The Battle of the Saintes will cause…

1782 CE

The Battle of the Saintes will cause controversy ever after, for three reasons:

   • Rodney’s failure to follow up the victory by a pursuit will be much criticized. Samuel Hood will maintain that the twenty French ships would have been captured had the commander-in-chief maintained the chase.

   • The battle will be famous for the innovative tactic of "breaking the line", in which the British ships passed though a gap in the French line, engaging the enemy from leeward and throwing them into disorder. There is however considerable controversy about whether the tactic was intentional and, if so, who was responsible for the idea: Rodney, his Scottish Captain-of-the-Fleet and aide-de-camp Sir Charles Douglas or John Clerk of Eldin. Arguably the battle was not the first time a line had been broken.

   • On the French side, de Grasse blames his subordinates, Vaudreuil and Bougainville, for his defeat.

Nevertheless, France and Spain's plan to invade Jamaica is ruined, and it will remain a British colony with no further threat, as indeed will Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua.

Rodney will be feted a hero on his return; he will present the Comte De Grasse as his prisoner personally to the King.

He will be created a peer with £2,000 a year settled on the title in perpetuity for this victory.

Hood will be elevated to the peerage as well, while Drake and Affleck will be made baronets.

Following the Franco-American victory at Yorktown the previous year, and the change of Government in England, peace negotiations between Britain, the American colonies, France and Spain had begun in early 1782.

The Battle of the Saintes transfers the strategic initiative to the British, with the most likely further military action being an attack on the French sugar islands, and the French, in particular, are consequently inclined to ameliorate their terms.

Britain's dominance at sea is reasserted, and it also becomes clear to the Americans that they can look forward to less French support in the future.

The Siege of Gibraltar exacerbates this, when later in the year the defeat of the huge Franco-Spanish assault and the subsequent relief by Richard Howe leads to the lifting of the siege in February 1783.

Initial articles of peace will be signed in July, with a full treaty following in September 1783.

As a result of the battle, naval warfare will change along the tactical lines employed and will be used again by the British, including in the all-important Battle of Trafalgar, in which Admiral Horatio Nelson will defeat Napoleon’s fleet using similar tactics.