Naval battle in the Bay of Quiberon

Battle of Quiberon Bay

Part of: Seven Years War

Painting of the Battle of Quiberon Bay by Nicholas Pocock , 1812. National Maritime Museum

date	November 20, 1759
place	Quiberon Bay, Biscay
output	Decisive British victory

Parties to the conflict
Great Britain	France
Commander
Edward Hawke	Hubert de Brienne
Troop strength
23 ships	21 ships
losses
2 ships of the line run aground	6 ships of the line, 1 ship of the line captured by the enemy

The sea ​​battle at Quiberon Bay ( Bataille des Cardinaux ) was a sea battle in the Seven Years War . It took place on November 20, 1759 in the Bay of Quiberon off the coast of France near St. Nazaire . 23 ships of the line under the British Admiral Sir Edward Hawke met 21 French ships of the line under Hubert de Brienne .

prehistory

In 1759 France had drafted plans to invade England and Scotland, and had transport ships and troops concentrated at the Loire estuary . The defeat of the Mediterranean fleet in the naval battle of Lagos in August 1759 had thwarted these plans. Choiseul thought an invasion of Scotland was still possible and therefore the fleet was ordered to break the British blockade of Brest and to go to the transport ships that had been pulled together in the Gulf of Morbihan .

During the first week of November strong westerly winds arose which forced the Hawkes blockade ships to go to Torbay on the south coast of England after three days . Commodore Robert Duff stayed in Quiberon Bay with five ships of the line, each with 50 cannons and nine frigates, to watch the transport ships. In the meantime Brienne had joined a small squadron in Brest, which came from the West Indies . When an easterly wind came up on November 14th, Brienne was able to break the blockade. He was spotted by HMS Actaeon , which stayed off Brest despite the storm but could not find Hawke, by HMS Juno and HMS Swallow , which tried to warn Duff but were chased away by the French, and by the merchant ship Love and Unity , which came from Quiberon and sighted the French fleet 70 nautical miles west of Belle Isle on November 15 at 2:00 p.m. She met Hawke the next day and Hawke sailed to Quiberon under strong winds from SSE . In the meantime, the HMS Vengeance had reached the bay the night before to warn Duff, who had brought his squadron out to sea under a strong wind from the WNW.

The battle

After being held up by unfavorable winds, Brienne reduced speed on the night of November 19 to arrive in Quiberon at dawn. Twenty miles from Belle Isle, he spotted seven ships from Duff's squadron. When he realized he was not dealing with the main British fleet, he began the chase. Duff split his squadron in two, dodging north and south, followed by the French vanguard and center, while the French rearguard turned to windward to look for suspicious sails that had surfaced to the west. The French broke off the chase but were still dispersed when Hawke's fleet came into view. The HMS Magnanime sighted the French at 8:30 a.m. and Hawke gave the signal to form a Dwars line .

Brienne faced a choice between fighting in his present disadvantageous position or taking a defensive position in Quiberon Bay and forcing Hawke to follow him into the maze of shoals and reefs. At around 9:00 a.m., Hawke gave the signal for a general attack along with the signal to the seven leading ships to take a keel line and to set all sails despite the weather. At 2:30 p.m. Brienne circled Les Cardinaux, the rocks at the end of the Quiberon Peninsula , which gave the battle its French name. It was at this point that the first shots were fired, although Sir John Bentley claimed on the Warspite that they were fired without his order. The British began to overtake the end of the French fleet as the tip and center reached the safe bay. Shortly before 4:00 p.m., the heavily damaged formidable of the HMS Resolution surrendered , just as Hawke circled the Cardinals. Meanwhile, the Thésée lost the fight with the HMS Torbay and sank, the Superbe capsized , and the badly damaged Héros struck her flag before she ran aground during the night.

Meanwhile the wind turned northwest, further disrupting Brienne's half-formed line. Brienne tried unsuccessfully to clear the mess and finally decided to head out to sea again. His flagship , the Soleil Royal , was headed for the entrance to the bay when Hawke entered the Royal George . Hawke saw an opportunity to bombard the Soleil Royal , but the Intrépide drew fire on itself. Meanwhile, the Soleil Royal had dropped to leeward and was separated from the rest of the fleet. At 5:00 p.m., after dark, Hawke gave the signal to anchor.

British and French fleet movements

During the night, eight French ships managed to navigate the shallows out to sea and escape to Rochefort . Seven ships and the frigates were in the mouth of the Vilaine , but Hawke did not dare attack them during the stormy weather there. The French threw their cannons and equipment overboard and used the rising tide to cross the sandbar at the mouth of the Vilaine. Four ships of the line were lost. The badly damaged Juste was lost with the entire crew on the way to the Loire. The HMS Resolution ran aground during the night.

The Soleil Royal tried to escape to the safety of the Croisic batteries, the HMS Essex pursued them. Both ships were shipwrecked alongside the Heros . On November 22nd, the strong winds subsided and three of Duff's ships were dispatched to destroy the runaways. Brienne set the Soleil Royal on fire while the British burned the Heros . Hawke tried unsuccessfully to attack the ships in Vilaine with fire .

Aftermath

The French fleet was defeated and could not recover from it until the end of the war.

