Battle of Guadeloupe (1779)

Battle of Guadeloupe Part of the American War of Independence 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 3 Ships of the line 3 Frigates Casualties and losses Light 3 frigates captured[2]

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 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 War of Independence between three Royal Navy ships and three French Navy frigates.^[3] The Royal Navy under Joshua Rowley sighted and promptly chased, caught with all three subsequently captured after a brief fight.^[4]

On 21 December 1779, HMS Magnificent with the 74-gun ships of the line HMS Suffolk and HMS Vengeance, and the 64-gun HMS Stirling Castle under Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley, fell in with the 32-gun French frigates Fortunée and Blanche and the 28-gun Elise, off the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.^[2] The French ships had belonged to the Comte d Estaing's fleet.^[5]

The French ships were in bad order; their crews were excessively weak; and thus they could not escape the vastly superior British force.^[3] The Blanche was overtaken and captured on the evening of the 21st; the Fortunée, by throwing her quarter-deck guns overboard, kept away a little longer, but was captured at last in 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 also led his squadron to capture of a large French convoy, from Marseilles, off Martinique.^[2]

References

Citations

Bibliography

• 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.