Battle of Guadeloupe (1779)

Battle of Guadeloupe Part of the Anglo-French War Date 21–22 December 1779 Location Off Guadeloupe, West Indies Result British victory[1] Belligerents  Great Britain  France Commanders and leaders Joshua Rowley unknown Strength 4 Ships of the line 3 Frigates Casualties and losses Light 3 frigates captured[2]

Anglo-French War 1778–1783 Europe 17 June 1778 1st Ushant 1st Jersey English Channel Plymouth Gibraltar Flamborough Head 6 October 1779 Cape Santa Maria 13 August 1780 2nd Jersey Minorca 2nd Ushant 3rd Ushant Île-de-Batz Cape Spartel 12 December 1782 Caribbean Dominica 1st St. Lucia 2nd St. Lucia Saint Vincent 1st Grenada 2nd Grenada 1st Martinique Guadeloupe 2nd Martinique Bermuda Fort Royal Tobago Brimstone Hill Frigate Bay Demerara & Essequibo Montserrat The Saintes Mona Passage 18 October 1782 6 December 1782 15 February 1783 Grand Turk North America Rhode Island Charles Town Savannah 1st Long Island Cape Henry Cape Breton Cape Ann Yorktown Chesapeake Yorktown Hudson Bay 2nd Long Island Delaware Bay 2nd Chesapeake East Indies Pondicherry Porto Praya Sadras Providien Negapatam Pisang Trincomalee 1st Cuddalore 2nd Cuddalore

The Battle of Guadeloupe or the Action of 21–22 December 1779 was a naval engagement that took place off the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean during the Anglo-French War between three Royal Navy ships and three French Navy frigates.^[3] The Royal Navy under Joshua Rowley sighted and promptly chased the French frigates, all of which were captured after a brief fight.^[4]

Battle

On 21 December 1779, HMS Magnificent along with the 74-gun ships of the line HMS Suffolk, HMS Vengeance, and the 64-gun HMS Stirling Castle under Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley, sighted the 32-gun French frigates Fortunée and Blanche and the 28-gun Elise, off the French island of Guadeloupe.^[2] The French ships had been part of the Comte d Estaing's fleet.^[5]

The engagement that followed was one sided - the French ships were in disorder; their crews were weak; and they could not escape the vastly superior British force.^[3] The Blanche was defeated and captured on the evening of 21 December. The Fortunée attempted to escape by throwing her quarter-deck guns overboard, but was captured on the early morning of 22 December, an hour before the Elise had struck.^[5]

The Blanche and Fortunée were thus added to the British navy.^[5]

Rowley then led his squadron to capture a large French convoy, from Marseilles, off Martinique.^[2]

References

Sources

• Clowes, William Laird (1996). The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to 1900. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 9781861760104. 
• Lavery, Brian (2003). The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8. 
• Marley, David (2008). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1598841008. 

Coordinates: 16°15′54″N 61°33′3.6″W / 16.26500°N 61.551000°W / 16.26500; -61.551000