The object of the French officer was to obtain such a position on the coast of Coromandel as would strengthen the hands of his Government when the time came to make peace. In order to do this, he aimed first at destroying the squadron of Hughes, then at obtaining possession of a port or ports where he could land men, both those he had with him and those whom he knew to be coming from Europe to aid Hyder Ali, and also to refit his own ships. On the 13th February 1782 he appeared off Madras with twelve sail of the line—the eleven which had come from the Île de France, and the Hannibal taken from the English, and now turned into a French warship. Hughes was at anchor there with nine sail of the line. To have attacked him at anchor would have been dangerous and unnecessary, since the departure of the French to the south, as if to attack Trincomalee, would be sure to draw the English admiral out.
Suffren acted on that calculation with success. He stood to the south, and was followed by Hughes. One of the subordinate French captains in charge of the convoy of transports and prizes accompanying the French fleet was so careless as to allow them to fall to leeward of the battleships, where they were between Suffren and Hughes. Six of them, including one which carried 300 soldiers, were captured. On the 17th February Suffren, who was to windward of the English squadron, which was heading to the south, bore down on it from N.E. He led his squadron and ranged along the weather-side of the English till he reached the fifth ship. It was his wish and his order that those of his vessels which could not find room on the windward side of their enemy should pass to leeward, and so put him between two fires. He was ill obeyed. Only two of his rear ships did as they ought, and several never came into action. Yet he did carry out a concentration of superior on inferior numbers. The fifth English vessel which he engaged was the Superb, 74, Hughes’ flagship. She and the ships astern of her suffered severely. The last ship in the English line, the Exeter, 64, carrying the broad pennant of Commodore King, was cut to pieces. The conduct of the commodore partly explains why the good management of Suffren was balked of its reward. He had been covered by the blood of his flag-captain, Reynolds, who was cut in two by a cannon-shot at his side. His ship was battered by two enemies, and a third appeared to be about to join them. One of his officers asked him what was to be done. “There is nothing to be done,” said King, “but to fight till she sink.” The rest of the explanation must be sought in the fact that, as Suffren told the Minister of Marine in a moment of bitterness, the French officers who had spent years in the Cythera of the Île de France, leading idle, self-indulgent lives ashore, and intent on trading ventures called “la pacotille” (peddling), were neither officers nor seamen. Finding that he was not backed up as he should have been, Suffren drew off at dark. He had to some extent attained his object. The Superb and the Exeter were so badly mauled that Hughes went off before the northerly wind then blowing to refit at Trincomalee. While he was absent, Suffren went to Porto Novo to establish relations with Hyder Ali on the 21st February, and on the 4th April the troops he had landed took Cuddalore. This is a passage in naval history which should be remembered when we hear of the necessity for naval bases. It shows that a victorious fleet will soon supply itself with a base.
While Suffren was making himself master of Cuddalore, Hughes was endeavouring to secure the safety of Trincomalee. He left it on the 4th March, came to Madras, when he was reinforced by two of the line, and went back with soldiers and stores. Suffren having put matters on as good a footing as he could at Cuddalore, followed Hughes to Ceylon. On the 12th April, the date on which Rodney defeated Grasse in the West Indies, another battle was fought in the east. Again Suffren attacked, and this time, more as it seems by accident than from good management, he concentrated a superior force on an inferior, falling with three vessels on the Superb, and the ship ahead of her, the Monmouth, 64. Both were severely cut up, but as on the former occasion several of the French captains were shy or awkward. The fleets separated without loss of a ship on either side, and anchored near one another on the coast of Ceylon. Suffren was first at sea on the 17th, and offered battle on the 19th; but Hughes declined. Then the Frenchman went to Batticaloa to refit, and thence back to the Coromandel coast. Hughes, after stopping at Trincomalee, followed him. The two continued watching and waiting an opportunity till the 6th July, when Hughes, for the first and last time, attacked his opponent. The battle, which was fought near Negapatam, was notable for the fact that it may be said to have been blown out by a sudden shift of the wind, which headed both fleets, and threw them into complete confusion. In the disorder of the close the French Sévère was surrounded by English ships, and her captain, M. de Cillart, ordered his flag to be struck. It was hoisted again by his subordinates, and the Sévère renewed her fire. The incident was an ugly one, and led to an angry correspondence between the admirals. Cillart was suspended by Suffren, and was afterwards dismissed the service.
