100 on 17 September, and from 15 July 1779 served on the Alcide 74, Captain John Brisbane, being present at the Moonlight battle off Cape St. Vincent on 16 January 1780 and the subsequent relief of Gibraltar by Admiral Sir George Rodney’s fleet.

The first lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, had already written to Rodney requesting that the highly-connected Manners be promoted as a personal favour to satisfy the young man’s political allies, indeed his family had constantly badgered Sandwich for the young officer’s promotion, claiming that to deny it was a slight to such a prominent family, and that Manners would resign if not given his chance. Accordingly on 17 January 1780 Manners was posted captain of the Resolution 74 bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Sir Chaloner Ogle.

Upon returning to England under the orders of Rear-Admiral Hon. Robert Digby, the Resolution led the ships which first engaged the Protée 64, leading to its capture on 24 February. Shortly afterwards Manners’ first lieutenant, William Nowell, quelled a mutiny aboard the Resolution.
Remaining as flag-captain to Ogle, Manners sailed for North America with Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves’ squadron in the summer before departing for the Leeward Islands with Admiral Sir George Rodney’s fleet. Upon Ogle being advanced to flag rank, Manners assumed full command of the Resolution at the beginning of 1781, and he was present at the capture of St. Eustatius on 3 February where he was rebuked for opening fire on the Dutch frigate Mars after his first lieutenant, William Nowell, had allowed her to fire her cannon as a gesture of defiance after surrendering.

During the same year he fought at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April and at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay on 5 September, where he afforded excellent support to the rear. Once Hood returned to the Leeward Islands the Resolution was present at the Battle of St. Kitts on 25/26 January 1782 where she was heavily engaged at the rear of the line and incurred casualties of five men killed and eleven wounded.
At the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April the Resolution found herself in the thick of the action from her position of third in line of battle behind the flagship. Manners received a number of splinter wounds, his arm was broken, and he was wounded in the chest before receiving such serious wounds to his legs that one had to be amputated. He was invalided to the Andromanche 32 bound for England and commanded by his friend, Captain George Anson Byron, but despite being initially in good spirits he died a week later on 23 April when tetanus set in, being buried at sea.
Manners was unmarried. He had been elected MP for Cambridge in 1780 in a hard fought, often scurrilous and expensive contest held in his absence, but he never took up his seat.

A monument to his memory is in Westminster Abbey with those of his fellow captains William Blair and Alfred Bayne, who also lost their lives at the Battle of the Saintes. Manners was resolute, well respected, bright, skilled and gallant, and famed for his sense of fashion. A fair-minded disciplinarian, he quickly turned the Resolution into an excellent and esteemed ship, and he was deemed more than worthy of the early opportunities granted him by his birthright. Upon being informed of Manners’ death the King informed the Duke of Portland that ‘he would rather have lost three of the best ships in his service’.

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Captain George Bowen.


Born of a respectable Welsh family in about 1755.


He was first heard of on the 13th of March 1773. when he obtained the rank of Lieutenant. Next as Master and Commander in which rank he commissioned the ex-sloop Druid 16 as the fireship Blast and took her out to the Leeward Islands in May 1780.. He attained the rank of Post-Captain on Feb 14th 1781, and commanded the Montagu, of 74 guns, in the partial action between Rear-Admiral Graves and the Count de Grasse, off the Chesapeake on Sept 5th, in the same year.


The Montagu afterwards accompanied the squadron under Sir Samuel Hood to the West Indies, and Captain Bowen was present at all that officer’s brilliant achievements on the Leeward Island station. He also shared the glories of the memorable 12th April, 1782, when the British fleet under Rodney, defeated that of France commanded by de Grasse. The loss sustained by the Montagu in this battle, amounted to 12 killed and 31 wounded.


A long interval of peace succeeded the above event, and Captain Bowen remained unemployed until the commencement of the war with the French republic, in 1793, at which period he was appointed to the Belliqueux, of 64 guns, and afterwards removed into the Veteran, of the same force.


In the Autumn of 1795, he obtained the command of the Canada, of 74 guns; and early in the following year proceeded to the West Indies, under the orders of Sir Hugh C. Christian, with whom he served at the reduction of St. Lucia, after the capture of which the Canada was sent to Jamaica, the station where Captain Bowen continued to command her until 1797, when he removed into the Carnatic, another ship of the same rate. He was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral on Feb. 14th 1799; Vice-Admiral on Nov. 9th 1805; and Admiral on July 31st, 1810. During part of the war, he commanded the Sea Fencibles in Ireland; but never served afloat as a Flag-Officer although he finally became Admiral of the White in 1814.


Admiral Bowen died at Shrewsbury on 1 July 1823.

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Captain John Neale Pleydell Nott .




1732-81. He was born on 8 July 1732, the oldest of three surviving sons of John Nott of Braydon, Wiltshire, and of his wife Elizabeth Neale.

Nott was commissioned lieutenant on 3 July 1756 and promoted commander of the Barbadoes 14 on 7 September 1759. He later commanded her sister ship Antigua 14 from August 1761, and although posted captain on 24 September he remained with this vessel, serving in the expedition to Martinique in 1762. During March he replaced Captain Francis Banks aboard the Rose 20 in which he was present at the reduction of Havana later that same year, serving for a not inconsiderable time thereafter on the North American and West Indian stations.

During the Falkland Islands dispute of 1770-1 he was the captain of the Impressment Service at Bristol.

After several years unemployment Nott commanded the Exeter 64 at the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778, and when she was docked for a refit he joined the Centaur 74 in the following spring, serving in the Channel fleet retreat of August 1779, and at the detention of the Dutch convoy on 31 December.

In July 1780 the Centaur joined Admiral Sir George Rodney’s Leeward Islands fleet, sailing to New York in the autumn and returning to the West Indies at the end of the year.

Nott was fatally wounded at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April 1781 when a spent cannon ball lodged in his groin after he had gone below to his cabin in order to study the significance of a signal, one which had been made because he was sailing far closer to the enemy than the rest of the line of battle. During the action his first lieutenant also lost his life along with another ten men killed and twenty-six wounded. A memorial was erected in St. Sampson’s Church, Cricklade, Wiltshire.

He married Catherine Andrews of Lower Grosvenor Street, London, and had issue three sons and two daughters in addition to three children who died in infancy. His eldest son John entered the Navy and died a lieutenant at Jamaica of yellow fever aged 23 in 1794, his second son, Edward Nott, entered the Clergy, and his third son George entered the Navy and died a midshipman of yellow fever aged 17 in 1795. A grandson, John Neale Nott rose to the rank of captain. His address was given as Bath.

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Captain Mark Robinson.




1722-1799. He was born on 25 April 1772. He was the father of Admiral Mark Robinson, and of Charles Robinson, who was promoted commander in 1794, and was the senior surviving officer in that rank at the time of his death in 1853.

Having entered the Navy in 1736 Robinson was commissioned lieutenant of the Vigilant 60, Captain James Douglas, on 30 March 1746 and promoted commander on 27 September 1758 from the Ramillies 90, Captain Wittewronge Taylor, the flagship of Admiral Sir Edward Hawke. During September 1759 he recommissioned the bomb Falcon 8, sailing for the Leeward Islands, but she was wrecked on the Saintes that November during the reduction of Guadeloupe.

He was posted captain of the Vanguard 70 for purposes of rank only on 13 August 1760. Having commanded the Isis 50 during 1760 on a temporary basis for her long-standing captain, Edward Wheeler, he did not see any further employment until towards the end of 1762 when he assumed command of the Rainbow 44. Once again active duty eluded him as he paid her off in the following January.

Robinson had to wait until the summer of 1767 for his next opportunity when he recommissioned the Fowey 24, going out to South Carolina in August and serving for the next four years off North America and in the southern seas relevant to the Falklands Island dispute. During this period he was credited with saving Charleston from a destructive fire and was rewarded by the merchants of the Carolinas with a piece of plate and a public vote of thanks. The Fowey returned to England and was paid off in July 1771.

He was next appointed to the Portsmouth guardship Worcester 64 in 1774, and he facilitated the promotion to acting-lieutenant of a young Horatio Nelson. The Worcester formed part of Commodore Sir Peter Parker’s squadron of observation preparing to voyage to Cape Finisterre in 1775, and then went out to Gibraltar in 1777. On 25 July 1778 she fought at the Battle of Ushant where despite being in the thick of the action she suffered only eight casualties. In April of the following year Captain Robinson somewhat conveniently was appointed to sit on the court martial of his good friend, Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, in the wake of the political fall-out following the battle.

Upon the Worcester being ordered to the East Indies at the beginning of 1779 Captain Robinson surrendered the command to Captain George Talbot with fateful consequences for that officer. Instead he joined the Shrewsbury 74 in March, cruising off the Scilly Isles in April and giving chase to two French privateers, one of which, the Lorient-based Comte d’Artois 26, he captured. He was present in the Channel fleet retreat of August 1779, and joining Admiral Sir George Rodney’s relief force for Gibraltar he missed the Moonlight Battle off St. Vincent on 16 January 1780 as he had been required to escort the disabled Dublin 74, Captain Samuel Wallis, into Lisbon. The Shrewsbury then formed part of Commodore Hon. Robert Boyle Walsingham’s reinforcement which sailed for the Leeward Islands in May 1780 to join with Rodney, although she arrived in June, some weeks before her consorts, and she later sailed with Rodney’s depleted fleet to New York before its return to the West Indies in November.

After joining the Leeward Islands fleet in July he went with it to New York before its return to the West Indies in November. He was present at the capture of St. Eustatius on 3 February 1781 and fought in the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April 1781, losing six men killed and fourteen wounded.

Remaining under Hood’s orders, he fought at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1781 where the Shrewsbury led the van and was roughly handled. Captain Robinson lost his leg to a cannon shot, his first lieutenant was killed, and in total his command suffered casualties of fourteen men killed and fifty-two wounded. The invalided Captain Robinson was succeeded two weeks later by the newly-posted Captain John Knight and he retired from the service with a three hundred guinea pension.

In due course he became a superannuated rear-admiral, and he died on 23 November 1799 at his residence of 20 Henrietta Street, Bath.

Robinson married Elizabeth Reade of Portsmouth at St. Benet and St. Peters, Pauls’ Wharf, London on 26 November 1747 and had three sons and three daughters. His eldest son, John Reade Robinson, predeceased him in June 1781 at the age of 32.

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Captain Sir Thomas Rich (5^th Baronet Rich.)






1733- 1803. He was the eldest son of Sir William Rich, 4th Baronet of Sonning, and of his wife, Elizabeth Royall of Minstead, Hampshire.


Of his early service little is known, but Rich was commissioned lieutenant on 25 March 1758 and became the 5th Baronet of Sonning upon the death of his father on 17 July 1762. In April 1763 he commissioned the cutter Anson 6 for service off Portland, retaining her into 1766.

