THE AMERICAN WAR TILL THE FALL OF YORKTOWN
AUTHORITIES.—As before.
The course of the war in 1780 was dictated by the political conditions.
France, disappointed by the futile end of the great demonstration in
the Channel in 1779, did not renounce naval warfare in European waters,
but was turning her attention towards giving more effectual aid to
the Americans, and to efforts in combination with the Spaniards for
the entire expulsion of England from the West Indies. Spain watching
Minorca, and blocking Gibraltar, was prepared to co-operate with France
in Europe and the Antilles, while making an effort to recover Florida.
Don Bernardo de Galves, sailing from Havana, did achieve success in
this minor and isolated operation. The most effectual defence for us
would have been to blockade Brest, Ferrol, Cadiz, and Toulon. But with
an equality of numbers against us and the peremptory obligation to
give naval support to the army in America—the cancer which drained our
strength in all these years—the high line could not be taken. Moreover,
the rigid enforcement of our belligerent rights against neutrals at
sea was steadily bringing us into collision with Holland, to the
verge of a conflict with the Northern Powers, Russia, Prussia, and
the Scandinavian States, and this would have been sheer ruin; for the
revolt of the plantations had cut us off from the supply of American
naval stores, and we were dependent on the Baltic for timber, pitch,
and hemp, without which our fleets could not have been fitted for sea.
D’Orvilliers and Luis de Córdoba having shrunk away from the Channel in
September 1779, we were at liberty to set about defending our remoter
interests, the relief of Minorca and Gibraltar, and the strengthening
of our naval position in the New World. Mention has been made of
the sailing of Arbuthnot in June. He had with him a convoy of 400
merchant-ships with stores for General Clinton at New York. Having
turned aside to defend the Channel Islands, he sent his convoy into
port to wait for him. A shift in the wind delayed his departure from
the Channel, and though he got away safe under the wing of Hardy’s
grand fleet, he did not reach New York till August. Here he took
over the command from Sir John Collier, who had superseded Gambier,
and he co-operated in December 1779 with Cornwallis in the taking of
Charlestown, in Carolina, after the retreat of D’Estaign from before
Savannah. In the West Indies Hyde Parker had a superiority of force
over D’Estaign’s successors, the Comte de Grasse and La Motte Picquet,
and was able to confine them to Fort Royal.
At the close of 1779 measures were taken to relieve Minorca and
Gibraltar and to reinforce the West Indies. A great convoy was
collected to carry stores and soldiers to the Mediterranean fortresses.
It sailed under the guard of twenty-two line-of-battle ships and many
frigates. The command was given to Rodney, who after relieving the
fortresses was to go on with part of the fleet to the West Indies,
and there supersede Parker. With Rodney a new spirit entered into the
conduct of the naval war. He was the ablest officer, except Howe,
who had yet hoisted his flag, and was indeed a man of quite another
stamp from Keppel, Byron, Parker, Hardy, or Arbuthnot. In the Austrian
Succession and Seven Years’ Wars he had gained a reputation in the
service for ability and zeal, had been captain under Mathews and
Hawke, had commanded in the Leeward Islands, and had been bitterly
disappointed when he was superseded by Pocock during the capture of
Havana. He was eager, was not satisfied with the prevailing formal
application of the Fighting Orders, and had turned his intellect to
the conduct of war. His defects were that he was no longer young,
and that his health was ruined by diseases which were, at least in
part, the result of early dissipation. It was his misfortune to be
too deeply conscious of the fact that he represented an ancient
family of Somersetshire gentry and was closely connected with the
ducal house of Chandos. His brother-officers appeared to him in the
light of middle-class persons of inferior breeding who lived mostly
in the ports when on shore. The naval habits of the time kept the
captain and admiral in great seclusion, since it was hardly thought
consistent with their dignity to speak with subordinates except on
matters of duty. Under the influence of pain and social arrogance,
Rodney carried this isolation to an extreme. He had ruined himself
by gambling and bribery at elections, and had taken refuge from his
creditors in Paris when the American War began. A loan from the French
Marshal Biron saved him from imprisonment as a debtor in the Bastille.
On his return to London he sought for employment, and the refusal of
other admirals to serve opened the way for him to his great but tardy
opportunity. The jobbery and favouritism of the age had by no means
left him untouched. During his famous command in the West Indies he
made his own son a post-captain at the age of seventeen, and he drove
his subordinate, Isaac Coffin, into flat revolt by forcing mere lads on
him as lieutenants. When he sailed for Gibraltar in December 1779, two
influences were at work in his mind, a noble and ignoble. He burned to
gain glory for himself and victory for his country by vigorous conduct
of the war, and he was deeply concerned to repair his shattered fortune
by prize money.
Rodney sailed on the 27th December 1779, taking with him both the
reliefs for Minorca and Gibraltar, and a convoy of merchant-ships
bound for the West Indies. The trade was seen clear of the Channel,
and sent on its way on the 7th January 1780. The main fleet now went
on to Gibraltar with the stores and reliefs, and on the 8th, when
300 miles E.N.E. of Finisterre, fell in with and captured a Spanish
convoy of one 64-gun ship, seven frigates and sloops, and fifteen
merchant-ships, bound for South America. This prosperous beginning of
the service was soon followed by a more signal success. Storms in the
Straits had distressed the awkward Spanish blockading fleet, and the
greater part of it had been forced to take refuge in harbour. But a
squadron of eleven ships of the line under the command of Don Juan de
Lángara was stationed off Cape St. Vincent to intercept the relieving
force which the Spanish Government was convinced would not exceed ten
liners. On the 16th January Rodney swept down on this inferior force,
in a brisk breeze rising to a gale from the west. He steered between
them and the land as they endeavoured to escape, overtook them in the
night, and destroyed them completely. Six were taken, one of the prizes
being Lángara’s flagship, and a seventh blew up with the loss of all
hands. Two of the prizes were recaptured by their Spanish crews during
the storm following the action, but as Barceló, the Spanish admiral,
did not venture to leave the protection of the forts at Algeciras,
there was no further opposition to the relief of Gibraltar. Rodney’s
subordinate, Digby, went up the Mediterranean to Minorca with stores.
On the 14th the admiral left for the West Indies with six sail of the
line, and four days later Digby, leaving four ships to aid in the
defence of the fortress, took the others, and the empty storeships,
back to the Channel unopposed by Frenchman or Spaniard. This handsome
success, the just reward of intelligent measures vigorously executed,
raised the spirit of the nation, and Rodney sprang at once from
comparative obscurity, outside his own profession, into universal
popularity.