After the action in July, Hughes went to Madras. He was expecting reinforcements, and so was Suffren. But the Frenchman showed greater alertness. On the 21st August he was off Batticaloa, where he met his reinforcements, and on the 25th he attacked Trincomalee, which surrendered on the 31st. Hughes, who had not left Madras till the 20th, did not appear off Trincomalee till the 3rd September. Another engagement followed, Suffren attacking from windward and Hughes edging away. Again he was ill supported, and his irritation provoked him into an explosion of hot Southern rage. Impatience with the pottering of his captains led him to plunge into action in a disorderly way, which gave Hughes an advantage. In spite of that, and though a shift of the wind transferred the weather-gage from the French to the English officer, and though our naval historians speak currently of the defeat of Suffren, it is certain that Hughes did not feel sufficiently victorious to pursue when his opponent drew off.
The two fleets withdrew to their respective bases—Hughes to Madras, and Suffren to Trincomalee. He lost one of his 74’s when entering the harbour—the Orient—by the bad seamanship of her captain, and another when he returned to Cuddalore. The change of the monsoon suspended operations for a time. Hughes having lost the excellent harbour of Trincomalee, could not remain on the east coast, and therefore had to go round to Bombay through storms which damaged his ships severely. He missed Sir Richard Bickerton, who was coming out with stores, and who had a stormy passage in and out of the Bay of Bengal, as he sought, and followed, his superior to Bombay. If Suffren’s captains had had their wish, and if the Minister in Paris had been obeyed, the French squadron would have returned to its Cythera. But “the Bailli” knew that if he returned to the islands, Hughes would be able to forestall him in the Bay, when the monsoon changed again. He took the responsibility of remaining where he was, and wintered at Achin, in Sumatra, which was under the supremacy, if not actually in the possession, of the Dutch his allies. Therefore he was on the scene of operations two months before Hughes could come round from Bombay.
On the coast of Ceylon he met Bussy, a once famous fighter in India, who had been sent from Europe to take the general command in the East, with troops. The reinforcements provided for Suffren were generally sent in small bodies, and were frequently intercepted. But his fleet had now been raised to fifteen sail, and was the mainstay of the enemies of the Company. Hyder Ali was dead, but his son Tippoo Sultan continued the war, though it was going against him. The struggle concentrated around Cuddalore, where Bussy was assailed by a superior army. Hughes, whose fleet had now been brought up to eighteen sail, co-operated with the besieging army. His superiority in number of ships was discounted by the ill-health of his crews, which were very sickly. The last encounter between the old opponents took place on the 20th June, and was of the commonplace eighteenth-century order—save for two details. The French fleet of fifteen sail attacked the British fleet of eighteen from windward—and it was the British fleet which retired. Then Suffren had received an order from home—an order inspired by the capture of the Comte de Grasse in the battle of Dominica—to hoist his flag in a frigate and direct his line from outside. He obeyed, and it perhaps throws some light on the question whether the proper place for an admiral is in his line, where he can set an example, or outside of it, where he can see and direct the whole, that on this occasion the French fleet came into action in far better order than in previous engagements.
The retreat of Hughes left the army besieging Cuddalore in a dangerous position. It depended on transport by sea for most of its provisions, and might have been driven to a disastrous retreat. But at this moment the news that the preliminaries of peace had been signed in Europe on the 20th January reached India, and was communicated to Suffren on the 29th June. He returned to Europe to die of apoplexy in 1788, and when next the French and English fleets met, the outbreak of the great Revolution had made another world.