He was promoted commander of the sloop Senegal 14 on 1 March 1769, serving on the Halifax station, and was posted captain of the Gibraltar 24 on 14 February 1771, which he retained in North America until 1773.

In April 1775 Rich commissioned the new frigate Enterprise 28, going out to the Mediterranean during July. On 25 July 1776, whilst in the Bay of Biscay, he fell in with a French squadron of two sail of the line and a number of frigates commanded by the Duke de Chartres, who summarily asked Rich to bring to and report aboard his flagship. When the latter suggested that if the Frenchman was desirous of a communication he should repair aboard the Enterprise the outraged duke threatened to open fire, but after being assured by Rich that he could not obey any order but that given by a superior officer the duke relented and courteously invited the Enterprise’s first lieutenant aboard instead.

Continuing in the Mediterranean, the Enterprise took the American vessel Hope 16 in March 1778 and drove a 14-gun French privateer ashore on the Barbary Coast in 1779, where her crew were made prisoner by the Moors. She later captured the American schooner Venus which was laden with tobacco, and during July 1779 she managed to escort supplies into the besieged Gibraltar from Tangiers. Shortly afterwards she escaped capture by a Spanish squadron after re-visiting the Barbary Coast, and remaining at the Rock for some months afterwards, Rich joined other senior military officers on the council of war that conducted the defence of the territory.

Following Admiral Sir George Rodney’s victory over the Spanish at the Moonlight Battle in January 1780 and his fleet’s subsequent relief of Gibraltar, Rich was ordered to commission the prize Princesa 70. Initially serving in the Channel, he went out to the Leeward Islands in November with Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood’s reinforcements, and he commanded the Princessa at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April 1781. Shortly afterwards, and following the death of Captain Walter Young, he joined Rodney’s flagship Sandwich 90 and sailed her to Jamaica in order for her to be hove down. In August he departed that station in command of the Princess Royal 90 as part of a convoy commanded by Commodore George Bowyer, although bad weather caused several merchantmen to sink on the voyage home, and the Princess Royal only reached port with three days’ supply of bread and in a most distressed condition.

During June 1786 he recommissioned the guard-ship Culloden 74 at Plymouth, and in retaining the command for the usual three years he also served in Rear-Admiral Hon. John Leveson-Gower’s squadron of observation during its two month cruise around the British Isles in 1787. During May 1790 he recommissioned the Vengeance 74, which formed part of the grand fleet in the Nookta Sound dispute, and which he retained until paying her off in September 1791.

Rich recommissioned the Culloden 74 in December 1792, and he served with Rear-Admiral Alan Gardner’s squadron which embarked on its Leeward Islands campaign during March 1793. Whilst on that station the Culloden took aboard over a thousand French royalist civilians who had been driven into the sea at St. Ann’s Bay, Martinique, and transported them to Barbados.

He was advanced to the rank of admiral on 12 April 1794, flying his flag in the Channel initially aboard the Culloden, Captain Richard Rundle Burges, and he was promoted vice-admiral on 1 June 1795. During 1796 he flew his flag in the Channel aboard the Impregnable 98, commanded by his godson, Acting-Captain Edward Owen, and after entering retirement he was further advanced to the rank of admiral on 1 January 1801.

Admiral Rich died on 6 April 1803 at Sonning near Reading.

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Captain Henry Harvey.





(July 1743 – 28 December 1810) was a long-serving officer of the British Royal Navy during the second half of the eighteenth century. Harvey participated in numerous naval operations and actions and especially distinguished himself at the Glorious First of June in command of HMS Ramillies. His career took him all over the world, particularly on the North American station and in the West Indies where he commanded numerous ships and, later in his career, squadrons during the course of three different wars. Harvey was a member of a distinguished naval family, his brother was killed in action in 1794, three of his sons entered the navy and one of them was later raised to admiral himself.

Early career.

Henry Harvey was born in Eastry, Kent in 1743, the second son of Richard and Elizabeth Harvey. With his elder brother John Harvey, Henry was educated in France during the 1740s and in 1751 joined the Royal Navy, a service his brother also joined three years later. Harvey was encouraged into service by the distantly related Sir Peircy Brett, whose patronage supported Harvey throughout his career. Harvey's first ship, aged only eight, was the sixth-rate HMS Centaur aged eleven in 1754, Harvey was transferred to HMS Nightingale. It is not clear how much time Harvey actually spent aboard these ships, as it was common practice at the time for the children of naval families to be entered on a ship's books to gain experience pending their actual entry into the service, an illegal practice known as "false muster".
By 1757, and aged 15, Harvey was certainly at sea, making junior lieutenant aboard the fourth-rate HMS Hampshire in the English Channel, the West Indies and along the North American coast during the Seven Years' War. A capable and well supported officer, Harvey was soon promoted to first lieutenant aboard the frigate HMS Hussar, which was wrecked at Cape François, Cuba in 1762, resulting in Harvey spending the next year as a prisoner of war. During the voyage home on parole aboard HMS Dragon, Harvey made close friends with Lieutenant Constantine Phipps, who later became a Lord of the Admiralty.

Polar exploration.

The end of the war that same year gave Harvey the opportunity to return to the sea as first lieutenant of the frigate HMS Mermaid off North America. In 1764 he was given his first independent command with the schooner HMS Magdalen, employed in anti-smuggling operations at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. His success in the role was such that in 1768 Harvey was given the revenue cutter HMS Swift on similar duties in the English Channel, a role he continued in until 1771 when he was placed in reserve on half-pay. In 1773 an opportunity for adventurous service arrived with the offer of a position on Phipps's ship HMS Racehorse in which Harvey's friend was planning to explore the North Pole. The expedition also included a young Horatio Nelson. Although the journey did not reach the Pole, it did explore the seas north of Svalbard and scientifically discover the polar bear amongst other achievements.

American Revolutionary War.

With a promotion resulting from the expedition enabling further advancement, Harvey commanded the sloop HMS Martin at the Siege of Quebec in the American Revolutionary War of 1776. His knowledge of the St. Lawrence river and Canadian coastline gave him an advantage in this work and as a result he was raised in 1777 to command the frigate HMS Squirrel on convoy duty. December 1778 saw a transfer to the 32-gun frigate HMS Convert and in the following year Harvey was engaged in the relief of besieged Jersey and later unsuccessful efforts to intercept the raiding squadron of John Paul Jones. During 1779, Convert was employed escorting a convoy to Quebec and in December was attached to Sir George Rodney's fleet in the West Indies. Through 1780 and 1781, Convert served as a fleet scout and was present during the Battle of the Saintes in 1782, although the ship was too small to serve in the battleline. Shortly after the battle, Harvey was detached from the fleet for convoy duties back to England.



After a period of unemployment, Harvey was given command of the frigate HMS Pegasus for service on the North America station in 1786, but was disappointed to discover that his first lieutenant was Prince William Henry and that Harvey was expected to turn over the captaincy to his subordinate as soon as the ship was at sea. Controlling his disappointment, Harvey conducted the affair with "such discretion as secured to him the lasting friendship of His Royal Highness". Within weeks, Harvey had been transferred to HMS Rose and, aboard her, joined Pegasus in peacetime manoeuvres off the North American station until the ship was paid-off in 1789. In 1788, Harvey eldest son, also named Henry, had drowned in a shipboard accident whilst serving as a midshipman in Rose. Following the ship's paying-off, Harvey returned to half-pay. He was not on the beach for long however, because of the Spanish armament during the Nootka Crisis of 1790. Along with many ships officers and crews he was brought back into service. As an experienced and well-connected officer, Harvey was given a ship of the line, first HMS Alfred, then HMS Colossus and by 1794, after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, he was given command of HMS Ramillies.

French revolutionary wars.

Ramillies was present with Admiral Lord Howe's fleet at the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794 and in her Harvey distinguished himself by rescuing the stricken HMS Brunswick commanded by his brother John. Brunswick had become entangled with the French Vengeur du Peuple and both ships were in danger of sinking when Ramillies arrived, raking Venguer twice and driving her off her opponent and into clear water, in which she first surrendered and later sank. John Harvey died of wounds received in the action a month later and days after his death his brother was promoted to flag rank as a rear-admiral. Harvey first commanded a squadron in the North Sea, but in June 1795 with his flag in HMS Prince of Wales, Harvey participated in the minor victory of the Battle of Groix, where three French ships were taken. Over the winter of 1795/96, Harvey remained in the area as floating support for Sir John Borlase Warren's invasion at Quiberon Bay. Following the expedition's failure early in 1796, Harvey helped evacuate the British and French Royalist force before it was destroyed by the Republican Army.



In April 1796, Harvey was made commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands Station and in 1797 captured Trinidad from the Spanish, taking several warships as prizes and landing Sir Ralph Abercromy's army to take the whole island. A similar attempt on Puerto Rico later in the year failed in the face of well-prepared Spanish defences. By 1799 Harvey was contemplating retirement and passed the station to Lord Hugh Seymour, returning to England and raising his flag in HMS Royal Sovereign as second-in-command of the Channel Fleet until the Peace of Amiens in 1801. Harvey retired from the Navy a vice-admiral invested in the Order of the Bath as a Knight Companion. He settled with his wife Elizabeth (neé Boys) in Walmer, Kent and in 1804 was promoted as a full admiral in retirement.

He died peacefully in 1810, survived by his wife and three of his five children, including his sons Richard and Thomas. Thomas Harvey later became an admiral in his own right.

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Captain Anthony James Pye Molloy.




1754-1814. He was of Irish extraction and the nephew by marriage of Admiral Sir Thomas Pye.

Of his early service little is known, but Molloy was commissioned lieutenant on 3 August 1768 and first came to attention when as second lieutenant of the Bristol 50, flying the broad pennant of Commodore Sir Peter Parker, he was wounded during the unsuccessful attack on Charleston on 28 June 1776.

As a reward for his efforts at Charleston he was promoted commander of the bomb Thunder 18 on 6 July 1776, serving in the New York campaign from July – October 1776. In June 1777 he commanded the sloop Senegal 14 off the Virginia Capes in North America under the orders of Captain Benjamin Caldwell of the Emerald 32, who was much impressed with the younger officer, and he commanded her in the Philadelphia Campaign of August-October 1777.

Molloy was posted captain on 11 April 1778 and took command of the Trident 64, flying the broad pennant of Commodore John Elliott, and serving at the defence of New York in July 1778 and the action off Rhode Island during August 1778. After sailing with Vice-Admiral Hon. John Byron’s fleet in December as an independent ship following Elliott’s return home he fought in the Battle of Grenada on 6 July 1779.

