The Battle of the Windward Passage was a small naval action between French and British fleets that occurred on 17 to 19 October 1760 during the

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. The action took place in the

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between Cap-François and Eastern

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and resulted in a British victory.Marely, p. 288. At dawn on 17 October 1760, Admiral Charles Holmes in the 50-gun ''Hampshire'', Captain Coningsby Norbury, took , Samuel Uvedale, and the 20-gun ,

Frederick Lewis Maitland Rear-Admiral Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland (7 September 177730 November 1839) was an officer in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He rose to the rank of rear admiral and held a number of commands. The most f ...

, to intercept a French convoy they had sighted in the

Windward Passage The Windward Passage (french: Passage au Vent; es, Paso de los Vientos) is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The strait specifically lies between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti. ...

. The convoy was escorted by the 32-frigates ''Sirène'', ''Duc de Choiseul'', ''Prince Edward'', and ''Fleur de Lys'', and the 20-gun corvette ''Valeur''. The British gave chase but light winds slowed hampered them so it was evening before the lead ship ''Boreas'' could engage ''Sirène''. French fire disabled ''Boreas'' aloft with the result that ''Boreas'' could not engage ''Sirène'' again until the following afternoon. ''Boreas'' emerged victorious from the engagement, capturing ''Sirène'', which suffered about 80 men killed and wounded, most of whom died later; ''Boreas'' lost only one man killed and one wounded. The next day ''Lively'', using her

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, caught up at daybreak with the rearmost French vessel, ''Valeur''. She had a crew of 160 men under the command of a Captain Talbot. ''Lively'' overhauled her off the eastern tip of Cuba and pounded her into submission after an engagement of 90 minutes. ''Lively'' had two men killed but no wounded; ''Valeur'' had 38 killed and 25 wounded, including her captain, master, and boatswain. At the same time ''Hampshire'', off the coast of Sainte Domingue, chased the frigate ''Prince Edward'' on shore where the 180 crewmen under the command of Captain Dubois set fire to her, causing her to blow up. ''Duc de Choiseul'', with 180 men under the command of Captain Bellevan, escaped into

Port-de-Paix Port-de-Paix (; ht, Pòdepè or ; meaning "Port of Peace") is a List of communes of Haiti, commune and the capital of the Nord-Ouest (department), Nord-Ouest Departments of Haiti, department of Haiti on the Atlantic coast. It has a population of ...

. ''Fleur de Lys'', with 190 crewmen under the command of Captain Diguarty, was found in an unprotected bay to leeward on 19 October; her crew scuttled her to prevent capture by ''Hampshire''. The British also captured three merchant frigates – two carried cargoes of sugar and

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and had only been a day out of Cap-François. , ''Boreas'', , and , shared by agreement in the prize money for ''Sirene'', ''Valeur'', the merchant ships ''Maria'', ''Elizabeth'', and ''Pursue''.

References

;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Windward Passage, Battle Of Conflicts in 1760 1760 in Haiti 1760 in the Caribbean 1760 in Cuba Naval battles of the Seven Years' War Naval battles involving France Naval battles involving Great Britain History of Haiti French colonization of the Americas

See also

References