Battle of Martinique (1780)

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Battle of Martinique
Part of American War of Independence
Date April 17, 1780 Location Off Martinique, West Indies Result Indecisive
Combatants
Britain	France
Commanders
Sir George Rodney	Comte de Guichen
Strength
20 ships of the line	23 ships of the line

West Indies campaign
Nassau – St. Lucia – Grenada – Martinique – Fort Royal – St. Kitts – The Saintes

The Battle of Martinique took place on April 17, 1780 during the American War of Independence in the West Indies on between the British Royal Navy and the French Navy.

[edit] Origins

In January 1780 the Comte de Guichen was sent to the West Indies with a strong squadron and was there opposed to Sir George Rodney.

[edit] Battle

In the first meeting between them on April 17 to the leeward of Martinique, Guichen escaped disaster only through the clumsy manner in which Sir George's orders were executed by his captains. Rodney wished to concentrate on the rear of the enemy's line, but his captains scattered themselves along the French formation. Thanks to the orderly fashion in which De Guichen's subordinate squadron-commanders dealt with the crisis, especially the third-in-command Comte de Grasse's rapid closing-up of the battle-line, de Guichen managed to extricate himself from a difficult situation and, instead turn a narrow defeat to a drawn battle, although his and Marquis de Bouillé's objective to attack and seize Jamaica were cancelled. During the battle, both Rodney's Sandwich 90 and De Guichen's La Couronne 80 were temporarily cut off from their respective fleets and bore the brunt of the battle.

Seeing that he had to deal with a formidable opponent, De Guichen acted with extreme caution, and by keeping the weather gauge afforded the British admiral no chance of bringing him to close action.