I will again treat the operations in West Indies and on the coast of
North America as the main stream of the war, and therefore follow
Rodney’s flag for the present. He reached Santa Lucia on the 27th March
to find Sir Hyde Parker anchored at Gros Islet Bay, and menaced in his
turn by a superior French force. Until the middle of the month, Sir
Hyde had been engaged in watching La Motte Picquet and the Comte de
Grasse at Fort Royal, and in covering the arrivals and departures of
the merchant-ship convoys. In common with all other naval commanders
on the West Indian stations, he looked forward to taking a share in
the recapture of our lost islands and in the conquest of the French
possessions. About the middle of March he was expecting to be joined by
transports conveying troops under General Vaughan from North America,
and therefore took port to windward—which is to eastward—of Martinique
to meet and protect them. On the 21st the junction was effected,
and at the same time Parker heard that the French were expecting
reinforcements from Europe. He left Commodore Collingwood with four
sail of the line to look out for them, and returned to Santa Lucia
with the other twelve of his command, and General Vaughan’s troops.
The French at Fort Royal had in the meantime divided. Part had gone
to San Domingo with La Motte Picquet. The Comte de Grasse remained
with the others to wait for the fleet coming from France. Immediately
after Parker anchored at Choque Bay, in Santa Lucia, his look-out ships
reported that they had seen a great French convoy entering Fort Royal.
On the top of this report Commodore Collingwood ran into Choque Bay
with his detached squadron, and the news that he had been chased by
sixteen French sail of the line, had escaped them, had met four sail
of Rodney’s squadron which that officer had sent on, and had sent them
back to their admiral with the information that the French were in
force.
The newcomers were the powerful fleet fitted out at Brest, and they
came under the command of Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, Comte de Guichen,
a man of sixty-two, and one of the most interesting figures in the
French Navy of the day. He represented at once all that was best in
the French _noblesse_ of his generation, its virtues of good breeding,
high personal honour, and loyalty—all that was most accomplished in
the scientific training of the French naval officer of the eighteenth
century, and all that was most fatal in their theories of the conduct
of war. No man handled a fleet with more precision or with greater
elegance, and no man manœuvred with more dexterity not to injure his
opponent, but to baffle that opponent’s attempts to injure him. We
shall see why he fairly divided the honours of the coming encounter
with Rodney, but it was characteristic of his school, and was its
condemnation, that his active career was to end in the Bay of Biscay
two years later in failure and discredit, simply through the breakdown
of the manœuvring he loved under the direct thrust of Kempenfelt. On
the 23rd March he joined Grasse at sea to windward of Martinique.
Having now twenty-four sail of the line to Parker’s sixteen, he
prepared for the reconquest of Santa Lucia, and appeared to leeward
of the island on the 24th. He was not quick or energetic enough to
prevent Parker from covering the entry of another convoy of troops
from Barbadoes, which came in round the north end of the island, on
that day; nor did he intercept Rodney, who joined Parker on the 27th,
raising the total British force to twenty-two of the line, and taking
up the command.
On the 2nd April Rodney put to sea in search of Guichen. The French
admiral followed the usual course of officers of his service. Though
equal in number to his opponents, he declined battle, remained at
anchor under the guns of Fort Royal, and waited till the absence
of the British fleet should offer him an opportunity to strike at
one of the British Antilles. Rodney returned to Gros Islet, leaving
frigates to watch. On the 15th April, Guichen came out, having with
him a detachment of troops commanded by Bouillé. Rodney was instantly
informed of his movements, and started in pursuit. On the 16th April he
sighted the French twenty-four miles west of the Pearl Rock, a little
island outside Fort Royal. On the following morning he was to windward
of his enemy, having twenty sail of the line to Guichen’s twenty-two.
The French had stood off to the N.W. when sighted, and had been
followed by the British. Both fleets were to leeward of Martinique.
At 6.45 a.m. Rodney signalled that he intended to attack the enemy’s
rear, and at 7 a.m. ordered his line to close till the ships were
at one cable’s length from one another. The order to bear down was
given at 8.30. Both fleets were heading to the N.W., and the French
were very much extended. There was a gap between their rear and their
centre. Guichen seeing that his rear division was in peril, at once
reversed the order of his van and centre, and stood to the south to its
assistance. He thereby closed the gap, and as his rear turned also to
the south, it became the van. Rodney was thus baffled, and drew off,
resuming his course to the north. Guichen then turned his fleet in the
same direction, and the two again stood to the northward side by side
out of gun-shot. At 11 a.m. Rodney hoisted the signal to engage. It was
his intention that his fleet should steer for the enemy’s rear with the
ships at a cable’s length apart. His captains unfortunately understood
the signal to attack the rear as applying only to the first movement.
Brought up in the old faith of the Fighting Instructions, they fought
as they had been trained to fight—steering van to van, centre to
centre, and rear to rear. Rodney’s plan to concentrate his whole
force on a part of the enemy was spoilt, and the battle to leeward of
Martinique ended as many others had done, with a great deal of damage
to the spars of the British ships and the retreat of the French little
hurt.
This failure remained a subject of bitter regret to Rodney. At the time
and afterwards he attributed it to the deliberate misconduct of his
captains, who, he said, let the French escape in a factious spirit of
opposition to the king’s Government. More credible explanations are:
the influence of unintelligent rules of tactics; and his own partly
valetudinarian and partly arrogant solitude. If he had explained to
his captains the principles on which he meant to fight, his orders
would not have been misunderstood, and it would have been impossible
that they should have been disobeyed. The merit of his proposed plan
is manifest when it is compared with the mechanical rules of the
Fighting Orders. Yet that merit may be, and has been, exaggerated. Such
a concentration as he designed could always be answered by an enemy
who was prompt to reverse his order and to close his line, as Guichen
showed in the early hours of the day. So long as the British fleet
engaged to windward, there could be but indifferent security that the
enemy would not cripple its rigging and slip away. Rodney, in short,
set the example of innovating on the formal tactics of the time, but
before great results could be obtained much more had to be done than he
showed himself prepared to do on the 17th April 1780.
The operations following the battle were marked by no decisive event.
Rodney, after keeping for a few days between Guichen and Fort Royal,
returned to Choque Bay to refit. Several of his ships, and the flagship
among them, the =Sandwich=, had been severely damaged. Guichen, after
visiting the Dutch island of St. Eustatius to procure stores, stationed
himself to windward—that is, to the west of Martinique. His object was
to effect a junction with a Spanish squadron under Admiral Solano,
which was known to be on its way from Europe. Rodney followed him.
