The fall of Yorktown was the practical end of the war in North America. While Cornwallis’s army was undergoing its fate, the allies had made another idle demonstration at the mouth of the Channel. Thirty-six sail of the line, under Don Luis de Córdoba, appeared at its entrance early in August, while thirteen others cruised on the coast of Ireland to intercept trade. Darby, weakened by the departure of Digby for America, was with difficulty reinforced to thirty sail, and had to lie at anchor in Torbay. The allies, who had come on the very tardy reflection that the best way to prevent relief to Gibraltar or Minorca was to watch the mouth of the Channel, did not dare to attack him. They feared to be crushed in detail if they attacked in line ahead, and were persuaded they had no room (they might have been persuaded that they had no seamanship), to attack in line abreast. On the 14th September Darby put to sea to make an effort, and found the enemy gone. They had in fact separated on the 5th September in wretched health. The French went home to Brest, the Spaniards to Cadiz, whence eighteen of the least inefficient of them sailed under Don Miguel Gaston to escort the treasure ships from America. In the absence of an enemy the service was successfully performed. Darby remained at sea till November to protect trade.
CHAPTER IX
THE CLOSE OF THE WAR AND THE EAST INDIES
Authorities.—Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, by Beatson; Naval Chronology, by Isaac Schomberg; Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord de Saumarez, by Ross; Life and Correspondence of Rodney, by Mundy; Life of Viscount Keppel, by T. Keppel; An Essay on Naval Tactics, by Clerk; Naval Battles of Great Britain, by Ekins; “Letters of Sir Samuel Hood,” by Hannay, in Navy Records Society Publications; Naval Researches, by White; Plans of Battles of the War, by Matthews; Life of Howe, by Barrow; La Marine française, by Chevalier; Batailles navales de la France, by Troude; Journal de Bord du Bailli de Suffren, by Moris; Histoire du Bailli de Suffren, by Cunat; Siege of Gibraltar, by Drinkwater; Sea Power in History, by Mahan; Het Nederlandsche Zeewezen, by De Jonghe; Marins et Soldats français en Amerique, by the Vicomte de Noailles; La Marine Militaire de la France sous le règne de Louis XVI., by Lacour-Gayet.
The independence of the United States had been secured and a great blow struck at England by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The allies had now to secure prizes for themselves. Gibraltar was to be taken in Europe and Jamaica conquered in the West Indies. On the 4th November 1781 Grasse sailed from the Chesapeake for Martinique, where he anchored on the 25th. On that day his unresting military colleague, Bouillé, pounced in his characteristically feline style on St. Eustatius. He landed where no landing was expected. The red coats of the Irish regiment of Dillon, which formed part of his force, disarmed suspicion, all the more easily because no watch was kept. The Governor was splashing in his bath when the French came down upon him, and so the loss of St. Eustatius was added to the chapter of regrettable incidents. Grasse and Bouillé were now free to push their enterprises against the British West Indies, opposed for the time being only by the inferior fleet under Hood, who had sailed from Sandy Hook on the 11th November and had reached Barbadoes on the 5th December. The French officers had been instructed to expect reinforcements to be brought to them from Europe by Vaudreuil. If strengthened in the way promised they would have held a commanding position. The French Government took measures to keep its word, but its plans were shattered by a brilliant stroke of vigilance and activity delivered by the British Navy.
It was known in London that a great force was in preparation at Brest, and measures were taken to intercept it at its starting place. On the 2nd December, Kempenfelt, who had succeeded Digby as second in command in the Channel, left Spithead with twelve sail of the line and one 50-gun ship. The calculation was sound, and Kempenfelt sailed in good time, but the force given him might well have proved insufficient. Guichen left Brest on the 10th December with nineteen sail of the line and a convoy carrying troops. His orders were to detach Vaudreuil to the West Indies with five sail and the transports, to send two to the East Indies, to post La Motte Picquet with two others where he would meet the trade coming home from San Domingo, and to take the others to Gibraltar. Kempenfelt had been delayed by the weather, but on the 12th December he sighted the French 150 miles to W.S.W. of Ushant. They were to the southward of him in a south-easterly wind. Guichen and the warships were ahead on Kempenfelt’s lee or starboard bow as he came down on the port tack. The transports and merchant ships were directly behind Guichen and were therefore uncovered. Haze and fog, with clear intervals, surrounded both fleets and hid the approach of the English, but the French admiral’s disposition was unpardonable. He ought to have kept his convoy to leeward of him. If Kempenfelt had been an unenterprising man he might have hesitated to attack where he was menaced by a superior force, but he was as bold as he was seamanlike, and he did not hesitate to punish his opponent for his error. He dashed straight on in a general chase, each ship going at her best speed with frigates and two deckers ahead, swept past the stern of the French warships, and broke into the convoy. Fifteen transports were captured, with 1062 soldiers on board. The rest scattered in terror. Guichen, confused by the consequences of his own want of foresight, and perhaps by the fog, allowed his opponent to collect his warships, which had been separated by the chase, and to round up his prizes before night. Kempenfelt detached Captain Caldwell in the Agamemnon with La Prudente to pursue the convoy. Five more fell into Captain Caldwell’s hands. Guichen returned rather piteously to Brest, and the blow delivered to the W.S.W. of Ushant was felt by Grasse in the West Indies. Kempenfelt anchored at Spithead on the 20th December.