“The battle of 20 November 1759 was the Trafalgar of this war, and […] the English fleets were now free to act against the colonies of France, and later of Spain, on a grander scale than ever before”

"The battle of November 20, 1759 was the Trafalgar of that war, the British fleet was now able to operate against the colonies of France and later Spain on a larger scale than ever before."

- Alfred Thayer Mahan : The Influence of Sea Power upon History

The French could not take advantage of the victory in the Battle of Sainte-Foy in 1760 because reinforcements and supplies could not be delivered from France. The Battle of Quiberon Bay can be seen as the battle that decided the fate of New France, and therefore Canada .

A credit crunch erupted in France when it became clear the British were free to crack down on French maritime trade.

Battle formation

Battle of Quiberon Bay: the Day After
(Richard Wright 1760)

France

Surname	Cannons	commander	crew	Remarks
First group
Soleil Royal	80	Capt. B. de Chasac	950	Flagship of the Marquis de Brienne - run aground and burned
Orient	80	Capt. N. de la Filière	750	Flagship of Chevalier de Guébridant Budes - escaped to Rochefort
Glorieux	74	Villars de la Brosse	650	escape to the Vilaine
Robust	74	Fragnier de Vienne	650	escape to the Vilaine
Dauphin Royal	70	Chevalier d'Uturbie Fragosse	630	escape to Rochefort
Dragon	64	Vassor de la Touche	450	escape to the Vilaine
Solitaire	64	Viscount de Langle	450	escape to Rochefort
Second group
Tonnant	80	Capt. St Victoret	800	Flagship of Chevalier de Beauffremont - Escape to Rochefort
Intrépide	74	Chastologist	650	escape to Rochefort
Thésée	74	Kersaint de Coetnempren	650	sunk
Northumberland	70	Belingant de Kerbabut	630	escape to Rochefort
Superbe	70	Montalais	630	Sunk by the Royal George
Eveillé	64	Prévalais de la Roche	450	escape to the Vilaine
brilliant	64	Keremar Boischateau	450	escape to the Vilaine
Third group
Formidable	80	Capt. St André	800	Flagship of De Saint André du Vergé - captured by the Resolution
Magnifique	74	Bigot de Morogues	650	escape to Rochefort
Hero	74	Viscount de Sanzay	650	surrendered, ran aground the next day, burned
Juste	70	François de Saint Allouarn	630	Shipwreck in the Loire
Inflexible	64	Tancrede	540	lost at the mouth of the Vilaine
sphinx	64	Goyon	450
Bizarre	64	Prince de Montbazon	450	escape to Rochefort
Frigates and corvettes
Hébé	40		300	returned to Brest
Vestals			254	escape to the Vilaine
Aigrette				escape to the Vilaine
Calypso				escape to the Vilaine
Prince Noir / Noire				escape to the Vilaine
Other
Vengeance

Great Britain

Surname	Cannons	commander	crew	Remarks
Royal George	100	Captain Campbell	880	Flagship of Sir Edward Hawke
union	90	Captain J. Evans	770	Flagship of Sir Charles Hardy
Duke	80	Capt. Samuel Graves	800
Namur	90	Matthew Buckle	780
resolution	74	Henry Speke	600	Shipwreck on the coast of Le Four
Hero	74	George Edgcumbe	600
Warspite	74	Sir John Bentley	600
Hercules	74	W. Fortescue	600
Torbay	70	Augustus Keppel	520
Magnanime	70	Richard Howe, 1st Viscount Howe	520
Mars	70	Commodore James Young	520
Swiftsure	70	Sir Thomas Stanhope	520
Dorsetshire	70	Peter Denis	520
Burford	70	G. Gambier	520
Chichester	70	WS Willet	520
Temple	70	Hon. W. Shirley	520
Essex	64	Lucius O'Brien	480	Shipwreck on the coast of Le Four
Revenge	64	J. Storr	480
Montague	60	Joshua Rowley	400
Kingston	60	Thomas Shirley	400
Intrepid	60	J. Maplesden	400
Dunkirk	60	R. Digby	420
Defiance	60	P. Baird	420
Chatham	50	J. Lockhart	350
Minerva	32	Alexander Hood	220
Venus	36	T. Harrison	240
Vengeance	28	F. Burslem	200
Coventry	28	D. Digges	200
Sapphire	32	John Strachan	220

literature

• John Charnock: Biographia Navalis. Vols. 5 & ​​6, London 1798.
• WL Clowes (Ed.): The Royal Navy; A History, from the Earliest Times to the Present. Volume III, London 1898.
• EH Jenkins: A History of the French Navy. London 1973.
• RF Mackay: Admiral Hawke. Oxford 1965.
• G. Marcus: Quiberon Bay; The Campaign in Home Waters, 1759. London 1960.
• Brian Tunstall, Nicholas Tracy (Eds.): Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail. The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650-1815. London 1990.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Julian Stafford Corbet: England In The Seven Years War. Volume II, p. 50.
2. ↑ Corbett pp. 52-53.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Corbett p. 59.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Corbett p. 60.
5. ↑ Corbett p. 61.
6. ↑ Corbett pp. 63-64.
7. ↑ Corbett, p. 65.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Corbett p. 66.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Corbett p. 67.
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Corbett p. 68.
11. ↑ Corbett, p. 72.

Web links

• Royal Navy page on the battle