Battle of Saint Kitts
Battle of St. Kitts | |||||||
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Part of the American Revolutionary War | |||||||
![]() Hood's anchored fleet repels de Grasse off St Kitts. The Battle of Frigate Bay, 26 January 1782 by Nicholas Pocock | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
22 ships of the line | 29 ships of the line 2 frigates 1 cutter | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
72 killed 244 wounded | 107 killed 204 wounded 1 cutter captured[3] |
The Battle of Saint Kitts, also known as the Battle of Frigate Bay, was a naval battle fought on 25 and 26 January 1782 during the American Revolutionary War between a British fleet under Rear Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and a larger French fleet under the Comte de Grasse.
Background
[edit]When Hood returned to the West Indies in late 1781 after the Battle of the Chesapeake, he was for a time in independent command owing to Admiral George Rodney's absence in England. The French admiral, the Comte de Grasse, attacked the British islands of St Kitts and Nevis with 7,000 troops and 50 warships, including the 110-gun Ville de Paris. He started by besieging the British fortress on Brimstone Hill on 11 January 1782. Hoping to salvage the situation, Hood made for St Kitts by departing Antigua on 22 January with 22 ships of the line, compared to de Grasse's 36.[4]
Action
[edit]The British fleet on 24 January consisted of 22 sail of the line, and was close off the southeast end of Nevis. They ran into and captured the French 16-gun cutter Espion, which carried a large amount of ammunition for the besieging French forces at Brimstone Hill.
At daybreak on 25 January, the French fleet was discovered having stood to the southward of Basseterre, consisting of a 110-gun ship, 28 two-decked ships, and two frigates. Hood stood towards the French fleet with the apparent intention of bringing on action, and effectively drew the French fleet off the land. As soon as Hood effected this maneuver, he was aided by a favorable change in wind and was able to guide his fleet within the anchorage of Basseterre, which the French admiral had just quit. Hood ordered his fleet in an L-formation and then ordered his fleet to lay anchor. De Grasse made three distinct attacks upon the British fleet on 26 January but was repulsed.[2]
The Pluton, commanded by D'Albert de Rions, led the French line, "receiving the crashing broadside of ship after ship until the splintered planking flew from her off side and her rigging hung in a tangled mass." Chauvent goes on to describe the battle as "...a sulphurous hell, with cannon vomiting forth flame and death." The entire battle lasted from 7:00 am to 6:30 pm, with the major action in the afternoon.[4]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Bataille_de_Saint_Kitts_janvier_1782.jpg/600px-Bataille_de_Saint_Kitts_janvier_1782.jpg)
Aftermath
[edit]Damage on both sides was heavy, though the French suffered higher casualties. However, Hood was unable to stop the French and could only observe the land action. After the successful French siege of Brimstone Hill fortress, St Kitts and Nevis surrendered on 12 February.[4]
Hood left on the 14th and joined forces with the recently arrived Admiral George Rodney.
Order of battle
[edit]Britain
[edit]Ship | Rate | Guns | Commander | Casualties | Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Killed | Wounded | Total | ||||||
Van | ||||||||
HMS St Albans | Third rate | 64 | Captain Charles Inglis | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
HMS Alcide | Third rate | 74 | Captain Charles Thompson | 2 | 4 | 6 | ||
HMS Intrepid | Third rate | 64 | Captain Anthony James Pye Molloy | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
HMS Torbay | Third rate | 74 | Captain John Lewis Gidoin | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
HMS Princessa | Third rate | 70 | Rear-Admiral Francis Samuel Drake Captain Charles Knatchbull | 2 | 4 | 6 | Flagship of van | |
HMS Prince George | Second rate | 98 | Captain James Williams | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||
HMS Ajax | Third rate | 74 | Captain Nicholas Charrington | 1 | 12 | 13 | ||
Centre | ||||||||
HMS Prince William | Third rate | 64 | Captain George Wilkinson | 0 | 3 | 3 | ||
HMS Shrewsbury | Third rate | 74 | Captain John Knight | 3 | 7 | 10 | ||
HMS Invincible | Third rate | 74 | Captain Charles Saxton | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
HMS Barfleur | Second rate | 98 | Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood Captain Alexander Hood | 9 | 24 | 33 | Flagship of centre | |