Whilst the Trident was sailing close to the French island of Guadeloupe her crew, weary of Molloy’s tyrannical command, vacated the deck in a state of mutiny and ran below, whereupon in trying to confront them by going down the fore-hatch Molloy was grabbed by the legs and only pulled back to safety by his officers. The marines were called to restore order and within three days the crew were performing their duties normally as if nothing had happened.
.
Remaining in the Leeward Islands he was present at the Battle of Martinique on 17 April when he lost fourteen men killed and twenty-six wounded, and was one of only five officers commended by Admiral Sir George Rodney. He thereafter served in the remainder of the Leeward Islands campaign from May to July, and having moved to the Intrepid 64 in the latter month he sailed to North America with the fleet that autumn before returning to the West Indies. He fought in the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April 1781, and later did well at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1781 where the Intrepid was second in line and one of four in the van which were badly damaged after being overwhelmed, losing twenty-one men killed and thirty-five wounded. He subsequently fought at the Battle of St. Kitts on 25/26 January 1782 where she lost two men killed, but due to the desperate condition of his ship he was despatched to Jamaica and sent home with the May convoy, thereby missing the Battle of the Saintes. After arriving in England that August the Intrepid was paid off.

In March 1783 he commissioned the Carnatic 74 as a guardship at Chatham, leaving her in the spring of 1785 when she transferred to Plymouth, from October to December 1787 he had the Fortitude 74, and during the summer of 1789 commanded the Bombay Castle 74 at Plymouth. Having recommissioned the Edgar 74 in January 1790, he commanded her during the Nookta Sound dispute of 1790 and the Russian rearmament of 1791 as a guard ship at Portsmouth.

Recommissioning the Ganges 74 in December 1792, he joined Rear-Admiral John Gell’s squadron at the commencement of the French Revolutionary War and patrolled off Cape Finisterre during April-May 1793. He then joined the Channel fleet and participated in the cruises of July-August and October-November 1793, being present at the attack on Rear-Admiral Vanstabel’s squadron on 18 November 1793. During the latter action he was leading the line of battle when the outlying frigates discovered the French but extraordinarily he failed to repeat their signals.

At the end of 1793 he was appointed to the brand new Caesar 80, and in 1794 led the line in at the Battle of the Glorious First of June. Crucially he did not close with the enemy during the skirmish on the 29 May, neglecting orders to set more sail then wearing away from the French rather than tacking towards them. In the battle itself, where once again his ship led the line, he opened fire at long range and then spent ninety minutes repairing his ship’s rudder. Learning of an animosity towards him from the officers of the fleet he requested a court-martial into his conduct, and this took place eleven months later aboard the Glory 98 at Portsmouth under the presidency of Vice-Admiral Joseph Peyton. Despite his impressive fighting record, a letter from one of his officers to a newspaper praising his courage, and the fact that his ship had lost eighteen killed and seventy-one wounded, Molloy was found guilty of failing to bring his ship into action on the 29 May and 1 June and was dismissed his command, never to be employed again. With respect to the Caesar’s casualties it was reported that he inflated the injured list to present a better defence.

Captain Molloy died on 25 July 1814 at Cheltenham after a heavy fall.

He married Juliana, a daughter of Admiral Sir John Laforey, in December 1785 at Stoke Church, Plymouth. This lady managed to court even more unpopularity than her husband, with Prince William describing her as ‘so ridiculously affected that she is universally ridiculed’. Prior to his marriage Molloy allegedly broke off an engagement with another woman whose curse upon meeting him in the street was held to bring about his downfall and disgrace. His daughter, Mary, married Admiral Sir John Poo Beresford but predeceased her father, and he also had two sons.

A bad tempered unpopular oppressive man and a strict disciplinarian both to his crew and his officers, Molloy was often mentioned as being a tyrant. Captain Lord Robert Manners of the Resolution kept good order in his own ship by threatening to discharge any repeat offenders into Molloy’s Intrepid. As well as holding a harsh opinion of his wife Prince William disliked him intensely. Molloy was nevertheless regarded as personally courageous, and was a good friend of Admiral Sir Roger Curtis whilst Fanny Burney described him as ‘sensible and agreeable, but somewhat haughty’.

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Captain James Brine.



Died 1814. He was the father of Rear-Admiral Augustus Brine and Captain George Brine.


Brine was commissioned lieutenant on 1 July 1766, in which rank he commanded the storeship Prince Frederick, going out to Madeira in September 1766.


He was first lieutenant of the Prince of Wales 74, Captain Benjamin Hill, the flagship to Rear-Admiral Hon. Samuel Barrington at the Battle of St. Lucia on 15 December 1778. Ten days later, on Christmas Day, he was promoted commander of the ex-American privateer Bunker’s Hill, renamed the Surprise 18, which had been taken by the boats of the fleet off the island on the 23rd.


Removing to the captured French frigate Alcmène 32 to commission her in October 1779, he was posted captain on 30 December, and served under the orders of Commodore William Hotham in the Leeward Islands. During the Great Hurricanes of October his command found sanctuary at Antigua after sailing from St. Lucia, but his consort, the Blanche 32, Captain Samuel Uppleby, was lost with all hands.


At the end of 1780 he removed to the Belliqueux 64 which sailed out to the Leeward Islands with Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood’s squadron, Captain Thomas Fitzherbert having resigned the command. Brine served at the occupation of St. Eustatius on 3 February 1781, and fought at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April and was present but barely engaged at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay on 5 September before leaving her at the end of the year.


He was not re-employed during the long years of peace, but in1794 he rejoined the Belliqueux and commanded her under the orders of the commander-in-chief at Jamaica, Commodore John Ford, whose squadron took Port au Prince on San Domingo in a combined operation on 4 June. She was paid off in September 1795.
Brine had recently assumed command of the Glory 98 when the Spithead mutiny broke out on 16 April 1797, and he and his officers were ordered off the ship and bundled into a boat with little ceremony. He nevertheless rejoined the ship at the end of the mutiny, but over the following year disaffection still affected the Glory, as indeed it did a number of other ‘Irish’ ships. On 12 March 1798 Brine and the first lieutenant, William Daniel, had to rush below to quell a disturbance caused by upwards of fifty men who were trying to get at the officers’ beer supply. A more serious outbreak was prevented when the intention of almost one hundred and fifty men to murder the officers and carry the ship into Brest were made known to the marine officer by a subordinate who could not bear the thought of having to kill Brine’s young son, George. Eight men were later hung for their part in the plan.


Brine remained with the Glory until he was advanced to flag rank on 14 February 1799. In March 1803 he briefly removed his flag from the Téméraire 74 which had been refitting, to the Venerable 74, Captain John Clarke Searle, and he served as second in command at Plymouth where his son George was his flag lieutenant from 1804-5.


He was promoted vice-admiral on 23 April 1804, and admiral on 25 October 1809, and he died on 18 November 1814 at Blandford Forum in Dorset.
Brine married firstly Jane Knight of Blandford St. Mary’s, Dorset on 7 September 1767, and he soon leased Down House from Sir Thomas Pitt. His second wife, Alicia-Catherine, died in 1832 at Blandford. He was the father of Rear-Admiral Augustus Brine by his first wife, and also of George Brine who reached the rank of captain.

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Captain Stair Douglas.





Died 1789. He was the third of four sons of Sir John Douglas of Kilhead, Scotland, and of his wife Christian, the daughter of Sir William Cunningham. He was the uncle of Rear-Admiral Stair Douglas.
Douglas’ early service included a spell in the Leeward Islands aboard the Fowey 20, Captain George Mackenzie. He was commissioned lieutenant on 13 December 1756, later seeing service in that rank aboard the Brilliant 36, Captain Hyde Parker, and the Royal George 100, Captain John Campbell, flagship to Admiral Sir Edward Hawke in the Channel.

He was promoted commander on 7 July 1761 and ordered to commission the French prize Sardoine 14, which he took out to the West Indies in December. He had the Barbadoes 10 in the expedition to Martinique during January – February 1762, and was later despatched with Captain Hon. Augustus John Hervey’s force against St. Lucia. From March to July, having exchanged with Commander James Hawker, he commanded the bomb Granado 8. He next had the Port Royal 14 at the reduction of Havana in 1762, and he was posted captain of the Glasgow 20 on 29 June 1762 before quickly removing to the Richmond 32. Upon sailing for North America he retained the Richmond on that station until the end of the war.

In the winter of 1770 Douglas took the Seaford 20 out to Jamaica where he exchanged with Captain Walter Stirling into the Dunkirk 60, becoming the flag-captain to his old friend Commodore George Mackenzie at Port Royal. The Dunkirk returned to England towards the end of 1771 and was paid off in March of the following year. In November 1773 he recommissioned the Squirrel 20 which he took out to Jamaica in January 1774 before eventually returning home in 1777.

After a short period of unemployment Douglas recommissioned the Montreal 32 in late 1777, going out to North America and then taking the Portuguese and Mediterranean convoys out from Spithead on 12 October 1778 in company with the Hussar 28, Captain Elliot Salter. Thereafter he remained in the Mediterranean. On 1 May 1779, being in company with the Thetis 32, Captain John Gell, the Montreal 32 fell in with the French 74’s Bourgogne and Victoire in the Straits of Gibraltar, and although her consort escaped the Montreal was forced to strike after a token resistance. Shamefully the French continued firing into the Montreal for a good half hour after she had struck her colours, and then upon boarding the frigate raided the officers’ personal liquor. After being ferried to Alicante Douglas and his crew were released.
Upon being exchanged in 1780 he was appointed to commission the new Prince William 64 for service in the Channel fleet campaign of June-December, and he went out to the Leeward Islands at the end of the year with Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood’s reinforcements. He was present at the capture of St. Eustatius on 3 February 1781, but blotted his copybook by firing on the Dutch frigate Mars 38 following the capitulation, being severely reprimanded for so doing by Admiral Sir George Rodney. The Prince William later fought at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April, suffering casualties of six men wounded.

Shortly afterwards, and apparently on account of his health, although Rodney’s criticism may have influenced the decision, Douglas transferred to the Triumph 74 in order to return to England. Sailing in company with a merchant convoy and the Panther 60, Captain John Harvey, he took the expeditious step of escorting his charges into Cork rather than the southern ports of England where it was known that a French fleet was lying in wait. After eventually reaching England the Triumph was paid off in November 1781.

Although appointed to the Grafton 74 in the autumn of 1782 Douglas resigned the command within a few days, apparently because of the state of his health, but more relevantly because she was then under orders for the East Indies. He briefly commanded the Cambridge 80 in early 1783, but she was paid off in May.

Douglas was not thereafter employed and he died unmarried in Richmond, Yorkshire, on 8 April 1789.
He was seen as mildly eccentric but was nevertheless well regarded by his contemporaries. In 1764 he gifted a 10 year-old negro boy from St. Kitts to the Duchess of Queensbury. The boy, who was named Julius Soubise would become an accomplished gentleman and by all accounts somewhat of a fop and a Lothario.

