Action of 13 May 1779

Action of 13 May 1779
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Action off the Coast of France, by Thomas Luny
Date 13 May 1779 Location Cancale Bay, France Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	France
Commanders and leaders
Sir James Wallace	Unknown commodore[a]
Strength
3 frigates 1 sloop 1 brig	4 frigates 2 sloops 1 brig 1 cutter 1 shore battery
Casualties and losses
2 killed 15 wounded	1 frigate captured 2 merchantmen captured 2 frigates destroyed 1 brig destroyed 1 sloop destroyed 1 cutter scuttled 1 shore battery destroyed

The action of 13 May 1779 was a battle in Cancale Bay, near St Malo, between a French and a British squadron of frigates. The French force of three frigates, two sloops, a brig, and a cutter had been part of the escort meant for Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen's invasion of Jersey. When that invasion failed on 1 May the French retreated to Coutances. The British brought together a large squadron of frigates under Captain Sir James Wallace and Captain John Gidoin, which then split in two to attack the French squadron against the coast in a pincer manoeuvre.

On 13 May Gidoin's squadron chased the French from Coutances up the coast to St Malo where Wallace's squadron awaited them. Wallace followed the French into Cancale Bay and attacked them; in response the French beached their ships and went ashore after having been cannonaded for an hour and a half. Wallace captured the frigate Danae and two merchant vessels, but was forced to burn the other frigates, sloops, brig, and cutter because of gunfire from gun batteries on shore. Wallace's squadron suffered minimal casualties in the highly effective action that forced the French to abandon further attack on Jersey. Danae would go on to be bought into the Royal Navy; the sloop Guepe was the only French vessel the French were able to recover.

Background[]

On 1 May 1779 a French invasion force led by Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen attacked Jersey, intending to capture the island through a coup de main. The invasion force was made up of five ships of the line and a number of smaller vessels, together carrying 2,500 soldiers.^[b][2][3] The force attempted to land at Saint Ouen Bay, but a combined force of local militia and the 78th Regiment of Foot, which was garrisoned on the island, repulsed the attack. Unable to proceed with their landings, Nassau-Siegen's force put to sea again.^[4] When the threat from the French force had been at its highest, the island's governor had sent a flyboat to Portsmouth to raise the alarm.^[5] While on her way there the boat encountered the squadron of Rear-Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot at 10 a.m. on 2 May that was escorting a large convoy to North America. Arbuthnot took his force to the Channel Islands and arrived at Guernsey on 4 May to find that the invasion force had departed.^[4][1]

While Arbuthnot sailed to relieve the islands, the messenger that had reached him continued on to Portsmouth. Admiral Sir Thomas Pye, the commander-in-chief there, ordered a group of frigates under the command of Captain John Gidoin of HMS Richmond to sail out to Jersey.^[4] Arbuthnot left Jersey to continue to North America on 6 May, but had left behind the frigate HMS Experiment under Captain Sir James Wallace to temporarily bolster naval forces in the area.^[4][3] Gidoin's force joined with Wallace at Boule Bay.^[4]

Action in Cancale Bay[]

On 10 May the bailiff of Jersey sent a letter to Gidoin, who was the senior captain still on station, to report that a group of French ships that had been tasked with assisting the invasion, had been seen near the Chausey islands, situated between the French coast and the Channel Islands.^[6][7][5] Wallace, who had been preparing to leave the area and re-join Arbuthnot, instead chose to stay with Gidoin. Some small ships were sent out to Chausey to discover the nature of the French ships, and they soon reported that the French force consisted of the frigates Danae, , and Recluse, the gabarre Ecluse, the sloop Valeur, and the cutter Guepe, and that they were anchored off Coutances.^[6][1][8]

Gidoin and Wallace decided to split their force to provide the greatest possible chance of intercepting the French ships before they could escape. Wallace, in Experiment, took with him the frigates HMS Pallas and , the brig HMS Cabot, the sloop HMS Fortune, and one other vessel donated by the locals to assist in the hunt. Gidoin, in Richmond, took with him the four other ships of the squadron and three more local armed vessels.^[9][1] The two forces sailed on 12 May; Gidoin went directly for Coutances where the French were still at anchor, while Wallace took a westerly route around Jersey in order to cut off any escape route the enemy might have used.^[10][11]

