Action of 6 December 1782

Action of 6 December 1782 Part of the American Revolutionary War Date 6 December 1782 Location Off Martinique, Caribbean Result British victory Belligerents  Great Britain  France Commanders and leaders Captain John Collins Jean-Charles de Borda Strength 1 third rate ship of the line HMS Ruby 1 third rate ship of the line Solitaire Casualties and losses 2 men wounded Solitaire captured, 35 killed & 55 wounded, 500 captured

American Revolutionary War: Caribbean theater 1st Nassau Barbados Dominica 1st St. Lucia 2nd St. Lucia Saint Vincent 1st Grenada 2nd Grenada Río Hondo Cayo Cocina San Fernando 12 December 1779 1st Martinique Guadeloupe 2nd Martinique Bermuda Fort San Juan Dutch West Indies Sint Eustatius Fort Royal Tobago Brimstone Hill Frigate Bay Demerara and Essequibo Montserrat Roatán The Saintes Mona Passage Black River 2nd Nassau 18 October 1782 6 December 1782 15 February 1783 17 February 1783 Turks and Caicos 3rd Nassau

The Action of 6 December 1782 was a single-ship action fought between HMS Ruby and the French ship Solitaire off the coast of Martinique. The Ruby easily defeated the Solitaire.

By the end of 1783 the Spanish and French had been on the defensive since the Battle of the Saintes, which signaled British domination of the seas in the Caribbean.^[1] Soon after the Royal navy were conducting a blockade off Cap Francois and Fort Royal as well as keeping a watch off Havana.^[2]

Action

A French convoy was sighted off Martinique by the Royal Navy squadron of Rear Admiral Richard Hughes on 6 December 1782. One of his ships, the 64-gun HMS Ruby captained by John Collins, sighted the 1,521 ton French ship Solitaire of 64 guns under the command of Jean-Charles de Borda. Collins gave chase and eventually caught up and intercepted the Solitaire. After nearly forty minutes of action the Solitaire had her mizzenmast shot away, her rigging and sails in tatters and was becoming dead in the water when Borda decided to strike her colours.^[3] The Solitaire had 35 men killed and 55 wounded whilst the Ruby had only two men wounded.^[4]

Captain John Collins was knighted for his action. The Solitaire entered the Royal Navy as HMS Solitaire and remained in service until 1790, when she was sold out of the navy. Jean-Charles de Borda, although captured along with his entire crew, was shortly released and returned as an engineer in the French Navy. He later achieved fame as a mathematician, physicist and political scientist.^[5]

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Allen, Joseph (1852). Battles of the British Navy. London: Henry Bohn. pp. 349–350. 
• Marley, David (2005). Historic Cities of the Americas: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576070277.