Exasperated by the want of support he had suffered from in the last
action, he put his fleet through a severe course of manœuvres, and drew
the reins of discipline tight with a severity which aroused the wrath
of his subordinate, Sir Hyde Parker, who on his return home was with
difficulty restrained by the advice of Sandwich from creating another
naval scandal. Twice Rodney came close enough to Guichen to bring
on partial actions—on the 15th and 19th May. But the Frenchman was
resolved not to be brought to close action. He had the weather-gage,
and kept it so carefully that only the van ships of the British line
came into action with the rear of the French as the two fleets passed
on opposite tacks. It was characteristic of the spirit and principles
of the French Navy of the time that Guichen was much praised for, and
was visibly proud of, his success in baffling Rodney’s attempts to
bring him to battle. Rodney, who might have cut off two or three of
the rearmost French ships if he had ordered his van to steer into the
enemy’s line, was not prepared to depart wholly from the old methods.
On the 21st May, Guichen, whose ships were in want of repairs, went off
to the northward, and Rodney lost sight of him. The French returned to
Fort Royal, and the English to Barbadoes.
At Carlisle Bay, in that island, on the 22nd May, Rodney was joined
by the =Cerberus= frigate. Her captain, Mann, brought news that when
cruising off Cadiz he had sighted a Spanish squadron of twelve sail
of the line on the 2nd May, with a convoy of merchant-ships. He had
followed it for days, had convinced himself that it was bound for
the West, and had left his station to warn Rodney. Sir George, who
received further information from Lisbon, put to sea to intercept the
Spaniard, who he concluded was bound for Martinique. But Don José
Solano steered a more northerly course, and on the 10th June effected
a junction with Guichen at Guadaloupe. Rodney had been reinforced by
five ships of the line while to windward of Martinique, but was now so
much outnumbered by the united Spaniards and French that he returned
to Gros Islet Bay and stood on his guard. Nothing was attempted by
the enemy. The Spaniards were horribly sickly and in no condition for
service, while several French ships were worn out. On the 5th July
the allies separated, Solano going to Havana, and Guichen to Cape
François, in San Domingo, from whence on the 16th August he sailed
for Europe. Rodney was joined at Santa Lucia by reinforcements under
Commodore Walsingham on the 12th July, but no opportunity for action
was presented by the enemy. The hurricane season, during which the West
Indies are dangerous, had begun, and the trade had to be seen safe to
Europe. Rodney sent off the merchant-ships convoyed by Sir Hyde Parker,
detached ten of the line under Rowley and Walsingham to Jamaica, and
sailed himself with ten ships of the line to North America.
On the North American station the British squadron had been commanded
since the latter part of 1779 by Rear-Admiral Marriott Arbuthnot,
a somewhat dull man of impracticable temper. During May he had
co-operated with Sir Henry Clinton in the occupation of Charlestown,
but during the rest of the year he had been checked by the appearance
on the coast of a French squadron of nine sail of the line under the
Chef d’escadre D’Arzac de Ternay. Ternay had sailed from Brest on the
2nd May, escorting 9000 troops under Rochambeau. On the 20th June,
near Bermuda, he fell in with four British sail of the line under
Cornwallis, who was escorting a flock of merchant-ships homeward bound
through the Florida Straits. The two squadrons cannonaded one another
feebly. Ternay having “his mission to fulfil,” would not stop to crush
Cornwallis, and went on to Rhode Island, which he reached on the 11th
July. Arbuthnot, who was reinforced by Graves on the 13th July, made
preparations to co-operate with the army in an attack on the French;
but delays followed one another, and no attack was made. The brief
stay of Rodney on the station was not marked by any active operation.
Arbuthnot looked upon him chiefly as a competitor for shares of prize
money, and was angry at his intrusion. Sir George, whose health
suffered in the keen air of a northern autumn, reached New York on the
22nd September, and was back in the West Indies on the 12th December.
In home waters the war was conducted with languor on both sides after
Rodney’s relief of Gibraltar. The British Government having to meet
calls all over the world, could only collect some thirty sail of the
line in the Channel, which were successively led by Admiral Geary, a
worn-out veteran, and Admiral Darby. Geary, after a cruise in June
and July, during which he made a few prizes of merchant-ships,
resigned in August. One object of his cruise was to see a large convoy
of ships bound to the East and West Indies safe out of reach of the
French and Spanish fleets. It was to be guarded when clear of European
waters by Captain Moutray in the =Ramillies=, 74, with the =Thetis=
and =Southampton= frigates. The convoy consisted of five East India
Company’s ships, of eighteen transports carrying a regiment to the West
Indies, and of forty West Indian merchant-ships. Moutray left Spithead
on the 29th July. He was allowed two other line-of-battle ships till
he was 300 miles beyond the Scilly Isles. He met Geary at sea, and
was escorted by the grand fleet till he was some 340 miles west. Then
he was left, the admiral thinking that he was now safe. But he was
running into extreme peril. The French had sent the Chef d’escadre
Bausset with seven of the line and the Spanish ships at Brest to join
Don Luis de Córdoba at Cadiz. While they were there, secret information
of the sailing of the convoy and of the weakness of Moutray is said,
by Spanish historians, to have reached the Prime Minister of Spain,
the Count of Floridablanca. He at once ordered Córdoba and Bausset to
sail and intercept the prize. They were right across Moutray’s route
when, on the 8th August, in Lat. 36° 40 N. and Lon. 15° W., their sails
were seen on the horizon at sundown from the masthead of Moutray’s
advance ship. Thinking the sails belonged to neutral ships, he held on
till night. Then the number of lights reported as seen ahead made him
alter his mind. He signalled to his convoy by gun-fire to lie to with
their heads to the west, and then, again by gun-fire, ordered them
to continue their course. It was his meaning that they should go as
they were then pointing. The captains of the Indiamen, transports, and
merchant-ships understood that they were to resume the course they were
on before they lay to, which was to the south. His signals had been
heard by the allies, who steered for the sound of the guns. So when the
sun rose on the 9th August, Moutray with his solitary 74 and frigates
was well out to the west and to windward. The sixty-three ships under
his charge were sailing right into the arms of a big French and Spanish
fleet, which closed on them, and carried them all into Cadiz. It was
the greatest disaster suffered by British commerce since Tourville had
scattered the Smyrna convoy. The necessity for satisfying the public
by making an example led to Moutray’s trial by a court martial, and he
was reprimanded. In truth, nothing he could have done would have saved
his convoy when once it was close to so great a force. He lived to be
appointed as Commissioner of the Dockyard at Antigua, and to have some
difficulties with Nelson.
The allies returned in triumph to Cadiz, and their success encouraged
the Spaniards to persevere in the war. A great fleet collected in the
port in October,—Spanish ships, Frenchmen from Brest and from Toulon,
and Guichen with a worn-out squadron from the West Indies; but it did
nothing, and scattered to winter quarters.