HMS Monarch | Third rate | 74 | Captain Francis Reynolds | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||
HMS Belliqueux | Third rate | 64 | Captain Lord Cranstoun | 5 | 7 | 12 | ||
HMS Centaur | Third rate | 74 | Captain John Nicholson Inglefield | 0 | 12 | 12 | ||
HMS Alfred | Third rate | 74 | Captain William Bayne | 2 | 20 | 2 | ||
Rear | ||||||||
HMS Russell | Third rate | 74 | Captain Henry Edwyn Stanhope | 8 | 29 | 37 | ||
HMS Resolution | Third rate | 74 | Captain Lord Robert Manners | 5 | 11 | 16 | ||
HMS Bedford | Third rate | 74 | Commodore Edmund Affleck Captain Thomas Graves | 2 | 15 | 17 | Flagship of Rear | |
HMS Canada | Third rate | 74 | Captain William Cornwallis | 1 | 12 | 13 | ||
HMS Prudent | Third rate | 64 | Captain Andrew Barclay | 18 | 36 | 54 | ||
HMS Montagu | Third rate | 74 | Captain George Bowen | 7 | 23 | 30 | ||
HMS America | Third rate | 64 | Captain Samuel Thompson | 1 | 17 | 18 | ||
Attached frigates | ||||||||
Van | ||||||||
HMS Eurydice | Sixth rate | 20 | Captain George Wilson | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Centre | ||||||||
HMS Pegasus | Sixth rate | 28 | Captain John Stanhope | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
HMS Fortunee | Sixth rate | 28 | Captain Hugh Cloberry Christian | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
HMS Lizard | Sixth rate | 28 | Captain Edmund Dod | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
HMS Champion | Sixth rate | 20 | Captain Thomas West | 1 | 1 | 2 | To repeat signals | |
HMS Convert | Fifth rate | 32 | Captain Henry Harvey | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
HMS Triton | Sixth rate | 28 | Captain John M’Laurin | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Rear | ||||||||
HMS Sibyl | Sixth rate | 28 | Captain John Norton | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
HMS Solebay | Sixth rate | 28 | Captain Charles Everitt | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Total recorded casualties: 72 killed, 244 wounded |
France
[edit]Division | Ship | Guns | Commander | Casualties | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Killed | Wounded | Total | |||||
Souverain | 74 | Glandevès du Castellet | |||||
Hercule | 74 | Chadeau de la Clocheterie | |||||
Languedoc | 80 | Arros d'Argelos | |||||
Duc de Bourgogne | 80 | Champmartin Barras de Saint-Laurent (Lieutenant General) | |||||
Marseillais | 74 | Castellane Majastre | |||||
Jason | 64 | Couète de Villages | |||||
Magnanime | 74 | Le Bègue de Germiny | |||||
Zélé | 74 | Gras-Préville | |||||
Éveillé | 64 | Le Gardeur de Tilly | |||||
Saint-Esprit | 80 | Chabert-Cogolin | |||||
Sceptre | 74 | Vaudreuil | |||||
Ville de Paris | 104 | De Grasse (Lieutenant General) Cresp de Saint-Césaire (Flag captain) | |||||
César | 74 | Coriolis d'Espinouse | |||||
Northumberland | 74 | Bricqueville | |||||
Diadème | 74 | Monteclerc | |||||
Glorieux | 74 | Pérusse des Cars | |||||
Citoyen | 74 | De Thy | |||||
Scipion | 74 | Dassas | |||||
Ardent | 64 | Bernard de Marigny | |||||
Neptune | 74 | Renaud d'Aleins | |||||
Auguste | 80 | Bougainville (Chef d'Escadre) Castellan (flag captain) | |||||
Bourgogne | 74 | Charritte | |||||
Pluton | 74 | Albert de Rions | |||||
Caton | 64 | Framond | |||||
Sagittaire | 50 | Montluc de la Bourdonnaye | |||||
Experiment | 50 | Médine |
Citations
[edit]- ^ Jaques, Hood arrived and repulsed de Grasse with victory at sea off Basseterre p. 881
- ^ a b Allen p. 325
- ^ Marly p. 342
- ^ a b c Hubbard, Vincent (2002). A History of St. Kitts. Macmillan Caribbean. pp. 95–96. ISBN 978-0-333-74760-5.
- ^ Isaac Schomberg Naval Chronology, pp. 396–7
- ^ "No. 12277". The London Gazette. 9 March 1782. pp. 3–4.
- ^ Troude (1867), p. 215.
References
[edit]- Allen, Joseph (1852). Battles of the British Navy. London: Henry Bohn. pp. 325.
Hood.
- Clowes, William Laird., (1897) The Royal Navy: a history from the earliest time to the present, Volume 3
- Jaques, Tony Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A-E Greenwood 2006 ISBN 978-0-313-33536-5
- Marley, F. David. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present ABC-CLIO (1998). ISBN 0-87436-837-5
- Schomberg, Isaac (1802). Naval Chronology:or, An Historical Summary of Naval & Maritime Events, From the Time of the Romans, to the Treaty of Peace, 1802. Vol. 4. London: T. Egerton by C. Roworth.
- Troude, Onésime-Joachim (1867). Batailles navales de la France (in French). Vol. 2. Challamel ainé.
External links
[edit]- Buttrey Manuscript "Battle of St. Kitts - perhaps first hand account