Battle of Guadeloupe (1779)

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 American Revolutionary 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 of Guadeloupe
Part of the American Revolutionary 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]

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

1. Marley p. 325
2. Clarke, James Stanier & McArthur, John, Naval Chronicle Vol. 4 p.186
3. Clowes p 47
4. Naval Chronicle Vol. 21 p.179
5. Allen, Joseph (1852). Battles of the British Navy, Volume 1. H.G. Bohn. p. 296.

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.