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Captain Edmond Dod.




1734-1815.

Dod was commissioned lieutenant on 26 February 1760, and whilst in this rank he commanded the schooner Diligent 10 at Halifax in 1776 before she was wrecked on the Gannet Rocks in the Bay of Fundy whilst escorting transports with forage for the cavalry on 17 May 1777. Having been exonerated of any blame for her loss he was appointed to the prize American brig Cabot 14 by Vice-Admiral Lord Howe in June 1777, taking his crew with him and reading himself in on 8 August at Halifax. He was subsequently promoted commander on 12 November 1778.

Dod fought under the orders of Captain Sir James Wallace at the Battle of Cancale Bay on 13 May 1779 where a small French force was driven inshore and defeated. As a reward he was posted captain on 18 May, being ordered to commission the Siren 24 at Sheerness and remaining with her until November of the following year. He then commanded the Lizard 28 which patrolled the North Sea during 1780 in search of the American privateer captain, John Paul Jones.

After going out to the Leeward Islands in March 1781 the Lizard saw service as a repeating frigate at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April 1781, and she later visited Jamaica. She captured the French cutter Espion 16 off St. Kitts, and was present although not involved in the action at the Battles of St. Kitts on 25/26 January 1782 and the Saintes on 12 April 1782. After returning home she was paid off in September at Deptford.

During the peace, from October 1787 until the late summer of 1790, Dod commanded the frigate Lowestoft 32, seeing duty in the Channel and Mediterranean.

In September 1792 he commissioned the new Charon 44, going out to Africa that November and paying her off in September 1793. He recommissioned the Dictator 64 in the same month, again being employed off Africa and she eventually returned home from the West Indies during 1794.

Dod recommissioned the Atlas 98 in the spring of 1795, and on 7 April 1796 sat on the court-martial of Vice-Admiral Hon. William Cornwallis which investigated that officer’s failure to sail for the Leeward Islands. He then served in Rear-Admiral Henry Harvey’s small squadron that was detached from the Channel fleet to search off Cape Clear for a Dutch squadron that eventually capitulated in Saldanah Bay on 17 August. In December the Atlas went aground at Spithead during the Christmas Day gale that disrupted the sailing of the Channel fleet to meet the French threat to Ireland, this accident being symptomatic of that particular fleet’s failings. He nevertheless continued with her through to his elevation to flag rank.

On 20 February 1797 he was promoted rear-admiral, being immediately senior on the list to Sir Horatio Nelson, and he was created a vice-admiral on 1 January 1801 and an admiral on 18 April 1808.
Admiral Dod died on 22 December 1815 at Bedford Circus, Exeter, Devon.
His wife, Charlotte Maria, died on 1 December 1808 and their son, Captain Michael Dod, died on 7 November 1815 at the age of 37.

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Royaume de France
Escadre française, Chevalier François-Joseph Paul de Grasse (Comte de Grasse) (1722-1788)
20 ships of the line
Ship Name	Guns	Commander	Notes
Name : Ville de Paris (90)	104	Saint Cézaire (d.1782), Velleon	Fleet Flagship
Name : L'Auguste (84)	84	Pierre Joseph Castellan	Squadron Flagship
Name : Le Saint Esprit (80)	80	Joseph Bernard Chabert
Name : Le Languedoc (80)	90	Hervé Louis Joseph Marie Duplessis-Parscau (Comte Duplessis-Parscau), Argelos
Name : Pluton (74)	74	François Hector d'Albert (Chevalier ) (1728-1802)
Name : Sceptre (74)	74	Chevalier Louis-Philippe de Rigaud (Comte de Vaudreuil) (1724-1802)
Name : Le César (74)	74	Jean Charles Régis Coriolis d'Espinouse
Name : Le Souverain (74)	74	Lord Jean-Baptiste de Glandevès du Castellet (Baron de Glandevès) (1728-1803)
Name : Le Northumberland (74)	74	de Briqueville (Marquis )
Name : Le Diadème (74)	74	Louis Augustin Montecerc
Name : Magnanime (74)	74	Le Bègue (Comte )
Name : Le Zélé (74)	74	Balthazar Gras-Préville
Name : Marseillais (74)	74	Henri-César Masjastre (Marquis de Castellane Masjastre)
Name : Bourgogne (74)	74	Charles Charitte (Comte de Charitte)
Name : Scipion (74)	74	Pierre Antoine de Clavel (Comte )
Name : Le Hector (74)	74	Laurent-Emanuel Renaud d'Aleins
Name : Hercule (74)	74	Jean Baptiste Turpin du Breuil
Name : Le Glorieux (74)	74	d'Escards (Vicomte )
Name : Le Citoyen (74)	74	Alexandre de Thy (Comte d'Ethy) (1729-1789)
Name : Vaillant (64)	64	Charles-René Bernard de Marigny (Chevalier )
Name : La Médée (32)	32	de Girardin (Chevalier )
Name : L'Aigrette (30)	30	de Traversay
Name : Diligente (26)	26	de Mortemart (Vicomte )
Name : Alerte (18)	18	de Chabons
Name : Le Pandour (14)	14	de Grasse-Limermont

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Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse.



François-Joseph de Grasse was born and raised at Bar-sur-Loup in south-eastern France, the last child of Francois de Grasse Rouville, Marquis de Grasse who earned his title and supported his Provençal family.


Naval career.

At the age of eleven (1734), de Grasse entered the Order of Saint John as a page of the Grand Master. He served as an ensign on the galleys in wars against the Turks and the Moors.
In 1740 at the age of 17, he entered the French Navy.
Following Britain's victory over the French in the Seven Years War, de Grasse helped rebuild the French navy in the years after the Treaty of Paris (1763).

American War of Independence.

In 1775, the American War of Independence broke out when American colonists rebelled against British rule. France supplied the colonists with covert aid, but remained officially neutral until 1778. The Treaty of Alliance (1778) established the Franco-American alliance and France entered the war.
As a commander of a division, de Grasse served under Louis Guillouet, comte d'Orvilliers at the First Battle of Ushant from July 23 to 27, 1778. The battle, fought off Britanny, was indecisive.
In 1779, he joined the fleet of Count d'Estaing in the Caribbean and distinguished himself in the battles of Dominica and Saint Lucia during 1780 and of Tobago during 1781. He contributed to the capture of Grenada and took part in the three actions fought by Guichen against Admiral Rodney in the Battle of Martinique (1780).
George Washington and De Grasse, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the victory at Siege of Yorktown, 1781.

Yorktown campaign.

De Grasse came to the aid of Washington and Rochambeau's Expédition Particulière, setting sail with 3,000 men from Saint-Domingue. De Grasse landed the 3,000 French reinforcements in Virginia, and immediately afterward decisively defeated the British fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake in September 1781. He drew away the British forces and blockaded the coast until Lord Cornwallis surrendered, ensuring the independence of the United States of America.

Battle of the Saintes.

He returned to the Caribbean, where he was less fortunate and was defeated at the Battle of St. Kitts by Admiral Hood. Shortly afterward, in April 1782, he was defeated and taken prisoner by Admiral Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes. He was taken to London, and while there briefly took part in the negotiations that laid the foundations for the Peace of Paris (1783), which brought the war to an end.
He returned to France and published a Mémoire justificatif. In 1784, he was acquitted by a court-martial.

Later life.

He died at Tilly (Yvelines) in 1788; his tomb is in the church of Saint-Roch in Paris.
His son Alexandre Francois Auguste de Grasse published a Notice biographique sur l'amiral comte de Grasse d'après les documents inédits in 1840.

The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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Saint Cézaire.





Roles Sailor
First Known Service12.4.1682CSORN
Last Known Service12.4.1782CSORN
Date of Death12.4.1782EWIKI

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event	Source
1781		Ville de Paris (90), as Commanding Officer	EWIKI
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake
1782	12.4.1782	Le Northumberland (74), as Commanding Officer	EWIKI
25.1.1782	26.1.1782	Battle of Saint Kitts
9.4.1782		Action off Dominique
12.4.1782		Battle of the Saintes

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Captain Velleon.

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Nationality French
Roles Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event	Source
1781	12.4.1782	Ville de Paris (90), as Commanding Officer	EWIKI
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake
25.1.1782	26.1.1782	Battle of Saint Kitts
12.4.1782		Battle of the Saintes

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Captain Pierre Joseph Castellan.

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Nationality French
Roles Sailor

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Born: 21 April 1743
Entered naval service either commercial or military position: 1757
Captain de vaisseau 3rd class: 1 January 1792
Wounds recieved while in the service of France: None
Died: 28 March 1800

Event History

Date from	Date to	Event	Source
1781		L'Auguste (84), as Commanding Officer	EWIKI
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain Joseph Bernard Chabert.

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Nationality French
Roles Sailor

---

Born: 22 February 1758
Entered naval service either commercial or military position: 1774
Captain de fregate: 26 August 1799
Captain de vaisseau 2nd class: 12 July 1808
Member of the Legion d’Honneur: 14 June 1804
Wounds received while in the service of France: None
Died: 12 January 1833

Event History.

Date from	Date to	Event	Source
1781	5.9.1781	Le Saint Esprit (80), as Commanding Officer	EWIKI
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain Hervé Louis Joseph Marie Duplessis-Parscau

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Nationality French
Roles Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event	Source
		Appointed Comte Duplessis-Parscau	EWIKI
1778		Bretagne (100), as Commanding Officer	TRN3
27.7.1778		1st Battle of Ushant
1781		Le Languedoc (80), as Commanding Officer	EWIKI
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain.François Hector d'Albert .






François Hector d'Albert is the son of François d'Albert de Rioms (1702-1792) and his wife Catherine de La Chau. From this marriage are born four sons: a first young death, François Hector (in 1728), Jean Pierre Henry in (1733) and Joseph (in 1737).

Career in the Navy .

During the Seven Years' War, Albert de Rions was captured on Le Foudroyant during the unfortunate fight of Duquesne de Menneville against HMS Monmouth, in front of Cartagena (February 28, 1758).

Albert de Rioms began as a Marine Guard at the company of Rochefort, in 1743, became a signboard five years later, and a lieutenant in 1755. During the Seven Years' War, he was taken prisoner for the first time on the Esperance (commander: Viscount de Bouville), a second time on the ship Le Foudroyant, in the fight of Cartagena of February 28, 1758, delivered by the Marquis Duquesne, wanting to join Cartagena, La Clue, blocked by an English squadron commanded by Admiral Henry Osborne.

On June 11, 1761, he married Thérèse de Clerc de Ladevèze (1740-1823). From this union is born a daughter, Adeline of Albert de Rions (1770-1807).

Knight of Saint-Louis in 1763, he was promoted to the rank of captain of frigate in 1771, after having served either in the infantry or in the naval artillery, and took part in four naval campaigns.




