Roseau Saint George Dominica

Christopher Columbus, on reaching the Lesser Antilles, sights a rugged island on November 3 that he names Dominica (Latin for Sunday), an island peopled by Caribs; …

Roberts heads for Dominica to repair the sloop, with twenty of his crew dying of their wounds on the voyage.

There are also two sloops from Martinique out searching for the pirates, and Roberts swears vengeance against the inhabitants of Barbados and Martinique.

He has a new flag made with a drawing of himself standing upon two skulls, one labeled ABH (A Barbadian's Head) and the other AMH (A Martiniquian's Head).

The Marquis de Bouillé has carefully maintained a façade of peace in his dealings with Dominican authorities while he began preparing his forces on Martinique.

On September 2 he and Lieutenant Governor Stuart sign an agreement that formally prohibits privateering crews to plunder.

The next day Bouillé sends one of his officers to Dominica to see whether a Royal Navy frigate is still anchored in Prince Rupert's Bay (near present-day Portsmouth).

Stuart, suspicious of the man, has him questioned, then released.

On September 5 Bouillé is informed that the frigate has sailed for Barbados.

He strikes fast, defeating the British at Dominica in September 1778.

Bouillé leaves a garrison of eight hundred (seven hundred French regulars and one hundred free black militia) on the island, turns its command over to the Marquis de Duchilleau, and returns to Martinique.

These events are the first in a series of military actions resulting in the change of control of Caribbean islands during the war, in which Bouillé will often be involved.

The West Indies island of Dominica, which lies between French-held Martinique and Guadeloupe, and had been captured by Britain in 1761, is a key territory that is of particular interest.

Recapture of the island will improve communication among the islands, and deny the use of Dominican ports to privateers who prey on French shipping.
 
In August 1778, François Claude Amour, the marquis de Bouillé, the French governor-general of Martinique, receives word that war had been declared.

The French frigate Concorde reaches Martinique on August 17 with orders from Paris to take Dominica at the earliest opportunity, and Bouillé makes immediate plans for such an operation.

He had maintained contacts in the Dominican population, which had remained largely French during the years of British administration.

As a result, he has an accurate picture of the condition of the Dominican defenses, and knows that the island's garrison numbers fewer than "fifty soldiers fit for duty".

He is also concerned with the whereabouts of the British Leeward Islands fleet of Admiral Samuel Barrington, which significantly exceeds his in military power.

Unbeknown to Bouillé, Barrington, who has only recently assumed his post, is under orders to retain most of his fleet at Barbados until further instructions are received.

The British regular forces on the island, which in total number about one hundred, are distributed among defenses in the capital Roseau, the hills that overlook it, and at Cachacrou.

The British hulls by this time have been given copper sheathing to protect them from marine growth and fouling as well as salt water corrosion.

This dramatically improves speed and sailing performance as a whole in good wind.

The copper-hulled British fleet soon catches up with the French, who are surprised by their speed,
on April 9, 1782.

De Grasse orders the French convoy to head into Guadeloupe for repair, forcing him to escort two fifty-gun ships (Fier and Experiment) and placing his fleet in line of battle in order to cover the retreat.

The British fleet's vanguard under Rear-Admiral Samuel Hood moves against de Grasse's retreating ships and wages a fight.

After an inconclusive encounter in which both sides suffer damage, de Grasse soon realizes that the main British fleet will soon be upon them.

He breaks off the engagement to return to protect the merchant convoy.

The two fleets had faced each other parallel in the following days but both sides had kept their distance as they repaired their ships.

The French are sighted a short distance away on April 12, as the two fleets maneuver  between the northern end of Dominica and the Saintes.

A French straggler, Zélé (seventy-four guns), is spotted and was chased by four British ships as De Grasse makes for Guadeloupe.

At the same time Rodney recalls his chasing ships and makes the signal for line of battle.

Rear-Admiral Hood's van division are still making repairs from the action three days earlier, so he directs his rear division, under Rear Admiral Francis S. Drake, to take the lead.

At 7:40, HMS Marlborough, under Captain Taylor Penny, leads the British line and opens the battle when he approaches the center of the French line.

