by Richard Hiscocks | Oct 13, 2017 | 1782, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Following the surrender of Lieutenant-General Lord Cornwallis? army at Yorktown in October 1781 American independence was all but granted by the debt-ridden British, who now took steps to assume an ascendancy over the French before peace could be negotiated. 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 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 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 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 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 1, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Isis v Rotterdam – 31 December 1780 With the navy stretched to the limit in Europe and the Americas, there soon arose a shortage of trained seamen to man the ships of the fleet, and one officer who would suffer from the deficit in crew numbers and quality...
by Richard Hiscocks | Apr 20, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The ‘Great Hurricanes’ devastate the Caribbean – October 1780 When Admiral Sir George Rodney sailed for North America in the early autumn, he despatched ten sail of the line under Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley to reinforce Vice-Admiral Sir Peter...
by Richard Hiscocks | Apr 3, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Admiral Rodney v Admiral Arbuthnot – September – November 1780 Vice-Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot, the commander-in-chief of the British Navy in North America, was not the easiest of officers to work with, as General Sir Henry Clinton, his equivalent in...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 29, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Vestal, Henry Laurens, and the Dutch Treaty – 10 September 1780 Throughout 1780 the Netherlands had been wavering over whether to join the League of Armed Neutrality, which had been formed by Russia, Sweden and Denmark in February to protect their...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 29, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
In early August Captain John MacBride of the Bienfaisant 64 was ordered to take command of a convoy of some hundred vessels that had congregated at Cork, along with its escort otherwise consisting of the Charon 44, Captain Thomas Symonds, Licorne 32, Captain...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 25, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Early in August 1780, one of the first eighteen-pounder frigates to be ordered for the British Navy, the Deptford-built Flora 36, Captain William Peere Williams, sailed from Spithead to link up with Admiral Francis Geary?s Channel Fleet. At 4.30 on the...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 23, 2017 | 1780, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Loss of Captain Moutray’s Convoy – 9 August 1780 As the war continued, so the French and Spanish allies began to obtain the upper hand at sea by sheer weight of numbers. British resources were soon stretched to the limit, and no more so than in...
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...
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 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 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 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 | 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...