La campagne d'Amérique.


Captain of the ship in 1772, he served with brilliance in the war of America, under the orders of Count d'Estaing.
In 1778, M. d'Albert, commander of the ship Sagittarius, 50 guns, contributes to the expedition of Newport, the attack on St. Lucia and was in July 1779 in the battle of Grenada, where the count d'Estaing defeated Admiral Byron's squadron. On 24 September that same year, at the Savannah headquarters, he captured the HMS Experiment, an English 50-gun ship, of the same strength as his own, carrying 650,000 francs. money minted. Suffren, who fights with him in Newport, does not cease to praise him afterwards.
In 1780, he was promoted brigadier of naval armies. In 1781, raising the ship the Pluto, (74 guns), it is noticed in all the fights delivered by the squadron of the count of Grasse, namely: April 29, off Fort-Royal of Martinique, against the fleet of Admiral Hood; the capture of Tobago at the end of May; the following September 5th, in front of Chesapeake Bay, against Admiral Graves; January 25th and 26th, 1782, near Saint Christopher Island, against Admiral Hood.

Finally, in the unhappy days of April 9th ​​and 12th, between Dominica and Guadeloupe, at the battle of Les Saintes, where, mounted on Le Pluto, he distinguished himself by the aid, remarkable, holding in check four British ships, which he carries to the City of Paris, against Admiral Rodney.

This defeat of the Saintes, where only a third of the French ships faced more than triple of English ships will give rise to a council of war, long and useless, where oppositions of officers and aristocrats prevail over the reform actions , correctives, and a faster reconstruction of the fleet for the conquest of India or Jamaica.During this council involving the egos, even more than the real naval combat, will be examined the conduct of all senior officers: that of Count Albert de Rions earned deserved praise, and all.Also, in India, Suffren asks him as captain, and, if necessary, as successor. The latter wrote to M. de Castries:"I know only one person who has all the qualities one could desire, who is very brave, very learned, full of zeal and future, disinterested, a good sailor. Albert of Rions, and, even in America, send him a frigate. I will be better off, having it; for he will help me, and if I die, you will be assured that the good of the service will lose nothing; if you had given it to me when I asked you, we would be masters of the Indies.Promoted wing commander of the naval armies in 1784, he was made Commander of Saint-Louis by patent of August 20, 1784 and received a pension of 3,000 livres on the budget of the order2. He was appointed general manager of the port of Toulon and then commander of the navy in this port, he commanded, in 1785, the vessel Seducing him in the campaign of evolutions he made with Buor de la Charoulière in the North Sea.When Louis XVI visited Cherbourg in 1786, Albert de Rions gave him, on the Patriote, the simulacrum of a naval battle in the harbor.Raised in 1788, to the dignity of commander of St. Louis, he had resumed his service in Toulon, as lieutenant general of the navies, when, in December 1789, when the first sparks of the French Revolution burst in this port . A strict observer of military discipline, he forbade the arsenal workers to wear the tricolor cockade, and to join the National Guard. Two carpenters having broken his orders, he has them taken to prison: this is the signal for a general insurrection. The troops of the line refuse to defend M. d'Albert, who, at first ill-treated, is arrested (with MM du Castellet and Villages) by the seditious ones.
The National Assembly, convoked, decrees that no charge should be brought against these brave officers, and renders to their chief an honorable testimony. The Assembly confines itself to ordering his release. Shortly after, Louis XVI, more just, entrusted to him the command of a fleet of thirty ships of line, squadron, called "of the Ocean", which was gathered in Brest, to support the rights of Spain against England, in the Nootka Sound affair.Insubordination won the crews, when the publication of the Penal Code of 22 April 1790, M. d'Albert, having unnecessarily tried to establish order and subordination among the crews, at a time when all social bonds were broken, and all the legal authorities threatened, decided to leave the command, and to leave France.Appointed Rear-Admiral, on January 1, 1792, he emigrated on January 15 of the same year and joined at Coblentz the princes, brothers of Louis XVI, and made the campaign of 1792, in a particular body, formed by the officers of the navy emigrants. After the battle of Valmy, the retreat of the Prussians, and the dispersion of the royal troops, M. d'Albert retired to Dalmatia, and lived for several years in an unknown asylum.He returns to France under the Consulate, "when a repairing government had recalled the men of merit that the civil troubles had removed, and he had the happiness, before ending his career, to see reborn in his homeland the monarchical institutions military order and discipline, of which he had been all his life the faithful and courageous defender. Admitted to retirement in 1802, he died on October 3 of the same year, in his family home in Saint-Auban.

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Captain Louis-Philippe, comte de Vaudreuil.






Louis-Philippe was born into a family with a rich political and military tradition. His grandfather, Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, and his uncle Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnal, were both governors of Canada; the latter was its last governor, surrendering Montreal to the British in 1760. Another uncle, Pierre-François de Rigaud, fought with Montcalm at the Battle of Oswego.
His father, also named Louis-Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, was a celebrated admiral of the French Navy, and was in charge of the navy in North America in 1747. Louis-Philippe the elder successfully saved Desherbiers de l'Etenduère at the Second battle of Cape Finisterre while commanding the Intrépide. Louis XV himself ordered the celebrated Dutch artist Charles-André van Loo to paint one of his naval battles; this painting is still in the Palace of Versailles.
Although his father was born in Quebec City and there are claims that Louis-Philippe the son was born in Canada, it is more probable that he was born in Rochefort, France, as his father was in charge of that city on the west coast of France at the time.



American Revolutionary War.



Vaudreuil was dispatched to America when the French entered the war on the side of the Americans in February 1778. His first engagement came at the First Battle of Ushant, an island on the north-west part of France near Brest, where the French Navy and the British Navy fought to a draw. He was at sea for about five months.



Vaudreuil was on the Sceptre in the Battle of the Chesapeake. After one furious engagement with the British navy, Admiral de Grasse's fleet and the British fleet drifted for miles south of Yorktown and lost sight of each other. De Grasse eventually disengaged and returned to the Chesapeake, where he met the fleet of the Comte de Barras. This combined fleet outnumbered the British fleet, and gave the French control of the bay when the British opted not to attack. This had the effect of cutting the army of Cornwallis off from resupply and relief, leading to the Siege of Yorktown and his surrender. Vaudreuil's contribution to this effort was to provide the cavalry of Duke of Lauzun, a foreign legion that was a mix of Russian, Slavic, Polish and German mercenaries in the service of France. He also provided eight hundred men from his ship to Gloucester Point in defence of a peninsula near Yorktown. Together with the Duke of Lauzun these men fought the cavalry of Tarleton, and defeated him.



In the 1782 Battle of the Saintes, Vaudreuil was credited with saving most of the French Navy's ships in the disastrous defeat. Since De Grasse was taken prisoner Vaudreuil took command of the entire French fleet in America. Afterward, Vaudreuil was on the ship Triumphant in Boston harbour. At the conclusion of the war in 1783, he was responsible for bringing the victorious French army of Rochambeau back to France.



French Revolution.



Vaudreuil, with other Naval officers, forced his way into the Palace of Versailles on the night of October 5–6 to protect the Royal family. He then emigrated to London in 1791, returning to Paris in 1800. Upon returning, he was granted a Naval pension by Napoleon.

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Captain Jean Charles Régis Coriolis d'Espinouse.





Like many of the senior officers of the French Royal Navy , Charles Régis Coriolis d'Espinouse came from a family of Provencal nobility . The family of Coriolis , lords of Espinouse to which he belongs descends from Jean de Coriolis, assessor of Aix in 1487. His father was Pierre de Coriolis of Villeneuve, marquis of Espinouse, baron of Corbières.His wife Renée Charlotte Félicité of Ventimiglia,was the daughter of Charles François de Ventimiglia, count of Luc des Counts of Marseilles. From this union were born eight children, three boys and five girls (three of whom died in infancy). Charles Regis is the third son.


Career in the French Royal Navy.



He is first recorded as a naval guard on July 1, 1741, lieutenant of the ship February 11, 1756 , captain of frigate in 1764, and Captain of the ship on November 15, 1771.

He served during the American Revolutionary War . The minister of Marine Sartine sent him on a mission to Tunis in 1776 to seek the Envoy (ambassador) Bey and bring him to France. He arrived in Tunis on September 17th aboard the frigate L'Aurore , in the company of the boat L'Éclair , under the orders of the Comte de Forbin . He was promoted brigadier of the armies of the King in 1778. In the same year, he left Toulon with a squadron of four ships of the line, placed under the orders of the Chevalier de Fabry . Returning on September 27th , from Constantinople , he takes on water in Malta with Cato.

He is given command of Destiny (74), which is part of the fleet of 30 ships under the orders of the Count d'Orvilliers who left Brest for the Spanish coast, to join the Spanish fleet. With 65 ships , the French-Spanish fleet collected in the Channel with the intention of landing in England. But this operation proved to be a failure when the French fleet, having spent three months at sea waiting for the Spanish, was decimated by scurvy.

He next went on to command the Caesar (74), in the fleet under the Count of Grasse, who sailed from Brest in March 1781 , and set sail for the West Indies. The Caesar was the premier vessel of the White Squadron and contributed to the defeat inflicted on the British fleet of Admiral Graves in Chesapeake Bay .
Coriolis d'Espinouse was promoted to the rank of squadron leader of the Naval Armies during the promotions of January 12th, 1782.

He took part in the battle of the Saintes under the orders of the Count de Grasse . On board the Duke of Burgundy (80), captain Champmartin, he commanded the white and blue squadron. He was accompanied, in the line of battle bythe Conqueror (74), Captain La Grandière, and Marseillais (74), Castellane-Majastre.
At the end of the battle, the Count de Grasse was taken prisoner. In 1784, the War Council charged with investigating the defeat admonished Bougainville, while Vaudreuil received the support of his superior. Coriolis of Espinouse was also admonished by the Council of War, along with the Knight of Village, captain of Janson and Renaud d'Allen, captain of the Neptune, for "not having done everything which was possible to execute the orders".

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Captain Lord Jean-Baptiste de Glandevès du Castellet .






Jean-Baptiste de Glandeves du Castellet, known as the "Commander of Glandeves", was born on September 7th, 1728 at Castellet-Saint-Cassien castle in Val-de-Chalvagne and died in 1803 He was a French naval officer of the eighteenth and 19th century. He finished his career with the rank of Rear Admiral.

Origins.

Coming from the family of Glandevès, an old family of Provençal nobility who provided several general officers to the french Royal Navy. His uncle, Pierre-André de Glandeves du Castellet (1689-after 1772), finished his career with the rank of Lieutenant General of the Naval Armies in 1764, while the younger brother of it, François de Glandevès du Castellet ( 1696-1774), was appointed squadron commander of the Navy Forces in 1767.