In 1781 the war grew in intensity. Disputes arising partly out of the
exercise by the British Government of its claim to take an enemy’s
goods out of a neutral ship, and partly out of the encouragement given
to the Americans by the city of Amsterdam, led to a declaration of
war on the Dutch Republic by Great Britain in December 1780. To guard
against an attack by the Dutch on the trade with the Baltic, from
whence our naval stores were mainly drawn, it was necessary to station
a squadron in the North Sea, which threw an additional burden on the
already heavily taxed navy. Every ship which could be patched up for
service had to be put into commission. The number of vessels in “full
sea pay” was 398, and 90,000 men, including 20,000 marines, were voted
to form the crews.
So many were the calls on the navy that it was not possible to collect
sufficient line-of-battle ships for service in home waters. The nominal
superiority of the allies was overwhelming, but the difference between
paper and real strength has rarely been better shown than in this year.
The Dutch were not ready. The French, though incomparably the most
formidable of our enemies, could not man and officer all their ships
effectively. The Spaniards were miserably inefficient. France and Spain
alike were intent on pushing the war in America, or in endeavouring to
recover Minorca and Gibraltar. Both dreaded the dangers of the Channel.
Thus no resolute effort was made to assail Great Britain itself. In
America our enemies gained, by the intelligent use of their fleets,
the success which established the independence of the United States.
In European waters the British Government was compelled to leave the
garrison of Minorca to its fate. After a siege begun on the 18th August
1781, it surrendered on the 4th February 1782. Yet the foundations of
our power were not only not shaken, but were not seriously menaced.
Before taking up the story of the war in American waters, it will be
convenient to show how the heart of the empire was guarded, and how
the forces on both sides started for operations in distant seas. The
British Government had to provide first of all for the free movement of
its trade—a task greatly complicated by the war with Holland. Then it
had to reinforce its squadrons in America, to endeavour to strengthen
its general position by seizing the Dutch possessions at the Cape,
and by providing for the safety of Gibraltar. The great fortress was
on a superficial view a mere burden on the fleet throughout the war.
Three great armaments had to be sent for its relief first and last.
Two of them were provided only by leaving the Channel with small or
no protection. Some English public men were of opinion that it might
be profitably exchanged for an island in the West Indies. Yet it
attracted a large part of the enemy’s forces which might have been
employed with more damaging results to us elsewhere. It is true that
for this we have to thank the want of intelligence of our opponents.
To recover Gibraltar was an object for which the King of Spain was
prepared to make every effort, and he could think of no other way of
taking it than by direct siege. His Ambassador in Paris, the Count of
Aranda, had sagacity enough to see that it might be recovered “in the
heart of Jamaica.” Aranda could, however, secure no hearing. So long
as our opponents were intent on mastering Gibraltar by bombardment and
blockade, the obvious interest of England was to keep it from capture.
Nor could the pride of the nation be reconciled to the surrender of
this trophy of former wars. Its importance to the ultimate interests
of the naval power of Great Britain was to be amply proved in the next
war.
To provide for the free movement of the trade a small squadron of one
line-of-battle ship and a few frigates was stationed early in the year
on the east coast of Scotland. Privateers, American and French, had
already been active in those waters, and were now to be reinforced
by the Dutch, who, when once at war, set vigorously to work to make
up for the neglect of their fleet in previous years. Commodore Keith
Stuart, who was in command of the small protecting force, found it
insufficient. The history of the war in the North Sea during 1781 shows
with what difficulty and at what a cost trade is carried on when the
command of the sea is disputed. The =Artois= frigate was appointed
to protect the merchant-ships bound to the Baltic. During the spring
200 merchant-vessels collected in the Firth of Forth. They were
detained at first by weather, and then by orders from the Admiralty,
which feared that they would be captured by Dutch frigates. Their
provisions were consumed and heavy expenses incurred. In the meantime
another flock of trading-ships had been collected on the east coast,
and was sent to the Firth of Forth under the protection of a squadron
commanded by the Vice-Admiral Parker whose services in the West
Indies have been mentioned. He came up from the Downs collecting the
traders on his way. On the 10th June he had collected his charge, 500
merchant-ships in all, at Leith. Before he could see them on their way,
the homeward-bound convoy from Jamaica came in—seventy trading-craft
under the protection of four sail of the line, one 50-gun and one
44-gun ship—much battered by storms, and infested with scurvy after a
long voyage. The West Indiamen stopped only to obtain fresh vegetables,
and then continued their voyage to the South. On the 27th June Parker
sailed, saw his convoy safe to the Baltic, and then cruised in the
North Sea, waiting for the homeward-bound ships.
The condition of Parker’s squadron shows that the Admiralty had indeed
been driven to sore straits to provide protection for the North Sea
trade. After he had been joined by Stuart with the =Berwick=, 74, he
was able to make up a line of seven vessels in all, but it was only
by including two which were not line-of-battle ships—the =Preston=,
50, and the =Dolphin=, 44. The =Princess Amelia=, 80, was nominally
a strong ship, but she was so crazy with age that it had been found
necessary to reduce her armament. She carried only 24-pounders on
the lower deck instead of 32-pounders, and the rest of her guns were
18-pounders and 9-pounders. Parker’s flagship, the =Fortitude=, 74, and
the =Berwick= represented the solid part of his command. If the Dutch
had been able to send an equal squadron of strong ships, it would have
gone hard with “Vinegar” Parker. Happily for him and for the interests
of British trade, the Dutch had to make shift with the old and weak
when they needed the new and strong. On the 20th July a squadron of
seven ships, to form the line, and a number of frigates sailed from
the Texel with a large fleet of merchant-ships under their protection.
The admiral in command was the Schout-bij-nacht Johan Arnold Zoutman,
an elderly officer, of the same stamp as his English opponent, an
excellent practical seaman beyond doubt, and a stout-hearted man, but
nothing more. His line of seven was made by including three ships
of 54 guns and one of 40. The largest of his ships was the _Admiral
Generaal_, 74, commanded by Captain Kinsbergen. Zoutman’s flag was in
the _Admiraal de Ruiter_, 68, and one 64-gun ship, the _Holland_, made
up the tale. Other two ships were sent out to accompany the convoy, but
were not available for an action with the British squadron.
