The battle of St Kitts (1782)
Hood thwarts French plans in the Caribbean
When we think of the American War of Independence it is easy to think of it as a war between plucky Colonial rebels against the organised and well drilled British Army in the fields and towns of the Thirteen Colonies with two major defeats for the Crown at Saratoga and Yorktown. It is, however much more than that and what starts as a British internal matter between the Motherland and her errant colonies rapidly becomes a global conflict with major European players getting involved with interests beyond the Colonies.
Following the defeat of the British fleet in the Chesapeake and the ensuing capitulation of the Army under Lord Cornwallis the War is seen as pretty much over, which to a degree, is accurate but for France and Spain there were material gains that could still be had at the expense of the English and they were targets which would provide them with economic boons whilst financially crippling King George’s economy.
Admiral Francois Joseph Comte de Grasse, Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis of the Spanish General Bureau for their Indies possessions and Bernardo de Galvez a Spanish Court representative and aide to the Spanish Governor of Louisiana worked towards a plan that would assist both of their Empiresnwith three main aims.
The first was pretty much a done deal in that both agreed that they would assist the Continental cause in defeating Britain but then came the additions that would assist them (and by extension the Continentals) by attacking the British where it hurt.
Jamaica and its sugar plantations generated a huge amount of capital and was basically funded the Empire on its own with 20% of the imports to England being sugar and Lord Sandwich was willing to defend it at the expense of the home islands. With the Franco-Spanish attempts to get Gibraltar hitting a brick wall they were looking for another target.Jamaica was a powerful blow to the British war effort and economy but also could be a big bargaining chip in any post-war treaty. Just postulating but would Britain give up Gibraltar to Spain for Jamaica?
Anyway, the third part of the plan was to take the Windward islands basically kicking Britain out of the Caribbean.
In November 1781 the French fleet arrived at Saint-Domingue and the plan for Caribbean operations was to begin but de Grasse waited until the New Year for reinforcements to be gathered
In January he took his force to St Kitts (the original target of Barbados was saved by bad weather) in the Windward islands and landed the Marquis de Bouille’s troops on the 11th January. The British garrison fell back to the Fort of Brimstone Hill as they were outnumbered two to one and they dug in for a siege hoping for the British fleet to bring them relief leaving the French time to disembark without contest before moving up to the fort on the 19th. On the following day the nearby island of Nevis surrendered to the French.
Four days later, on the 24th January, salvation for the beleaguered garrison seemed to be at hand as Admiral Samuel Hood’s force of twenty two warships arrived at Nevis hoping to catch the French force at anchor off St Kitts but the element of surprise was lost when HMS Alfred collided with the frigate Nymphe as they formed line of battle (end to end astern) and time had to be taken to embark Nymphe’s soldiers to other ships before proceeding giving the French warning of Hood’s presence. On the upside the French Espion, a cutter carrying ammunition from Martinique to St Kitts was captured by the frigate Lizard. On hearing of Hood’s presence, de Grasse moved to intercept them so he could protect the other four supply ships in the region. Hood, who held the weather gauge of wind tried to manoeuvre his force to feign seeking an action and to keep the French force seaward and his own force on the shore side.
By the morning of the 25th De Grasse had located and was giving chase to overtake Hood and bring his line to battle off the coast of Nevis.
The frigate Solebay ran aground and immediately came under fire from the French leaving Captain Everitt with no choice but to burn his ship (to stop her capture) and take his men onto the island. With De Grasse starting to catch up and firing on hsi rearmost ships he orders more sail to give them the speed to outpace their pursuers and to swing into Basterre anchorage.
By 14:30 the Ville de Paris was firing at long range at the tail of Hood’s squadron and by 15:00 there were more French ships exchanging fire with them and slowly the number of ships engaged grew with Hood’s flagship Barfleur in the centre joining the fray. The position was in sight though as the Frigates and forward vessels had reached the anchorage and were already laying anchor and turning to engage the French from the sheltered position.
Although Hood’s van was doing well the tail was suffering under the French guns with the Prudent having lost her wheel in the firs broadside and the Montagu and America suffering damage with the possibility of being overhauled by the more numerous French. The situation looked dire for them but it was saved by the timely intervention of Captain William Cornwallis aboard HMS Canada as well as the Resolution and Bedford who met the French assault, which was coming in at an angle to separate the rearward three, head on which forced Ville de Paris to sheer away with her compatriots to avoid collision whilst undercover of the anchored British ships.
With no other options open to him, De Grasse had to continue along the British line returning fire and then sail away to the south at 17:30.
The next morning saw Hood altering his line and forming a perpendicular line along the edge f the hundred fathom line, beyond any French guns ashore, and with the former three rearmost ships forming up beyond the van but before the shore.
At 07:00 de Grasse returned for another attempt to dislodge Hood’s line sailing bow on towards them in line of battle but as they charged closer they came under the concentrated British fire heavily damaging the lead ships with the Souverain visibly haemorrhaging planks of wood with each shot but little deterred the Ville de Paris who closed with her consorts and such a fierce exchange of gun fire arrose that neither side could see one another in gunpowder smoke.
Canada, Resolution and Prudent were coming under quite heavy fire so cut their cables and slid closer to the main British body all the while under heavy enemy fire.
After two hours of heavy firing the French withdrew as they simply could not shift Hood from his line and the British gunnery was too steady and even a second attack by the French van in the afternoon saw Barfleur leading a barrage which damaged Ville de Paris below the waterline and the French flagship forced to withdraw.
The British claimed victory and had lost 72 dead and 244 wounded to the French 107 killed and 207 wounded.
What would happen with the besieging French troops though?
The British garrison were pretty holed up in Brimstone point fort and the troops Hood landed were forced to withdraw after only a day as they were outnumbered with no hope of destroying or even successfully engaging the French force. To make matters worse Rodney with reinforcements had not arrived and there was news of De Grasse’s fleet swelling to thirty two ships of the line and approaching Nevis to meet supply ships. On the 14th February the lines were cut and Hood slipped out of Basterre at 23:00 but leaving lights burning behind to make it appear they were still there.
The fort had surrendered on the 12th with the Garrison commander, Thomas Fraser, being left in the unenviable position of suffering some 150 casualties out of 820 men, disease rampant, his relief under Prescott having been repulsed and the British heavy guns that came ashore given to the French by the islanders (whilst the French guns had been lost at sea. With serious breaches in the walls and the militia requesting that Fraser surrender the Commander was left with no other option.
St Kitts and Nevis fell to the French but that would not be the end of it.
With the arrival of Rodney at Antigua the British formed a single force and gone looking for de Grasse but the French had retired to Martinique and so they withdrew back to St Lucia where they could pool their resources and refit the damaged warships and prepare their next move…