Career in the French Royal Navy. He joined a naval guards company in Toulon in 1741, at the beginning of the War of the Austrian Succession. He participated, on board the ship the Solid at the battle of Cape Sicié, near Toulon, in February 1744. He then joins Pierre André de Suffren. Promoted to lieutenant in 1756, he fought on the Ocean at the Battle of Lagos, Bay on the south coast of Portugal, from August 17 to 19, 1759, during the Seven Years' War. This fight saw the victory of the British admiral Edward Boscawen over the Toulon squadron of La Clue-Sabran. During the action Glandeves was badly wounded and taken prisoner. Appointed Captain of a frigate in 1765, he later received a commission of captain of ship in 1772. During the American Revolutionary War he commanded the vessel the Sovereign, 74 guns in the fleet of the Earl of Guichen who attacked Admiral Rodney off Martinique April 17, 1780, and again on May 15 and 19 of the same year. Still on the Sovereign, he left Brest in March 1781 under the orders of the Count of Grasse. On April 29, he was at the Battle of Fort Royal against the British fleet of Admiral Hood. On September 5, he was at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay. Commander of the Order of Malta in 1781. He took part in the Battle of Saintes, in the Lesser Antilles, on April 12, 1782, during which the British fleet, commanded by Admirals Rodney and Hood, defeated the Count de Grasse's squadron. He was appointed squadron commander of the navies in 1784.

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Captain Bon Chrétien de Bricqueville.





Bon Chrétien de Bricqueville emanated from the Bricqueville House, lords of Bretteville, a family of the Norman nobility. He was the fourth child of Guillaume Antoine de Bricqueville, lord of Bretteville en Saire (1690-1775) and Madeleine de La Motte de Pont Roger (born in 1688).

Career in the French Royal Navy.


He entered young in the Royal Navy. He wasa naval guard in 1743 at the age of seventeen. He then followed the classic course of any "blue officer" and climbed one by one the hierarchical ranks of the Navy: signboard in 1748, he was promoted to lieutenant in 1756, then captain of artillery in 1762, and finally captain of frigate in 1767.

Elevated to Knight of Saint-Louis in 1763, he received his certificate of captain of ship in 1772 and was appointed navy major the same year.

He participates in the American war of independence. He commanded The Solitaire, a 64-gun ship, at the battle of Ushant on July 27, 1778.

In March 1781 he was part of the French fleet leaving Brest under Count de Grasse. On April 29 he commanded the 74-gun Northumberland at the battle of Fort Royal against Admiral Hood's British fleet. On September 5, he was at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay.

He received the command of L'Aigrette in 1782.

Promoted to squadron leader in 1784, after the Peace of Paris (1783). He became a member of the Navy Academy, Knight of the Order of Cincinnatus, being a founding member of this Order.
He died on January 2, 1803 in Valognes, at the age of 76.

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Captain Louis Augustin Montecerc.

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Nationality French
Roles Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
1781		Le Diadème (74), as Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain Jean Le Bègue de Germiny.




Jean Le Bègue de Germiny descends from the family The Bègue de Germiny, originally from Normandy and established in Lorraine, which was then part of the Holy Empire. He is the second son of Leopold Joseph Le Bègue de Germiny (1700-1758), Keeper of the Seals of the Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Agnès Gabrielle Vogt of Hunolstein (1707-1760).


Career in the French Royal Navy.

Raised in Florence, he entered the Navy as a Marine Guard in 1747, at the end of the War of Austrian Succession. He was promoted ship's officer in 1754 then lieutenant in 1757, he spent time in the artillery as captain of the Royal Brigade artillery Morogue.

Returning to the Navy, he received a certificate as a captain in 1776, a few months before France became involved in the American war of independence. He took part in the American campaign as captain of the Magnanime, 74 guns. On April 29, 1781, he was at the Battle of Fort Royal against the British fleet of Admiral Hood.

On September 5, at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay, he was part of the Blue Squadron commanded by Count de Monteil. On the 25th and 26th of February, still at the command of the Magnanimous, he was at the battle of St. Kitts, under the command of Count de Grasse.

The bailiff of Suffren, his intimate friend, donated in front of a notary, in 1784, a sum of 100,000 livres to his children. The same year, when Le Bègue de Germiny openly criticizes the reforms initiated by the Maréchal de Castries, Secretary of State of the Navy from 1780 to 1787, he was threatened with disgrace. Suffren, who then enjoyed immense prestige, went to the minister and defended his friend. In a letter dated December 4, Suffren tries to reassure Count Le Bègue by telling him his interview with the Count de Castries


"You hit Count Le Bègue hard. The brilliant services of this squadron leader were to prevent this disgrace. His long experience allowed him and also forced him to say without hesitation what he thought of the condition of the gunners. If he wrote and maintained this in the regulations he was responsible for drafting on the armament of the ships, it was because he followed his conscience and his principles. Wish that all the officers of the SS squadrons look like the one you overwhelm. I'm sorry to think he has to shut up, he can not talk hard, or discuss the projected changes. Before you go on fighting against Count Le Bgue, think about it, call Count d'Hector, etc."

He was appointed squadron commander of the navies in 1786.

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Captain Balthazar Gras-Préville.

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Nationality French
Roles Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
1781		Le Zélé (74), as Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain Henri-César de Castellane-Majastre.




He was a French aristocrat, landowner and sailor.

Early life.

Henri-César de Castellane-Majastre was born on March 28, 1733 in Riez, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France.A French aristocrat, he was a member of the House of Castellane. His father was César-Henri de Castellane (1693-1761) and his mother, Agathe de Martin.
.
Career.

He served as a career officer in the French Navy. He became Gardes de la Marine in 1749, Lieutenant in 1762 and Captain in 1775.
During the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, he served on a French fleet that came to the rescue of the Americans in March 1781. Leaving from Brest on March 22, 1781, under the command of Lieutenant General François Joseph Paul de Grasse (1722–1788), they were bound for Martinique. He served in the Invasion of Tobago on May 30, 1781. Their campaign led to the capture of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738-1805), and they took part in the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, 1781 and the Siege of Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
Additionally, he fought in the Battle of Saint Kitts aboard the French ship Vengeur du Peuple in April 1782. A month later, in May 1782, he served on the fleet of Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil (1724–1802).
In October 1782, he was inducted in the Society of the Cincinnati and received 800 pounds from them for his service. On October 1, 1784, he became Chef d'escadre.

Personal life.

He married Marie Claire de Montolieu (unknown-1800). They had two sons:

• Charles de Castellane (1783-1857).
• César Elzéar de Castellane, Comte de Castellane-Majastres (1784-1835).

He died on May 5, 1789 in Riez, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France.

Event History,

Date from	Date to	Event
1781		Appointed Marquis de Castellane Masjastre
29.4.1781 30.4.1781		Marseillais (74), as Commanding Officer
30.4.1781		Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain Charles Charitte (Comte de Charitte)



Charles Louis Borromee of Casamajor de Charritte, known as "Count de Charritte" was born on November 1st, 1733 in Susmiou and died on October 20th, 1815, was a French naval officer of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He distinguished himself during the American Revolutionary War and ended his career with the rank of Vice Admiral, and the Grand Cross of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis.He was the sixth child (fourth son) of Charles de Casamajor de Charritte, Marquis de Charitte (1701-1780) and his wife Marguerite-Françoise d'Andouins.

Career in the French Royal Navy.

Like his grandfather before him, Charles de Casamajor opted for the career of arms in the sea service. He joined the Royal Navy and joined a company of naval guards in 1749 at the age of sixteen. He was promoted to shipboard in 1755 shortly before the Seven Years' War broke out. He was made Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint-Louis on January 1st, 1773.On April 4th, 1777, he received a certificate of Captain, and served during the American Revolutionary War. He commanded the ship Burgundy, 74 guns on September 5th, 1781 at the battle of the Bay of the Chesapeake, under the orders of the Count de Grasse. He later distinguished himself during the battle of Saintes (April 1782).

"On the 12th of April, the vessel Burgundy, under the command of the Chevalier de Charitte, participated in the unfortunate combat of the Saintes, not far from Dominica. During this battle, which saw the destruction of the flagship Ville de Paris and the capture of Admiral de Grasse, Burgundy played a preeminent role, and the conduct of Captain de Charitte received general approval. At half-past five he was less than a mile downwind of the city of Paris, and when the rear guard had turned, his vessel was the one nearest to the admiral. The ship was however approached by the Duke of Burgundy. At the end of this fight, the English congratulated Charitte on his heroism, calling him "the brave captain of the black ship", because he had resisted brilliantly until night and had prevented the loss of several French ships to them. He protected them from the enemy fire. These facts came much later to the knowledge of the elected General of Burgundy. A decree of August 6, 1784 contains acknowledgments to the Chevalier de Charitte "for the glory that the ship Burgundy acquired under his orders, and especially the day of April 12, 1782. This decision was addressed by the elected General of Burgundy Marshal of Castries, then minister of the Navy with prayer to insert it in the Gazette de France, which was done.

" He was promoted Brigadier of the Naval Armies on September 30th, 1784, then Naval Forces Squadron on October 1st of the same year and Commander of St. Louis. He was appointed managing director of the port of Rochefort and continues to serve in the Navy after the Revolution. From May 1st, 1786 to March 15th, 1792, he was the commander of Wing. He was appointed Rear-Admiral (rank equivalent to that of Squadron Leader) on the 1st of January 1792, before being relieved of his duties on the 31st of December of the same year.

In 1798, he sat on the Navy Council. He was knighted to the Legion of Honor on May 1st, 1808. He retired on July 6th, 1814 with the rank of vice-admiral and was made companion of the Grand Cross of St. Louis on December 7th.

He died on October 20th, 1815 at the age of 82, sixty-five of which he served in the Navy.

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Captain Pierre Antoine de Clavel (Comte )

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Nationality French
Roles Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
		Appointed Comte
1781		Scipion (74), as Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain Laurent-Emanuel Renaud d'Aleins.

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Nationality French
Roles Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
1781		Le Hector (74), as Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain Jean Baptiste Turpin du Breuil.