Contrary winds and the usual obstructions inseparable from the task
of convoying a swarm of clumsy merchant-ships delayed Zoutman’s
movements. It was not till the first days of August that he was clear
of the shallows of the Dutch coast. In the meantime, the British trade
homeward bound from the Baltic had collected behind Parker. On the 5th
August the Dutchman bound northward, and the Englishman southward,
sighted one another on the Dogger Bank, in a north-westerly wind—Parker
being to the windward and westward. Each admiral sent his convoy on its
way, and both prepared for a fair trial of strength.
The battle which followed has an almost pathetic interest. It was one
of the last fought on the old traditional rules, and it was fought
by men who played the game with a single heart. Therefore it showed
what was best in those rules, their downright manhood, and what was
weakest, their hidebound pedantry. Zoutman seeing that Parker had
the weather-gage and the option of battle, lay to on the port tack,
heading to the north. Sir Hyde Parker bore down to engage from van to
rear, every man to take his bird. His flagship was in her orthodox
place, the middle, which in a line of seven was the fourth. Zoutman
was the fifth in his line. Now the proper opponent for an admiral
is an admiral. Parker therefore laid the =Fortitude= alongside the
_Admiraal de Ruiter_. But as there were three ships ahead of him and
three astern, while there were four ships ahead and two astern of
Zoutman, it followed that there were three English to four Dutch in
the van, and three to two in the rear. The last ship of Parker’s line
had consequently no opponent. In the van the =Berwick=, 74, was very
rightly laid alongside the leading Dutchman, the _Erzprinz_, 54. The
second English ship tackled the third Dutchman, and the third the
fourth. Therefore the second Dutchman had no opponent. Yet every ship
was kept in its position, since the signal for the line was flying. Not
a shot was fired by the Dutch as their enemies came down to the attack.
They lay quiet, with their marines admirably pipeclayed drawn up on
their poops. When the other sportsman was comfortably in his place,
Zoutman opened fire. English and Dutch pounded one another with stolid
resolution. The loyalty of the seamen of the time to the superstition
of the line of battle was wonderfully shown in the van. Commodore
Stuart had rightly closed with the leading Dutch ship to prevent her
from getting to windward and doubling on the head of our line. The
=Berwick= being a far heavier ship than the _Erzprinz_, was able to
drive her to leeward. In following up the attack the =Berwick= fell
to leeward, and then finding herself out of her proper place, tacked
back to resume her station. The battle was a cannonade of three hours
and a half. At the end of that time the Dutch drew off, and Parker did
not pursue. His ships were severely damaged, and his casualty list,
111 killed and 318 wounded, was a more severe loss than any suffered
in action with the French in this war, in proportion to the number
engaged. Zoutman returned to port, and Parker continued his voyage
home. The safe arrival of the Baltic convoy was a subject of very
natural rejoicing, and much was made of Parker’s “victory,” though
victory there was none. He for his part was discontented, and resigned
his command, saying, we are told, that he wished the king younger
admirals and better ships. At a later period he was chosen to command
in the East Indies. He sailed in the =Cato=, 50, for his station. His
fate is unknown, for he never reached his destination, and no trace of
him was left, save a vague story that a great ship, which may have been
his, had been wrecked on the coast of Malabar, and that the survivors
of the crew had been massacred by the natives.
While these operations were running their indecisive course in the
North Sea, two great armaments had sailed from Spithead and from Brest,
each on a distant mission, and each carrying with it subordinate
squadrons to be detached for still more remote destinations. On the
13th March Admiral Darby sailed from Spithead with twenty-eight
line-of-battle ships. Some were to be detached to the West Indies, and
others to sail for the Cape of Good Hope and take it from the Dutch,
when Darby’s immediate service was performed. He had also with him the
outward-bound East Indiamen. His orders were to collect the vessels
laden with provisions in Irish ports for the use of the garrisons of
Gibraltar and Mahon, to convoy them to the fortresses, to detach the
reinforcements for the West Indies, and the squadron destined to the
Cape with the East Indiamen under its charge, and to return to the
Channel. To meet the victuallers, he steered for the south coast of
Ireland, and was there delayed till they joined him from Cork. While
Darby was waiting on the south coast of Ireland the Comte de Grasse
left Brest on the 22nd March, with twenty sail of the line, bound for
the West Indies, and having with him a small squadron to be detached
for an attack on the British settlements in the East Indies. Darby,
having collected his victuallers, went on his way, and Grasse on his
without a meeting. The strenuous futility which is conspicuous in the
operations of all parties in this war was never more visible than in
this misuse of two great fleets. If Darby had fallen on Grasse and had
driven him back to Brest, the Americans would have been deprived of
the aid which enabled them to take Yorktown at the close of the year.
If Grasse had been joined by even six or eight Spanish ships in an
efficient state, and had fought a whole-hearted battle with Darby off
the Old Head of Kinsale, it is possible that the entire naval defence
of Great Britain might have been ruined, and it is eminently probable
that the relief of Gibraltar would have been stopped—in which case the
fortress must have fallen for it was at the end of its resources. But
the rulers in London and Paris had their eyes on the end of the earth
and could not see that victory at home would mean success all over the
world.
The web of naval warfare covered the North Atlantic, the threads
crossed, the shuttle flew to and fro. All were players in the same game
and each acted on the other. The squadrons detached to the Cape and
the Indian Ocean by Darby and Grasse went into a wider field and acted
apart. The North Sea was a field by itself, but the other fleets and
squadrons from Newport in Rhode Island, down the East Coast of America
to the West Indies, across the Atlantic to the Straits of Gibraltar,
and north to the Channel, worked together, and on one another in
harmony or in conflict. Let us see how the players stood when Darby
sailed from the south of Ireland for Gibraltar, and Grasse steered from
Brest for the West Indies.
When the year began the French squadron of seven sail of the line and
two frigates lay at Newport. It was commanded by Chevalier Destouches,
who succeeded to the command on the death of Ternay, on the 15th
December 1780. Arbuthnot was in command of the British squadron of
eight ships of the line, two 50-gun ships, and twenty-three frigates,
with his headquarters at Long Island. His ships had to patrol the
coast and to co-operate with the British forces acting in the southern
Colonies. In January he sailed to reconnoitre the French, but on the
23rd his squadron was beaten back by a violent gale. The =Culloden=,
74, was lost on the end of Long Island, and the =Bedford=, 74,
dismasted. The =America=, 74, was driven out to sea, and did not rejoin
his flag for weeks. Washington throughout the year was striving to
bring about a concentration of French and American forces on either the
northern or southern parts of the divided British. He urged Destouches
to put to sea while Arbuthnot was disabled. But the Frenchman was
oppressed by anxiety lest the stormy weather should be as fatal to
him as to his opponent. He sent Le Gardeur de Tilly with one 64 and
two frigates to fall on the British transports of Arnold’s force in
Virginia. The French officer found that they had taken refuge in
Elizabeth River, and returned. On his way to Rhode Island he captured
the =Romulus=, 44, and a number of prizes. Meanwhile Arbuthnot lay at
Gardiner Bay in Long Island. Under the steady driving of Washington,
Destouches got to sea on the 8th March, with seven of the line and two
frigates—one of them the captured =Romulus=, and 1500 French soldiers
under Viomesnil, to reinforce the Americans in Virginia. On the 10th
Arbuthnot followed him with eight ships of the line and two frigates.