Having remained parallel with the French, the ships of Drake's division now pass the remaining length of de Grasse's line and the two sides exchange broadsides, a typical naval engagement of this time.

As the battle progresses, the strong winds of the previous day and night begin to temper and become more variable.

As the French line passes down the British line, the sudden shift of wind lets Rodney's flagship HMS Formidable and several other ships, including HMS Duke and HMS Bedford, sail towards the French line.

At 8 am, Formidable opens fire and engages the French center and as she slows, duels with de Grasse's flagship, Ville de Paris of one hundred and four guns.

The rest of the ships soon follow, raking the French as they do so, causing huge casualties among the soldiers and sailors.

Within an hour, the wind has shifted to the south and thus forced the French line to separate and bear to the west, as it cannot hold its course into the wind.

This allows the British to use their guns on both sides of their ships without any fear of return fire from the front and rear of the French ships they are passing between.

The effect is greater with the use of carronades, with which the British had just equipped nearly half their fleet; this relatively new short-range weapon is quicker to reload and more can be carried.

Glorieux is the first victim; virtually a sitting duck, she is quickly pounded and dismasted by intense fire.

Four French ships in the confusion begin milling around; Formidable turns to starboard and brings her port guns to bear on them.

As a result, Formidable sails through the French line, blasting her way through; this piercing is followed by five other British ships.

At the same time, Commodore Edmund Affleck, to the south, also immediately capitalizes on the opportunity and leads the rearmost of the British ships through the French line, inflicting significant damage.

The French try to restore order; around 1:30 pm, de Grasse signals line on the port tack, but this is not fulfilled; he is soon battling Hood's ninety-gun HMS Barfleur.

With their formation shattered and many of their ships severely damaged, the French fall away to the southwest in small groups.

Rodney attempts to redeploy and make repairs before pursuing the French.

By 2 pm, the wind has freshened and a general chase ensues.

The British take possession of Glorieux as they press south, and catch up with the French rear at around 3 pm.

In succession, Rodney's ships isolate the other three ships. César, which is soon totally dismasted and in flames, is captured by HMS Centaur.

Hector, a complete dismasted wreck, strikes after having battled HMS Canada and HMS Alcide.

Ardent soon follows, being taken by the rest of the British center.

At 4 pm, de Grasse with Ville de Paris, alone and being battered by Barfleur, with little support and suffering huge losses in men, makes another attempt to signal the fleet and gives the order "to build the line on the starboard tack", but again this is not done.

By this time, most of the French fleet, apart from those ships which are surrounded, has retreated;
Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who commands Auguste, succeeds in rallying eight ships of his own division.

Finally, the isolated Ville de Paris, being overwhelmed and suffering horrific losses, eventually strikes her colors.

Hood takes the surrender; the boarding crew, which includes the British fleet surgeon Gilbert Blane, are horrified at the carnage; remarkably, de Grasse appears not to have a scratch on him, while every one of his officers have either been killed or wounded.

Rodney boards soon after, and Hood presents de Grasse to him.

With his surrender, the battle has effectively ended, except for a few long range desultory shots and the retreat of many of the French ships in disorder.

With a fire out of control, the magazine aboard the César explodes, killing over four hundred French and fifty British sailors, despite many of them jumping overboard.

The Comte de Vaudreuil in Sceptre, learning of de Grasse's fate, assumes command of the scattered French naval fleet.

On April 13, he has ten ships with him and sails towards Cap-Français.

The British have lost two hundred and forty-three killed and eioght hundred and sixtee wounded, and two captains out of thirty-six have been killed.

The French loss in killed and wounded has never been stated, but six captains out of thirty have been killed.

It is estimated that the French may have lost as much as three thousand, and more than five thousand French soldiers and sailors have been captured.

The large number shows what a considerable force the French were willing to put ashore with the invasion of Jamaica.

Of the Ville de Paris' crew, over four hundred have ben killed and more than seven hundred have been wounded—more than the casualties of the entire British fleet.

The island of Dominica, as part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War, had become a British possession.

The French had mounted a successful invasion in 1778, during the American War of Independence, with the active cooperation of the population, which was largely French.

The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, had returned the island to Britain.

French invasions in 1795 and 1805 end in failure.

The 1805 invasion burns much of Roseau to the ground.