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Nationality French
Roles Naval Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
1781		Hercule (74), as Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake

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Captain d'Escards (Vicomte )

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Nationality French
Roles Naval Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
		Appointed Vicomte
1781		Le Glorieux (74), as Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal

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Captain Al Alexandre de Thy (Comte d'Ethy)

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Nationality French
Roles Naval Sailor
Date of Birth1729 - Château de Thoiras
First Known Service1729
Last Known Service1789
Date of Death1789

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
		Appointed Comte d'Ethy
1755		Enseigne de Vaisseau
1780		Capitaine de Vaisseau
1780	1782	Le Citoyen (74), as Commanding Officer
17.4.1780		Battle of Martinique
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal
5.9.1781		Battle of the Chesapeake
25.1.1782	26.1.1782	Battle of Saint Kitts
9.4.1782		Action off Dominique
12.4.1782		Battle of the Saintes
1786		Junon (36), as Commanding Officer

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Captain Charles-René Bernard de Marigny (Chevalier )









Admitted, in 1754, to the French naval guards, the following year he obtained an order of embarkation on the frigate La Valeur, with which he made a campaign of fourteen months. His constitution, however, seemed to disavow his liking for the profession of sailor, for during the course of this campaign he constantly felt seasick; but his perseverance mastered his nature, and in a new campaign he made on the same building, the symptoms of this disease disappeared entirely.Named ship-officer in 1757, Marigny first embarked on the Corvette Le Zephir, and then on L'Actif. This ship was part of the squadron of eight ships and two frigates, under the command of Count d'Aché, to protect the French possessions in India, and he participated in the various battles she fought against the English on the coast of Coromandel, in 1758.After a campaign of about forty months, the Chevalier de Marigny returned to France on The Zodiac. He served successively on the vessels The Glorious, The Minotaur, The Union, the frigate La Légère, and the flute Garonne, with whom he made various campaigns in Santo Domingo, the coast of Africa, the Windward Islands, in Portugal and India until 1767, when he was made lieutenant. Being in Île-de-France, in 1768, he was ordered to embark, as a passenger, on a building of the East India Company, with the mission of exploring the coasts of Coromandel and Bengal. He then visited the different European counters, collecting information which he recorded in particular memoirs. This trip lasts about eight months, and on his return to France he deposits with the Department of Marine the results of his research.The squadron disarmed without having gone to sea. In 1775, Marigny was knighted at Saint-Louis, and appointed to the command of the corvette le Serin. He took also that of the station of the islands of the Wind, (Windward) charged with protecting the French trade in these areas.An illness of nearly a year, caused by the imprudence he committed to sleep on board his newly painted ship, forced him to quit his command; but when he was restored, he was entrusted with that of the corvette L'Étourdie, with whom he made a six-month campaign on the coast of the Channel. At the end of the year 1777, Marigny, who commanded the frigate la Belle Poule, was charged with returning to the United States Simeon Deane, who had been sent by Benjamin Franklin with the Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States. Franco-American Friendship and Commerce.On January 7, 1778, this frigate, located at latitude 45 ° 46 N, and longitude 8 °, was encountered by the British vessels HMS Hector and Courageux, both seventy-four, who each shot him from cannon to ball. They succeeded in placing the Belle Poule between their fires, and enjoined the commandant to put his boat into the sea. The Chevalier de Marigny refused to do so. Then one of them untied a boat with an officer who asked him the following questions: "Who are you? where are you from ? where are you going ? The chevalier replied: "I am the Belle Poule, frigate of the King of France; I come from the sea, and I go to the sea; the buildings of the king my master never let themselves be visited. After some discussions, in which the Chevalier de Marigny showed the same reserve and the same character, the English officer apologized for what his commander had taken the Belle Poule for an American frigate, masked under the French flag.Displeased for thirty-six consecutive days by contrary winds, degraded and threatened to lose his masts, his exhausted provisions and his crew overwhelmed with fatigue, the Chevalier de Marigny was forced to return to Brest. There remained only the time necessary to tranship his crew on the Sensible, and he resumed immediately the sea with this frigate. This time his voyage was so successful that, after landing the American envoy in the United States, and making several catches, including a privateer, he returned to Brest sixty-five days after his departure from that port. While returning, he was met at Halifax by the English vessel HMS Centurion (50 guns) and the HMS Diamond frigate (32 guns). The ship hailed him, asking him where he was going. "I hold the sea," replied the commander, and continued on his way.


American War of Independence.

Marigny's continued activity had altered his health, but as diplomatic relations between France and the United Kingdom deteriorated, he remained in the Navy. The war broke out between France and England in June of the same year, and the Sensible, which was the rehearsal frigate of the Count d'Orvilliers, took part in the fight of Ouessant, July 27, 1778.
As a result of this affair, Marigny was appointed captain of the ship, and he passed to the command of the Juno. On July 25, 1779, the naval army under the orders of the Count d'Orvilliers left Brest to meet with the Spaniards. This junction having been effected, she entered the Channel, and proceeded to the English coast. The light squadron commanded by La Touche-Treville was on the front. On the morning of August 17, the Juno, which was part of it, reported several sails to the wind, including a ship. Having received the order to chase her, she follows her movements, and, maneuvering in such a manner as to cut off her path, reaches her half-way from the cannon of the coast. It was the Ardent HMS, sixty-four guns. After securing his flag, Marigny began the fire; perceiving that the ship opened its ports only one after the other, he judged him ill-prepared for battle. He passed behind him to attack him on the starboard side. The HMS Ardent faintly answered the heavy fire of the Juno; his blows were uncertain, badly directed. The Gentile frigate, joining the Juno, attacked the ship to port.
Caught between two fires and seeing the light squadron approaching, the HMS Ardent brought his flag. Later, the Marquis de Rossel was commissioned to make the battle the subject of a painting which was sent to the commander of the Juno, bearing in caption: "Given by the King to the brave Chevalier de Marigny." The Minister of the Navy, in announcing this gift, said to him in his letter: "His Majesty gives you the command of the ship Ardent, which you have attacked and fought so valiantly. "

The following year, belonging to a division commanded by the Chevalier de Ternay, the Ardent took part in the engagement which it supported, on June 21, 1780, against five British vessels. In 1781, a squadron of eight ships, under the command of the Chevalier Destouches, having on board a corps of troops of about a thousand men, intended to reinforce the American army, went to the Chesapeake, when, on March 16th, it was encountered by that of Admiral Arbuthnot, also composed of eight vessels. In the fight which took place, the Ardent, caught between the fire of HMS London, of ninety-eight and the HMS Royal-Oak, of seventy-four, was to succumb, when L'Eveille, four, commanded by Tilly's Guardian, succeeded in disengaging him, in spite of the disproportion of their combined forces; the Ardent had fifty-four men killed and a large number wounded.


The following year Marigny took part, with the Ardent, in the battles of January 25th and 26th, 1782, under Saint-Christophe, and the capture of this island, which was the result. Charged by the Comte de Grasse to go to France to report on the operations of the army, the Chevalier de Marigny left the Ardent, and took passage on the frigate L'Aigrette. In his absence, April 12, 1782, the Ardent is captured and his keeps, the Caesar explodes, killing his brother. At the beginning of the year 1783, the knight, become Viscount de Marigny, was ordered to take the command of the ship la Victoire at Toulon, but peace, concluded on June 20, rendered this armament useless.


Attack of Fort Cabinda.


In the summer of 1784, Marigny is responsible for the bombing of Cabinda, built by the Portuguese on one of the main counters of the coast of Angola and allowing them to prohibit access to foreign vessels, hindering the operations of traders who came there to do the milking.
The king of France ordered the arming of a division composed of the Venus, a frigate of thirty-six cannon, the Lamprey, a barge of twenty-four, and the Anonyme, cutter of ten guns. Marigny received the command, with instructions to protect French commerce on the coast of Angola, by all means. He sailed from Brest with these three ships, carrying three hundred troops, and anchored in front of Cabinda on June 17, 1784.
An imposing fort was beating the pass and a frigate of twenty-six, anchored at the entrance, defended the approach. Marigny did not hesitate to make the purpose of his mission known to his captain; he then placed Venus so as to cut off all communication between the Portuguese frigate and the fort. He then signifies to his commander his orders to assure the independence of the French commerce, and his resolution to use force to execute them. He at the same time disposed the landing troops he had brought, and prepared for a vigorous attack. The Portuguese first appeared to resist, and then the commander of the fort asked for a delay of thirty days to take the orders of the Governor General. It was five o'clock in the evening; Viscount Marigny granted him until seven o'clock in the morning. At noon, the fort was returned and demolition began. Several prisoners, among whom was an African prince, were set free.

The Court of Lisbon, informed of the result of this expedition, complained loudly and asked by his ambassador, as a reparation, the dismissal of the officer who had directed him. The advice was given, but Louis XVI refused and Marshal Castries, then minister of the Navy, approved the conduct of Marigny.In the evolution squadron which was armed in 1784, the frigate La Fine, commanded by Marigny, was cited for the skill and precision of her maneuvers. On his return to Brest, he passed to the command of the ship the Bold and, on new sounds of war, he was ordered to go to Toulon to take command of a squadron for the seas of India .

French Revolution.

In August, 1784, Marigny was appointed Major of the Royal Corps of Gunners and Seamen, and in May, 1786, he was made Chief of Division and Major of the First Squadron. He was in charge of an inspection of the ports in 1789, and he was at Cherbourg when Louis XVI came to visit him. Marigny was a brigadier of the boat, who carried the king in the harbor; on entering the boat to return to shore, the king made a misstep; Marigny seized him immediately in his arms, and, in spite of the monarch's plumpness, he carried him into the canoe room. "My God, Monsieur de Marigny, how strong you are! Said Louis XVI. "Sire, a Frenchman is always strong when he holds his king in his arms. "In 1790 Marigny was major-general of the navy. One night, some revolutionaries place at its door the gallows and the straitjacket where criminals were fastened. A few days later, they came to tell him, in the middle of the night, that two or three thousand sailors had revolted, and asked for the head of the major-general. He hastily takes his uniform, his sword, and runs to the barracks. "You ask for my head," he said to the mutineers; here it is, I come to bring it to you. The clamours ceased, and the groups dissipated.Marigny received the order to take the command of the navy, and the minister, by transmitting it to him, told him that it was a new sacrifice which the king expected of him. In 1792 Marigny was rear-admiral. But he opposed the revolutionaries in vain; convinced himself that he could do nothing for the king's service, he asked and obtained his resignation. At that time he had thirty-three campaigns, fourteen commandments, and seven fights.


Disgrace.

Louis XVI, by a closed letter which he addressed to him, formally forbade him to emigrate, and, in order to attach him more closely to his person, he appointed him deputy governor of the Dauphin; but, witness of the day of June 20, 1792, and of August 10, he himself escaped from death. At the trial of Louis XVI, he learned that among the charges laid against the king was that of having ordered and authorized the emigration. Having the proof of the contrary, he went to Paris, presented himself to the king's advocate, Malesherbes, communicated it to him, and asked to read it at the bar of the Convention.The king, informed of this step, said to his defender: "I forbid you (and this will probably be the last order I will give you) to make no mention of this good man in my trial; it would be exposing it, and probably without any use for me. "However, Marigny was arrested with his family. Called before the Revolutionary Court, he is accused of having been part of the Western Royal Army, by confusion with one of his cousins, Gaspard de Bernard de Marigny. One of the members of the tribunal, recognizing him, then declares: "No," said he, "you are not the robber of the Vendee; I recognize you, you are a good man, a fair man and the soldier's father. You were my major; you have sometimes put me in prison, but I have always deserved it. Colleagues citizens, I answer for his civism. Marigny escaped the death sentence and was sent back to prison.