The two steered for the Chesapeake in squally weather, mists, and
driving rain. The English squadron was the quicker of the two. On
the 16th March it overtook the French between forty and fifty miles
N.E. by E. of Cape Henry. It was in the power of Arbuthnot to put
himself to leeward of Destouches, and between him and the coast in the
north-easterly wind. But faithful to tradition he let the Frenchman run
to leeward of him, and then made two rushes at him in the old style.
The Frenchman as usual fired to dismast and slipped away. Yet Arbuthnot
was the more pertinacious of the two. After an inconclusive action
he anchored at Lynn Haven in the Chesapeake, and Destouches, finding
the road still barred, went back to Rhode Island. Arbuthnot came back
to Long Island, having at least baffled the enemy’s attempt to carry
reinforcements to Virginia, so that at the close of March both were
again “as they were” at Long Island and at Newport.
Meanwhile events of no very honourable character had occurred in the
West Indies. Rodney had returned to his station, the Leeward Islands,
from North America on the 12th of December 1780. He was soon joined by
Samuel Hood with reinforcements from Europe. Hood, when the war began,
had been commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth. The acceptance
of this post was by custom held to mark an officer’s final retirement
from active sea service. But the Admiralty wished to supply Rodney
with a second in command who would work more harmoniously with him than
Parker. Hood had served under Rodney’s eye at the beginning of his
career. He had been captain of the =Vestal=, from which Rodney directed
an attack on a French flotilla in 1759. The refusal of many flag
officers to take commands while Sandwich remained First Lord supplied
another reason for departing from usage. Hood, who was no political
partisan, or who at least was no Whig, was included in a promotion
of flag officers, and was sent with reinforcements and a large trade
convoy to the West Indies. Soon after he joined, the =Childers= sloop
brought news of the outbreak of the war with Holland.
No more welcome message could have reached the ear of Sir George,
for it brought to a very embarrassed man the hope of infinite prize
money. The Dutch Island of St. Eustatius, lying high up in the Lesser
Antilles, had been used for the purpose to which the British port of
Nassau in the Bahamas was put in the American Civil War. It had become
a great dépôt of contraband, by which the French profited largely. It
was also the seat of an unwonted trade of more legitimate character.
The West Indian planters were under the necessity of buying all the
food for their slaves in the North American colonies. As the supply
could not be stopped without producing ruin to the British Islands,
Government was compelled to relax the rigour of its navigation laws,
and permit the planters to obtain supplies through neutral ports. This
authorised trade concentrated at St. Eustatius. Maize and pork were
brought from America, and British goods were brought to pay for them.
Long rows of warehouses sprang up on the usually empty shore of the one
landing place of the Dutch island.
The news that St. Eustatius was fair prize reached Rodney on the 27th
January. On the 3rd February he seized the island. The neighbouring
port of Saba was taken at the same time, and a Dutch convoy was
followed and captured. From that moment and for the ensuing weeks
Rodney became blind to the interest of his country and to his own
honour in the contemplation of the stupendous mass of booty which was
at last to make him a rich man. A part of his force was to have sailed
to seize the Dutch possessions on the mainland of South America. The
admiral would not part with a ship. Essequibo and Surinam were left
to be taken by a swarm of privateers. There was no French force in
the Leeward Islands except four of the line at Fort Royal. Lest they
should come to molest him at St. Eustatius Rodney stationed the bulk
of his fleet outside that port. In vain did Hood, who was detached
for the blockade, point out that the belt of calm under the land of
Martinique, the fitful breezes, and the westerly set of the current
in the Caribbean Sea made it impossible to lie close up to the land
and intercept reinforcements coming to the French from Europe. In vain
did he ask leave to cruise to windward of Martinique on the track of
any French force which might be coming. Rodney, reduced to the moral
level of a buccaneer, would think of nothing except that if Hood were
to windward of the island, the French at Fort Royal might slip out
and recapture the booty at St. Eustatius. There he himself remained
superintending the sorting and packing of the spoil. In that position
they were at the end of April when Grasse was seen coming round the
south end of Martinique on the 28th April.
While the French admiral was crossing the Atlantic Darby had carried
out the relief of Gibraltar. He saw the ships ordered to the East
Indies safe on their way, and on the 11th April was off Cadiz. His
look-out frigates counted thirty-six Spanish sail of the line at anchor
in the port. They had grown foul while blockading the fortress, and
had run out of stores. They were in fact “wanting in everything at the
critical moment,” as Wellington was to find the Spanish armies at no
distant day. Córdoba, their admiral, was a man of childlike faith and
piety. When a French officer came to expostulate on the scandalous
spectacle presented by a fleet of thirty-six sail which allowed a
weaker force to relieve the fortress under its eyes, he left his cabin
with his rosary in his hand. He listened to the carnal arguments of the
Frenchman, and then replied with saintly unction, that it had pleased
God to make the English stronger on the present occasion, but that he
would doubtless give the superiority to the Spaniards in his own good
time. He then went back to his prayers. Darby was allowed to carry
his convoy into Gibraltar, and to despatch others to Mahon not yet
besieged. He met no opposition from the Spaniards except from a few
rowing gunboats, which fired at him from a respectful distance, when
the breeze had fallen. On the 19th April he sailed for home—his work
done. He swept close by Cadiz, “lifting his leg on the Spaniards” as
Horace Walpole puts it, but they would not come out.
On his way back he missed a piece of service which would have given
him a well-earned reward. While he was to the south the convoy which
Rodney had taken from the Dutch, together with much of his booty, was
on its way home. Another rich convoy was due from Jamaica. The French
Government had news of them, and sent six sail of the line and four
frigates and sloops to intercept them. La Motte Picquet fell in with
Rodney’s prize convoy about sixty miles to the west of the Scilly
Isles. They were under the protection of Commodore Hotham with two
line-of-battle ships and three frigates. Seeing the superiority of the
French, Hotham ordered his convoy to disperse, and drew his warships
into a line. But the Frenchman followed the booty and Hotham was not
alert enough to molest him. Twenty of the convoy were taken. La Motte
Picquet, satisfied with his gains, now turned home to Brest. It was
well for him that he did. Darby was informed of the capture of Hotham’s
convoy, and at once sent Rear-Admiral Digby with a squadron to effect
its recapture. But Digby never sighted the chase. The look-out ship
of the main force with Darby, the =Nonsuch=, 64, commanded by Captain
Sir James Wallace, fell in with one of La Motte Picquet’s ships, the
_Actif_, 74, commanded by M. de Boades, and the two fought a desperate
action, which lasted through hours of the night of the 14th May.
