by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 18, 2018 | 1782, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Third Relief of Gibraltar and Battle of Cape Spartel – October 1782 Throughout the summer of 1782, the British government had been unable to send a fleet to replenish the beleaguered Gibraltar as they had required ships in home waters to counter the...
by Richard Hiscocks | May 11, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
?Admiral Sir George Rodney, who had recently been joined by the resourceful Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood with eight sail of the line, opened the 1781 Leeward Islands campaign by capturing the Dutch islands of St. Eustatius and St. Martin on 3 February. The spoils...
by Richard Hiscocks | May 11, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Capture of St. Eustatius – 3 February 1781 The fact that the financially profligate Admiral Sir George Rodney had been forced to flee for Paris in 1775 to escape his massive debts, a huge sum of which related to election fees, had delighted his many...
by Richard Hiscocks | May 18, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
For several months a state of inactivity had existed in North American waters between the British fleet based in Gardiner’s Bay at the end of Long Island, and the French fleet which the previous July had occupied Newport, Rhode Island, some fifty miles to...
by Richard Hiscocks | May 25, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Second Relief of Gibraltar – 12 April 1781 Following Admiral Sir George Rodney’s relief of Gibraltar in January 1780, the rock fortress had withstood the Spanish siege for the remainder of that year. By the beginning of 1781 however it was in...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jun 6, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
?In December 1780 Britain declared war upon the Netherlands and plans were set afoot to attack the Dutch colonies. Prominent amongst these was the Cape of Good Hope, a vital staging post for ships making the voyage to and from the rich British and Dutch East Indian...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jun 20, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Whilst Admiral Sir George Rodney remained at St. Eustatius to stock-take the booty from his capture of the Dutch island, his second-in-command, the skilful Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, was detached southwards on 12 February with eleven ships of the line to...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 11, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Having been detached from Vice-Admiral George Darby?s Channel fleet on its return from the relief of Gibraltar in order to scout ahead in the Bay of Biscay, the Canada 74, Captain Sir George Collier, had the good fortune to fall in with the Spanish frigate...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 11, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Wherever action was to be found in the American War of Independence, there was a strong possibility that Captain Sir James Wallace would be involved. In forcing the apparently impassable Hell?s Gate to escape the French fleet off Long Island, battering a French...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 19, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The British sloop of war Atalanta 16, Commander Sampson Edwards, and the brig Trepassey 14, Commander James Smyth, were cruising off the Newfoundland Banks on Sunday 27 May when a strange sail was discovered in the south-east at 3 p.m. Immediately the two...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 24, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
On 3 May the frigates Flora 36, Captain William Peere Williams, and Crescent, 28, Captain the Hon. Thomas Pakenham, having previously been detached from Vice-Admiral George Darby?s fleet at Gibraltar on a mission to deliver funds to the British army at Minorca,...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 25, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Channel Fleet Campaign – June-November 1781 Following his return to Spithead on 21 May after the successful relief of Gibraltar, Vice-Admiral George Darby, the commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet, was quickly instructed to return to his station in...
by Richard Hiscocks | Aug 2, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Mutiny on the Santa Monica – 16 July 1781 At the end of 1780 the frigate Santa Monica 36, Captain John Linzee, left home waters with Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood’s reinforcements to join Admiral Sir George Rodney’s fleet in the Leeward...
by Richard Hiscocks | Aug 2, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Battle of Cape Breton – 21 July 1781 The American-built frigate Charleston 28, Captain Henry Francis Evans, being in company with two sloops and two armed ships, was in escort of a convoy off Spanish River on the north-east of Cape Breton Island, Nova...
by Richard Hiscocks | Sep 4, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
As a result of the commencement of hostilities with the Netherlands during the previous December, a squadron was ordered to form for duty in the North Sea under the command of Vice-Admiral Hyde Parker in March 1781. At this time the Dutch navy was neither...
by Richard Hiscocks | Sep 23, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Battle of Chesapeake Bay – 5 September 1781 Throughout the spring and summer of 1781, Lieutenant-General Lord Cornwallis and his army had battled their way north through South Carolina and Virginia in an attempt to reach the York River where they hoped to...
by Richard Hiscocks | Oct 6, 2017 | 1781, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Kempenfelt v de Guichen – 12 December 1781 During the late autumn the government began receiving intelligence of a large French convoy that was congregating at Brest with a view to reinforcing their war effort in both the West and East Indies. Once it...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 15, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Following Sir George Rodney’s return from France, where he had flown to escape his creditors, Britain was at last able to place one of her most skilful, if unpopular, admirals in charge of a major fleet. Appointed commander-in-chief of the strategically...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 17, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Moonlight Battle off Cape St. Vincent – 16 January 1780 On Christmas Day 1779, Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands station, set sail from St. Helens having completed the equipment of...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 24, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Following a comprehensive victory in the Moonlight Battle of 18 January and its subsequent relief of Gibraltar, the British fleet re-entered the Atlantic Ocean and on 18 February parted company with the commander-in-chief, Admiral Sir George Rodney and his West...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 25, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Operating out of the Jamaican station where his badly damaged ship had fled following the Battle of Grenada the previous July, Captain Hon. William Cornwallis of the Lion 64 was cruising in the Windward Passage to the north of Monte Cristi, Haiti, in company...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 30, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Battle of Martinique -17 April 1780 On 27 March 1780 the new commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, Admiral Sir George Rodney, arrived at St Lucia from Europe with reinforcements of four sail of the line to bolster the number of ships under the command...
by Richard Hiscocks | Feb 4, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
In June 1776 Commodore Sir Peter Parker and Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton?s forces had suffered a large number of casualties in failing to capture the port of Charleston in South Carolina. Notwithstanding that disaster, the British government continued...
by Richard Hiscocks | Feb 14, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Leeward Islands Campaign – May-July 1780 Following the disappointing Battle of Martinique on 17 April, Admiral Sir George Rodney had remained on patrol off that island for some time to prevent the French fleet, which had put into Basseterre,...
by Richard Hiscocks | Feb 25, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Channel fleet?s 1780 campaign could not have got off to a worse start when on 18 May, a day after re-hoisting his flag at Spithead, the commander-in-chief Admiral Sir Charles Hardy died aboard the Victory. He may not have been universally esteemed, but in...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 7, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Spanish Fire-Ship Attack on Gibraltar – 7 June 1780 Despite the replenishment of Gibraltar on 19 January by Admiral Sir George Rodney’s fleet and attendant merchant vessels, the Spanish had not let up in their determined campaign to regain the rock...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 14, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Captain Philemon Pownall was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the finest officers in the navy. Aged in his mid-forties, his background as the son of a shipbuilder had given him an excellent technical knowledge, and this advantage supplemented his...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 17, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Almost fifteen years to the day before he affected the famous ‘Cornwallis’ Retreat’ off Brittany, a feat which was to prove the zenith of a most distinguished career, Captain Hon. William Cornwallis brought off another bold defensive strategy...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 19, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Nonsuch v Belle Poule – 16 July 1780 As the American War of Revolution progressed, so the omnipresent Captain Sir James Wallace remained as active as ever. Despite his command, the Experiment 50, having been captured by the French fleet off North America...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 23, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Operating out of Port Mahon on the island of Minorca, the sloop Porcupine 24, Captain Sir Charles Henry Knowles, had already made one, albeit fruitless, cruise in company with the sloop Minorca 18, Commander Hugh Lawson, when she was ordered to undertake...