Vice-admiral.



Returned to liberty by the fall of Robespierre, Marigny went to hide in a property which he owned near Brest, the manor of Lesquivit at Dirinon. He devoted himself to the education of his children, and shared his leisure between study and agriculture. He is named mayor of his commune under the imperial government.At the Restoration, he was appointed vice-admiral on June 18, 1814; on December 27, he received the great decoration of the order of St. Louis. In December 1815, the king appointed him commander of the navy at the port of Brest.

In June, 1816, Marigny felt the first attacks of an acute illness; In spite of his sufferings, he wished to attend a party given on the occasion of the marriage of the Duc de Berry. He died on the 25th of July following.

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Captain de Girardin (Chevalier )

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Nationality French
Roles Naval Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
		Appointed Chevalier
1781		La Médée (32), Capitaine de Frégate and Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal

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Captain de Traversay.

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Nationality French
Roles Naval Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
1781		L'Aigrette (30), Capitaine de Frégate and Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal

Jean-Baptiste Prevost de Sansac de Traversay was born in the French Caribbean island of Martinique, the first of nine children of Jean-Francois and Claire de Traversay. His father, Jean-Francois chevallier de Traversay (1725–1776), was a French Navy lieutenant stationed in Martinique who later became a military governor of the island. Jean-Francois's mother owned sizable sugar cane plantations and came from an old naval family named Duquesne; her direct ancestry included captain-armator Abraham Duquesne (1570–1635) and admiral Abraham Duquesne-Guitton (1651–1724). The title of Prevost de Sansac de Traversay traces back to chevallier Hugh Prevost (d. 1086).



Jean-Baptiste was five years old when he arrived in France in 1759. His father first placed him in a Benedictine boarding school in Sorèze. In 1766 Jean-Baptiste joined the Navy college in Rochefort; when this college was closed, his class continued their training in Brest.
Traversay was commissioned an enseigne de vaisseau in 1773 and spent three years sailing on transport ships to and from the Caribbean islands. After a brief stay in Rochefort, where he joined the Free Masons and temporarily commanded a company of marines protecting the coast from British incursions, Traversay was assigned to the fleet of admiral d'Orvilliers.



American Revolutionary War.



In May 1778, when France and the United States signed the Treaty of Alliance, war with Britain became imminent. On 15 June 1778, Traversay joined the crew of Vengeur, a 64-gun ship of the line under the command of captain Guy de Kersaint. On 8 July, the French fleet sailed into the Atlantic Ocean with orders to engage and destroy the British Navy and cooperate with American insurgents. Soon Traversay saw his first actual combat in the Battle of Ushant, a minor victory for the French. Vengeur managed to capture the British privateer St. Peter, and Traversay delivered the prize back to Rochefort. Two weeks later, he sailed to the Antilles again, this time as first officer of the frigate Iphigénie, under the command of Armand de Kersaint, which joined the fleet of admiral d'Estaing.



On 14 December 1778, Iphigénie captured HMS Ceres, a new 18-gun British corvette; Ceres became Traversay's first command. In the next year Ceres became a lucky bounty hunter, seizing numerous British transports. In September 1779, Ceres was in action in an abortive landing at Savannah, in April and May 1780 in the Battle of Martinique, and in two subsequent clashes between the fleets of admirals d'Estaing and Rodney.
In March 1781 Traversay assumed command of Héron, a fast 26-gun frigate assigned to the fleet of admiral de Grasse. Héron's tasks in this campaign ranged from screening Rodney's movements to running shipments of gold from Havana (Spain was subsidizing the French campaign in West Indies).



On 30 August 1781 the French fleet arrived at Chesapeake Bay. French troops disembarked to encircle the British force of general Corwallis. Héron, stationed at Cape Henry, seized two sloops, a brig, and a 20-gun corvette. In the morning of 5 September, Héron was the first French ship to detect the approaching fleet of admiral Graves. The subsequent Battle of the Chesapeake was a strategic defeat for the British. Soon after the battle, Héron seized HMS Iris, a 34-gun frigate (originally the USS Hancock, which the British had captured in 1777). Traversay assumed command of Iris, leaving Héron in the hands of her first mate.



In the last months of the war Iris took part in the Battle of St. Kitts. On the eve of Battle of the Saintes, de Grasse detached Iris to convoy unarmed troop transports. Iris completed her mission while the main French force suffered a humiliating defeat. In the late stages of war Iris continued reconnaissance, bounty hunting, and finally performed a diplomatic mission, bringing an offer of a ceasefire to British-occupied New York.
Traversay was honored with the French Order of Saint Louis (awarded before the defeat at the Saintes), and a membership in the American Society of the Cincinnati. He became captain of the first rank in 1786, at the age of only 32.



Russian Baltic Fleet.



At the outbreak of French Revolution Traversay was stationed in his home Martinique as captain of Active. When news of the fall of the Bastille reached the island, local French troops revolted and were reptriated to Lorient on Traversay's Active. Back in France, the French Navy was falling apart too; Traversay took a long leave, sending his family to a safe place in Switzerland.



In 1790 empress Catherine, fearing a Swedish-British alliance, transferred officers of English descent to the Black Sea fleet, creating a void in the Baltic Fleet. In 1791 Traversay received an invitation to enter Russian service, signed by an émigré Frenchman - admiral Nassau-Siegen;^[3] king Louis XVI approved the move, and in spring of 1791 Traversay arrived in Saint Petersburg. He was created major general and rear admiral of Russian Empire, and placed in command of a galley flotilla, subordinate to Nassau-Siegen.



This commission did not last long, due to strong anti-French feelings among Russians committed to following the model of the British Royal Navy. By summer 1791 Britain was not seen as an imminent enemy anymore and the Englishmen returned to Saint Petersburg. Nassau-Siegen and Traversay became unwanted guests; in August 1791, Traversay left Russia for Coblenz, to serve as liaison between Catherine and the Army of Condé.



After two years with the émigrée forces, in July 1793 he returned to Russia with his family. In 1795 Traversay was appointed commander of a flotilla based in Rochensalm (present-day Kotka in Finland); from 1797 he was also the military governor of Rochensalm, responsible for building and managing this naval fortress, recently annexed from Sweden. Emperor Paul I valued Traversay's service, and, unlike many contemporary soldiers, Traversay enjoyed Paul's good disposition throughout his short reign. Paul's successor, Alexander I, too valued Traversay.



Black Sea Fleet.



In 1802, Alexander promoted Traversay to full admiral and appointed him commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Fleet and the governor of Kherson Oblast. Eventually, Traversay got rid of the civil assignment,but retained authority over the naval bases of Nikolaev and Sebastopol. The combat core of Black Sea fleet, under admirals Ushakov and Senyavin, was based in Mediterranean island of Corfu, and Traversay's role was restricted to administering emerging naval bases and supplying the Corfu fleet. These two functions conflicted with each other; funds allocated for bases in Russia were consumed by the Corfu fleet and the bills of the fledgling Septinsular Republic.



Traversay's only combat operation of this period, the last in his life, was the siege and destruction of Anapa in April 1807 (see Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812)). A force of four ships-of-the-line (all that was left n home waters), under the command of admiral Pustoshkin, with Traversay on board, fired on the rebel fortress at point-blank range. After the rebels abandoned Anapa without fighting, Russian infantry razed the fortress to the ground. A second similar operation, against Trabzon, was detected early by the Turks and was cancelled before the first shots could be fired.
In July 1809 Traversay received orders to transfer command of the Black Sea fleet to Duc de Richelieu and admiral Yazykov, and to return to Saint Petersburg as soon as possible to replace Minister of the Navy, admiral Pavel Chichagov.



Minister of Russian Navy.



Between 1809 and 1812, Traversay's main tasks were improving shipbuilding and coastal defences in the Baltic Sea. He reorganized the Baltic fleet structure (over 32 000 men), creating the system of permanent regiment-sized units (fleet crews, Russian: флотские экипажи) that supplied manpower to ships and ground forces. This system proved itself during the War of 1812 and subsequent campaigns against Napoleon, and survived until the fall of the House of Romanov.



At the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Russian economy was in ruins. Consequently, Alexander had to cut the Navy budget to the point where the Baltic fleet could not afford continuous exercises in open seas. Traversay had to limit fleet exercises to the shallow and narrow eastern extremity of the Gulf of Finland, sarcastically often called the Marquis Puddle. By 1817, the Navy budget had recovered and the Admiralty Shipyard managed to complete seven new frigates and two ships of the line. The Navy also resumed long-range operations, still, the sobriquet Marquis Puddle persisted for nearly two centuries.



In 1815-1821 Traversay sponsored long-range expeditions into the Arctic and Antarctic waters. The first (1815–1818), led by Otto von Kotzebue, explored Pacific Ocean from Kamchatka to Sandwich Islands. The second (1819–1821), led by Lazarev and Bellingshausen, circumnavigated the Antarctic coast, discovering and naming the Traversay Islands on the way. The third, also launched in 1819, led by Anjou, Shishmaryov, and Wrangel, traversed the Bering Strait and explored the Arctic coastline of Alaska and Russia, reaching 76° 15′N. Traversay was offered a share in the Russian-American Company, which benefited from these expeditions, but refused, citing conflict of interest. He also declined the title of prince (knyaz) of the Russian Empire, believing that the rare title of marquis will be better for his offspring.



In 1821, after the death of his second wife, the aging Traversay tried to resign for the first time. Tsar Alexander did not let him go; instead, he honored Traversay with the Order of St. Andrew. Alexander also allowed Traversay to move from the city to his country home in Romanshchina (near Luga, 120 kilometers from Saint Petersburg), and to run the Navy operations from there. For the next 7 years, the Navy Ministry operated far away from any naval base. The tsar himself regularly visited Traversay in his country office, with the last meeting in Romanshchina occurring in September 1825, four weeks before Alexander's death at Taganrog.



At about the same time Traversay suffered his first ischemia seizures. During the first three years of the reign of Nicholas I, Traversay continued rebuilding the Baltic fleet after the disastrous flood of 1824, gradually passing his duties to younger officers.

In 1828 Traversay finally retired, with an honorary award of Order of St. George, 4th class. He died in Romanschina in 1831.

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Captain de Mortemart (Vicomte)

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Nationality French
Roles Naval Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
		Appointed Vicomte
1781		Diligente (26), Capitaine de Frégate and Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal

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Captain de Chabons.

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NationalityFrench
RolesNaval Sailor

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Event History

Date from	Date to	Event
1781		Alerte (18), Lieutenant de Vaisseau and Commanding Officer
29.4.1781	30.4.1781	Battle of Fort Royal