Both were severely mauled. The =Nonsuch= lost twenty-six men killed,
and sixty-four wounded; the _Actif_ fifteen killed and thirty-eight
wounded. The action may be quoted to prove that there was at this time
no difference in efficiency between the best ships in the French navy
and our own. La Motte Picquet took his prizes into Brest, and with them
the fortune of Rodney. Little was left to the admiral except a ruinous
series of lawsuits, brought against him by British merchants engaged in
the authorised trade at St. Eustatius, whose goods he had impounded
without discrimination. The Jamaica convoy got safe to port. Darby
anchored at Spithead on the 22nd May.
On that very day Rodney was hurrying from Antigua to Barbadoes to make
good the consequences of his mismanagement in March and April. On the
28th April the Comte de Grasse was seen coming round the southern end
of Martinique, and now began a series of operations in which all the
movements of the British fleet were dictated by the French admiral,
and all led up to loss. Hood, held back to leeward by Rodney’s orders,
the wind, the calm, and the current, could do nothing to prevent
his opponent from hugging the shore and reaching Fort Royal with
his warships and convoy. On the 29th Grasse was joined by the four
line-of-battle ships in the fort. On that day, on the 30th and on the
1st May, encounters took place between the two fleets. Grasse, having
ulterior objects to achieve, would not allow himself to be drawn into
close action. The well-trained French captains of guns made excellent
practice. Several of Hood’s ships suffered severe damage in their
spars, and one, the =Russell=, 74, was badly injured on the water-line.
All of course were proportionately disabled for working to windward.
Hood, finding himself outmatched in force and his fleet diminished by
damage, drew off to the north and sent the injured =Russell= into St.
Eustatius. She reached it on the 4th May, and brought Rodney the first
news that Grasse had reached Martinique. He sailed to join Hood on the
6th with the two ships of the line he had kept with him, and on the
9th joined his subordinate between Montserrat and Antigua. Injuries to
ships and want of stores made it necessary for him to take the whole
fleet to the dockyard at Antigua.
Grasse, having the Caribbean Sea open before him, free to go where he
pleased and strike where he chose, left Fort Royal on the 9th May to
retake Santa Lucia. The attack was made on the 11th and 12th without
success. The strength of the British posts on Pigeon Island, the Morne
Fortuné, and the Vigil enabled General St. Leger to hold out. He was
aided by a small squadron under Commodore Linzee. The discovery that
the British posts were strong, and apprehension that Rodney might
appear, induced the French admiral to embark the soldiers he had landed
and return to Fort Royal. Rodney was indeed at sea, and had steered to
assist Santa Lucia. He received news of the retreat of the enemy when
near Barbadoes on the 23rd May. As that island was ill prepared for an
attack, and his fleet still in need of stores with many sick in the
crews, Rodney anchored in Carlisle Bay. Grasse had decided to fly at
lesser game, and was content to retake Tobago. An advance squadron of
his fleet first appeared off the island. It had been detached before
the attack—which the French historians, with some economy of truth,
call a false attack—on Santa Lucia. Colonel Ferguson, the Governor of
Tobago, appealed for help to Rodney, and the admiral, who received the
message on the 27th May, sent Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Drake on the
29th with three ships of the line, three frigates, and three sloops to
his assistance. Hardly was Drake out of sight before news came that
Grasse had sailed on the 22nd from Fort Royal apparently bound for
Tobago. Rodney was in no small anxiety for his subordinate, but Drake,
who sighted the whole French fleet off Tobago on the 30th, retreated
in time. The French had landed at Great Courland Bay on the 24th, and
Ferguson, who had but four hundred men and some armed blacks, retreated
into the hills, hoping to hold out till Rodney could come. But Bouillé
arrived on the 31st May. He was ever a partisan of “thorough,” and well
knew there was no time to waste. By his orders two plantations were
fired _in terrorem_, and the clamours of the planters, who formed a
large part of his force, compelled the governor to surrender on the 2nd
June. When Rodney came from Barbadoes on the 3rd the mischief was done.
Until the 9th both fleets manœuvred along the string of small islands
called the Grenadines, till Rodney, finding that he could not bring his
enemy to close action, returned to Barbadoes, and Grasse went north to
Fort Royal.
Strenuous futility continued to be the note of the operations on both
sides. The end of all this display of force by Grasse had been the
transfer of a small island from England to France. In Paris there was
indeed a very general belief that Grasse had not done enough. His
nephew, who carried home his despatches reporting the operations off
Fort Royal from the 29th April to 1st May, had a very cold reception
from the king. The admiral’s excuse that the British ships were all
coppered and sailed better than his own was grimly received. If we
are to accept it the French officer deserved high credit for baffling
Rodney’s efforts to bring him to battle between the 3rd and 9th
June—credit, that is, for skill if not for high spirit. The English
reader may be excused for not accepting it at once, for, if it is well
founded, Rodney was grievously to blame for allowing himself to be
baffled. But this lament of want of speed is heard on both sides, till
we are almost forced to regard it as a standing excuse. Sir George’s
failure can be sufficiently explained by the fact that his mind had
been clouded by a passion of avarice at St. Eustatius, and that his
health was breaking down. He was not free either in body or mind to
give minute attention to his command. His solitary habits grew on him,
and his second in command, Hood, angered by the distant hauteur of his
chief, paid sullen and exact obedience to orders and held his peace. In
his letters he repaid himself by scornful invective.
On his return to Fort Royal Grasse prepared for the vigorous campaign
which was to redeem his reputation and to decide the war in North
America. All through the war Washington had been eagerly pressing for
a combined attack on the British forces either in New York or in the
South, and Grasse had orders to co-operate. Washington would have
preferred the first, but when he found that the French preferred the
second he accepted the alternative. Grasse left Fort Royal on the 5th
July for Cape Français (now Cape Haytien) in San Domingo, taking with
him a convoy of 200 merchant ships. At Cape Français he received the
pressing appeals of Washington and the French authorities to come on
to North America with ships, troops, and bullion. The ships he had,
and he increased them by taking the vessels already at Cape Français
which were destined to convoy the trade home. The merchant ships were
ordered to remain in the colony till the next season—a bold measure,
which would probably have been beyond the courage of a British
admiral who served a commercial state. Three thousand two hundred
troops with ten field pieces and a siege train were lent him by M. de
Lillancourt, governor of Saint Domingo. Bullion he could not obtain
in the French colony. An appeal to the Spaniards at Havana produced
about £60,000. On the 28th July Grasse sent the _Concorde_ frigate with
the announcement that he was coming, and on the 5th August he sailed
through the Bahama Channel for the Chesapeake, carrying the troops in
his warships so as not to be hampered by transports.
