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 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 | 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 | 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 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 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 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 12, 2017 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Detention of a Dutch Convoy – 31 December 1779 Conversant with their long-standing friendship and several treaties dating back to the previous century, the Dutch government led by the ‘stadtholder’, Prince William V of Orange, was not unsympathetic to...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 10, 2017 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Leeward Islands fleet under the temporary command of Rear-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker was at anchor in Gros Islet Bay, St. Lucia on the morning of 18 December when a signal was received between 8 and 9 a.m. from the Preston 50, Captain Samuel Uppleby. This...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 10, 2017 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Quebec v Surveillante – 6 October 1779 Captain George Farmer of the Quebec 32 had enjoyed a profitable year cruising against the French commerce when, in the early autumn of 1779, he was forced into Portsmouth for a refit. More pertinently he also had to...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 8, 2017 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Upon gaining intelligence that two Spanish treasure-ships were shortly due to arrive at the principal Spanish fortress on the Honduran coast in Central America, San Fernando d?Omoa, Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Parker commanding the Jamaican station assembled a force...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 4, 2017 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
On 1 September the French fleet of twenty sail of the line, two 50-gun ships, eleven frigates and ancillary vessels commanded by Vice-Admiral Charles Henri Jean-Baptiste, Comte d?Estaing, arrived off the coast of Georgia having sailed north from the Leeward...
by Richard Hiscocks | Dec 31, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Battle of Flamborough Head – 23 September 1779 As late summer turned to autumn a battle was fought off the north-east coast of England which would be forever celebrated in the annals of the American Navy. The chief protagonists were the Bonhomme...
by Richard Hiscocks | Dec 8, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Pearl v Santa Monica – 14 September 1779 Having spent two years aboard the Romney 50 at Newfoundland in the relatively comfortable role of flag-captain to his father, Rear-Admiral John Montagu, twenty-nine year old Captain George Montagu must have...
by Richard Hiscocks | Nov 24, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Channel Fleet Retreat – August 1779 On 12 April France and Spain signed an alliance and began preparing for an invasion that would bring Britain to her knees and enable the two catholic powers to share in the resulting sequestration of her overseas...
by Richard Hiscocks | Nov 9, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
On 6 January 1779 Vice-Admiral Hon. John Byron’s battered fleet of ten sail of the line, a frigate, and a sloop, arrived in the Leeward Islands from North America in pursuit of the dozen ships of the Toulon fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Charles...
by Richard Hiscocks | Nov 7, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
At 3.30 on the afternoon of 1 June the twenty-two year old sloop Glasgow 20, Commander Thomas Lloyd, dropped anchor in Montego Bay, Jamaica, having arrived with a convoy of four London merchantmen. Aboard the Glasgow, which had left England on 27 March, was a...
by Richard Hiscocks | Oct 16, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Commodore Collier’s North American Campaign – May to August 1779 Upon Rear-Admiral James Gambier returning to England, Commodore Sir George Collier assumed temporary command of the North American station at New York. Two months into his secondment,...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 15, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Battle in Cancale Bay – 13 May 1779 The Experiment 50 should not have been in British waters at all. Her proper station was in North America, but during December 1778 a tremendous offshore gale had blown her all the way back across the Atlantic. This...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 7, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
On 4 February the exploratory vessel Resolution, Captain James Cook, in company with the Discovery, Commander Charles Clerke, departed Hawaii to commence their homeward voyage to England. They had left Plymouth over two and a half years earlier, and their...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 5, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Apollo v Oiseau – 31 January 1779 Few captains in the navy were held in such high esteem as Captain Philemon Pownall of the frigate Apollo 32, and the fact that one of his protégés, Edward Pellew, would become the finest frigate captain of his generation...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 4, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Mutiny on the Prince George – 16 January 1779 One of the consequences of the political conflict that broke out following the Battle of Ushant was the need to appoint acting-captains to those ships whose officers were required to either sit on, or give...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jun 30, 2016 | 1779, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
On 16 June Spain formally entered the war against Great Britain, and concocting a plan with the French to attack either Portsmouth or Plymouth they contributed to a sixty-six strong fleet that assembled off the Lizard prior to entering the Channel under the...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jun 27, 2016 | 1778, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Battle of St. Lucia – 15 December 1778 On 3 November, as the sailing season in North American waters drew to an end with the onset of winter, the French Toulon fleet of twelve sail of the line under the command of Vice-Admiral Jean Baptiste Charles...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jun 26, 2016 | 1778, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
On 7 July news of the impending war with France reached the British governor-general at Calcutta, and with immediate effect the commander-in-chief in the East Indies, Commodore Sir Edward Vernon, was ordered to assist the army under Major-General Hector Munro...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jun 4, 2016 | 1778, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Relief of Rhode Island – August 1778 Having departed New York waters on 22 July following his decision not to run the risk of challenging Vice-Admiral Lord Howe’s defensive position off Sandy Hook, Vice-Admiral the Comte d’Estaing had...
by Richard Hiscocks | May 19, 2016 | 1778, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Captain Gardner puts duty over profit – 4 November 1778 There were few officers in the navy more attentive to their duty than Captain Alan Gardner of the nine-pounder frigate Maidstone 28. The world was a black and white place to the gruff pugnacious man...
by Richard Hiscocks | Apr 29, 2016 | 1778, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
The Egg Harbour Expedition – October 1778 Having been distracted by the arrival of the French fleet off New York and the organisation of the defence of Rhode Island, General Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander-in-chief in North America, resolved to...
by Richard Hiscocks | Apr 17, 2016 | 1778, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Few officers were more active in the American Revolutionary War than Captain Sir James Wallace, who whilst commanding the Experiment 50 did not have to go seeking action – it normally found him. So it was that whilst cruising in Boston Bay about thirty...
by Richard Hiscocks | Apr 7, 2016 | 1778, American Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Fox v Junon 10 September1778 In early September, the British frigate Fox 28, Captain Hon. Thomas Windsor, was despatched by the commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet, Admiral Hon. Augustus Keppel, to search for the French fleet, which was then believed to be at...
