Part III - The Leeward Islands, March 1780–August 1780

Summary

The Caribbean in the Age of Fighting Sail was considered to be one of the great treasure troves of the world and the West Indian islands were for nearly two hundred years objects of almost continuous European maritime rivalry. Great fleets and thousands of soldiers in the course of the 18th century would battle for control of the West Indian islands. When Rodney arrived in the Lesser Antilles in 1780 fighting between Britain and France for control of the Sugar Islands had been raging for two years. Major naval and military operations in the West Indies during the American War had begun with the capture of the island of St. Lucia by a British expeditionary force from New York. The island of St. Lucia in the Leeward Islands had been seized by the British at the beginning of the conflict with France in order to serve as a base from which to checkmate enemy naval forces based on the adjacent French island of Martinique. St. Lucia was to serve as the main base for the ships of Rodney's squadron during the campaign in the Lesser Antilles which would culminate in the Battle of the Saints.

On 17 March 1780, after a speedy passage from Gibraltar, Rodney ar- rived at Carlisle Bay on the island of Barbados. Several days later, discovering that the Leeward Islands squadron was at St. Lucia, Rodney sailed from Carlisle Bay and arrived on 8 March at the British anchorage in Gros Islet Bay on the west side of St. Lucia. Five days before Rodney's arrival at St. Lucia powerful French reinforcements from Europe, under the command of Lieutenant General Luc-Urban Du Bouexic, Comte de Guichen, had already arrived at Martinique. The next day a French fleet of ‘thirty two sail’ appeared off British-held St. Lucia. The French ships paraded off St. Lucia until the morning of 7 March when they returned to Martinique. Soon after his arrival at St. Lucia Rodney concluded that an opportunity to defeat the French in detail had been missed. The admiral believed that, if information on the location and strength of the British squadron in the Leeward Islands as well as the latest intelligence of the expected movements of the French forces had been awaiting him at Bar- bados, he might have been able to prevent the junction of the French ships at Martinique with those arriving from Europe.