Rodney was informed by Captain Forde of =La Nymphe=, who had seen the
French at sea on the 5th July, that Grasse had sailed. He at once
concluded that the French admiral was bound to the coast of America,
and he prepared to reinforce the British squadron on the station.
For himself he could not go. His health had broken down, and it was
impossible for him to face an autumn campaign in the searching cold
of the North. He handed over his command to Hood with orders to take
fourteen sail of the line to America, and then on the 1st August sailed
with a convoy for Europe.
All now began to move to the decisive point at Yorktown. Arbuthnot had
resigned his command and had gone home on the 2nd July. His successor,
Rear-Admiral Graves, began by sending information to Rodney that the
French fleet was believed to be coming from the West Indies. Then
leaving Captain Edmond Affleck at New York he went to sea himself with
six ships of the line, to intercept reinforcements from Europe for the
enemy, to cover the movements of our own convoys, to watch Boston,
and, if possible, to meet whatever ships Rodney might send him from
the West Indies. Sir George had acted, as we have seen, on his own
initiative, and had sent the sloop =Swallow= to report the approaching
arrival of Hood. The =Swallow= reached New York on the 27th July, and
was sent on by Affleck to meet Graves at sea. She unhappily fell in
with two privateers, by whom she was driven on shore and destroyed. The
=Active=, sent by Hood to report that he was coming, was also taken,
and neither message reached Graves. Hearing nothing, and being in want
of stores, the admiral returned to Sandy Hook on the 16th August.
Hood in the meantime had sailed from Antigua on the 10th August, and
on the 27th he was off the Chesapeake. Finding no British force there
he went on to Sandy Hook on the 28th. Forty-eight hours after he had
gone Grasse arrived with twenty-eight sail of the line, and two 50-gun
ships. He anchored at Lynn Haven. Thus Lord Cornwallis, who had been
compelled to evacuate the Carolinas, and had marched through Virginia
to Yorktown, where all his troops were collected by the 22nd August,
was cut off from communication with New York by sea, while Washington,
with the American troops, and Rochambeau, with the French, were
gathering round him by land.
Whether he could have been saved from the superior forces collecting
about him is perhaps doubtful. Whatever chance he had was lost through
want of aid from General Clinton in New York, who continued to believe
that he, and not Cornwallis, would be attacked. The violent controversy
between the generals does not require to be dealt with here. On the
return of Graves, Clinton urged him to attack the French squadron at
Newport. The admiral had, however, to reprovision his ships, and he
received two pieces of information in quick succession which disposed
of any plan for an attack on Newport. On the 16th August =La Nymphe=
joined him with the report that Hood was on his way, and a few days
later he learnt that the French squadron, commanded since the 6th
May by the Chef d’escadre Barras de San Laurent who had superseded
Destouches, had sailed to the southward. When Hood appeared off the bar
of Sandy Hook, Graves came out to join him on the 1st September, and
their united forces steered for the Chesapeake to intercept Barras.
On the 5th September the British fleet of twenty-one sail of the line
was off Cape Henry, and the advance ship, the =Solebay=, signalled the
presence of a French fleet in Lynn Haven. Admiral Graves formed his
line of battle and stood on. Grasse shipped his cables and stood out
with twenty-four of the line, forming his array as he went. When the
two were nearly opposite one another, the British to windward in a fine
breeze from the N.N.E., Graves wore his fleet together, and bore down
on the enemy, both lines being on the port tack and heading to sea. A
sudden shift of the wind and a shoal called the Middle Ground hampered
the movements of the fleets. The British line was not all brought into
action, for it struck on the enemy at an angle, thus only the van under
Rear-Admiral Drake was closely engaged. The rear under Hood might have
brought the enemy to close action if it had been allowed to break
the line. But Graves adhered to the old rule which prescribes the
maintenance of the same formation throughout a battle. So the French
were once more allowed to slip away after crippling several ships of
the British van, and damaging one, the =Terrible=, 74, so severely that
it was found necessary to take her men and stores out, and set her on
fire on the 11th. Both fleets remained out for some days without again
coming to action. On the 9th Grasse returned to Lynn Haven. During
his absence Barras had slipped in with six sail of the line, bringing
with him the battering train about to be used against Cornwallis at
Yorktown. He found two British frigates, detached by Graves to cut away
the buoys left by Grasse on his anchors, and captured them both. After
destroying the =Terrible=, Graves looked into the Chesapeake again,
and finding the enemy too strong to be attacked, sailed away to Sandy
Hook, which he reached on the 19th September. Cornwallis was left to
his fate. Graves was joined on the 24th by Rear-Admiral Digby with
three sail of the line, and the news of his appointment to the Jamaica
station, and a few days later by two other ships from the West Indies.
He sailed on the 17th October on a forlorn effort to save Cornwallis,
who had been forced to surrender on that very day. The British fleet
looked again into the Chesapeake, saw that all was over, and returned
to Sandy Hook. Graves then handed over the command to his successor,
Digby, and left for his new station.
The fall of Yorktown was the practical end of the war in North America.
While Cornwallis’s army was undergoing its fate, the allies had made
another idle demonstration at the mouth of the Channel. Thirty-six
sail of the line, under Don Luis de Córdoba, appeared at its entrance
early in August, while thirteen others cruised on the coast of Ireland
to intercept trade. Darby, weakened by the departure of Digby for
America, was with difficulty reinforced to thirty sail, and had to
lie at anchor in Torbay. The allies, who had come on the very tardy
reflection that the best way to prevent relief to Gibraltar or Minorca
was to watch the mouth of the Channel, did not dare to attack him. They
feared to be crushed in detail if they attacked in line ahead, and were
persuaded they had no room (they might have been persuaded that they
had no seamanship), to attack in line abreast. On the 14th September
Darby put to sea to make an effort, and found the enemy gone. They had
in fact separated on the 5th September in wretched health. The French
went home to Brest, the Spaniards to Cadiz, whence eighteen of the
least inefficient of them sailed under Don Miguel Gaston to escort the
treasure ships from America. In the absence of an enemy the service was
successfully performed. Darby remained at sea till November to protect
trade.