He was a man to be remembered for this fine feat, for a long career of good service, and for his efforts to provide the navy with a better code of signals. He is remembered because he was the admiral whose flagship, the Royal George, went down at Spithead on the 29th August 1782, carrying with her Kempenfelt, most of his officers, hundreds of seamen, and also very many women with some children, the families of the men. They were allowed to remain on board while the ship was fitting for sea. The Royal George was receiving a parliamentary heel, that is to say she was weighed down on her side at the anchorage in order to clean her partially below the water line. According to the explanation which satisfied the Admiralty, she sank because the water ran in at the ports. But the navy, which indeed was rarely charitable in its judgment of the Admiralty, was of opinion that a piece fell out of her side under the strain, for she was notoriously rotten. It was said that the decision not to attempt to raise her was due to the prudent resolution of My Lords that the truth should not be revealed. She had been built in 1756.
Though disappointed of the reinforcement promised him, Grasse was still much stronger than Hood. He could collect twenty-nine sail, while the English officer could only hope to muster twenty-two—until Rodney returned from Europe. On the 5th January 1782 he left Fort Royal on an expedition against the British islands, St. Christopher and Nevis. Hood at Barbadoes was informed on the 8th that the French were at sea. Scouts were despatched to observe their movements, but it was not till the 14th that a letter from General Shirley, Governor of St. Christopher, told Hood that they had been seen off Nevis, and that their destination became clear. Hood sailed at once for Antigua. He had twenty-one sail of the line with him, but expected to be raised to twenty-two by the junction of the President. With this force, inferior in number as it was to the French fleet, “I beg you will assure their Lordships,” so he wrote to Sandwich on the 20th January, “I will seek and give battle to the Count de Grasse, be his numbers as they may.” The promise was given on the 20th January. On the 21st, Hood was at Antigua. On the 22nd, he embarked General Prescott with a detachment of troops, and sailed in search of the French.
The little island of Nevis lies directly west of Antigua. To the north, and separated from it by the shallow strait appropriately called the Narrows, is the larger island of St. Christopher, commonly called St. Kitts. The capital of St. Kitts, Basseterre, is on the south-western side of the island. Here Grasse had anchored on the 11th January and had landed soldiers, who drove Governor Shirley and General Fraser, the officer in command of the troops and island militia, to take refuge on Brimston Hill, close to the shore north-west of Basseterre. During the night of the 23rd Hood rounded the south point of Nevis, running before the easterly trade. It was his intention to fall on the van of the French at daybreak on the 24th, and crush it at anchor. But during the night a careless officer of the watch in the Alfred ruined himself and the admiral’s plan by running into the Nymphe. The Alfred was damaged, and delay was caused by the necessity to repair her. Before Hood could approach the anchorage of Grasse he was seen, and the Frenchman put to sea with his twenty-nine sail of the line. Hood, whose first object was to land Prescott, anchored his fleet on the tail of a bank to the south-east of the position just left by Grasse. As his ships stood in they were attacked by the French in a half-hearted way. The operation was carried out on the 25th, after a day and night of weary manœuvring, in which Hood kept the advantage of position, and Grasse put his fingers to the plough as if he thought it would burn them. On the 26th he made two feeble attacks on Hood, and then stood off. Reinforcements came in and raised his force to thirty-six sail of the line, but he did not come on again. He only remained cruising and watching till the 14th February.