When Gidoin's force came in sight of the French, the French set sail north towards St Malo – unbeknownst to them, this was towards where Wallace was waiting for them. Gidoin chased the French but by 10 p.m. the tide was against him and his ships were making very little headway so he was forced to anchor off Granville. At the same time Wallace's force were beset by similar difficulties but by 7 p.m. had succeeded in getting round Jersey.^[10]

A model of the lead British ship in the attack, Experiment

At 3 a.m. on 13 May Gidoin set sail once more and at a slow pace struggled in the direction the French had been sailing; at 10 a.m. he discovered Wallace's squadron ahead of him, chasing the French who had anchored in Cancale Bay. Gidoin was not able to make up the distance to Wallace and the French force, and would play no further role in the subsequent action.

In the early morning daylight of 13 May Wallace, still sailing for the French, found another French frigate sailing from St Malo to assist her brethren in Cancale Bay. Wallace chased this new opponent under the guns of the batteries of St Malo, where she stayed for her own projection. Unable to continue his assault on the frigate, Wallace redirected his force towards the original group of French ships, which were off to his left, just outside the bay itself.^[10]

The French sailed into the bay in an attempt to escape the attack but Wallace, leading the chase in Experiment, followed them in.^[10][3] On seeing this, the French ran all their ships ashore in an attempt to save them from destruction. The rest of Wallace's squadron having caught up with him, then opened fire on the beached vessels that lasted for an hour and a half, forcing the French crews to leave their ships where they lay and to escape to safety further inland. While the French squadron now lay at Wallace's mercy, his attack had caused the local French militia to mobilise. The militia brought a number of cannon and howitzers to the bay and began to fire at the British ships.^[7] Being now in the dangerous position of being fired on in an enclosed bay, Wallace was not able to bring all the French vessels off the shore as prizes as had been hoped.^[7][11] Instead he ordered that two of the three frigates be burned where they lay, and for the cutter Dieppe, also in the bay to be scuttled.^[c][7][8] The third frigate, Danae, was however successfully brought off and captured alongside two merchantmen, a brig and the sloop Fleur.^[7][13] Valeur, Ecluse, and Guepe were among the ships set on fire.^[1]

While Wallace's orders were being enacted on the stranded French warships, a battery of six 12-pounders had been erected and manned by the crews of the deserted ships. The battery began a concerted fire on Experiment that so frustrated Wallace that after Danae had been secured, he took control of the frigate from her pilots. He sailed her up the bay to lay up against the battery, which after forty-five minutes he destroyed and forced the crews to leave.^[d] The British then sailed from the bay with their prizes, which were sent to England.^[7][3][12]

Aftermath[]

Danae had ten men killed and 20 wounded before de Kergariou ran her aground and abandoned her. He was able to extricate his crew, except for the sick and wounded, whom he left on board the frigate.

For the British, casualties and losses in the action were minor. Experiment had been heavily damaged in the hull and sails by the batteries engaging her, and lost two men killed and thirteen wounded. Apart from this the only casualties came from Cabot, which had suffered three men wounded, including her purser who had his leg shot off. In return for these casualties the Royal Navy received a new frigate, as Danae was bought into the service under the same name. In reward for the success of the endeavour Commander Charles Powell Hamilton of Fortune and Commander Edmund Dod of Cabot were promoted to post-captain, and Lieutenant John Wallace of Experiment was promoted to commander.^[7] Experiment would go on to re-join Arbuthnot's force, which was still at Torbay, and sail to New York.^[3]

The French naval officer and historian Onésime-Joachim Troude derided the cowardice of the French crews that led them to abandon their ships. While most of the vessels burned by the British were unsalvageable, the French did succeed in rescuing Guepe after Wallace had left the bay.^[1] The destruction of the ships forced the French to temporarily abandon their plans to capture Jersey for user as a privateering and observation base, as they no longer had enough escorts available to protect an invasion force.^[5]

Order of Battle[]

Notes and citations[]

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