5 September 1781
Yorktown: the battle off the Capes
De Grasse reaches the Chesapeake on 30 August with 28 ships of the line and lands 3,200 troops. On 5 September Thomas Graves arrives from New York with 19 ships of the line. At 11:30 the French cut their anchor cables and sail out of the bay with the tide, forming a line in order of speed as they clear Cape Henry. Some ships are short by as many as 200 men.
A Representation of the Sea Fight on the 5th of September 1781 between Rear Admiral Graves and the Count de Grasse, engraving in the Political Magazine, London, 1782Wikimedia Commons, William Graves, Public domain (Virgrinia Capes 1781.jpg)
Around 2 pm Graves has his fleet wear to come onto the same course as the French. This puts Francis Samuel Drake’s squadron in the van and Samuel Hood’s in the rear. Both fleets sail east with the wind from the north-north-east, the lines converging at an angle, so only the leading ships come within range.
At about 4 pm the British open fire. The vans and centres fight until sunset, and Hood reports that three of his ships fired a few shots. Five British ships are leaking or crippled, and Terrible is later scuttled. The fleets drift east for several days, and then Graves turns back for New York and leaves the bay to the French.
Sources
- John Grainger, The Battle of Yorktown, 1781: A Reassessment (2005).
- Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 (1890).
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