Battle of San Domingo
February 6, 1806 marks the Battle of San Domingo in the 3rd Coalition War when the 7 lineships, 2 frigates and 2 British brigades of Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Duckworth defeated the 5 lineships, 2 Frigates and 1 French Corvette of Vice Admirals Corentin-Urbain Leissègues. This victory is celebrated all over Britain.
Following Trafalgar’s big victory, the Royal Navy stops blocking French Atlantic ports. Let the armchairs go away. His orders are to attack British merchant ships and avoid battle. He disappeared into the Atlantic. Duckworth has been assigned to watch Cadiz. He’s leaving his post in November to hunt down the squadron of Admiral Zachary German near the Savage Islands. German is getting away with it. Duckworth then meets with the squad of Rear Admiral Jean-Baptiste Willaumez. Willaumez also escaped. Meanwhile, Duckworth’s absence has been discovered. He sailed to Barbados to refuel before heading back to Cadix.
He reached Barbados on January 12. 2 lineships from another squadron join him. Leissègues is in San Domingo. February 1st, Duckworth will learn. On route to San Domingo He arrived on February 6 at 06:00. Armchairs and numerous officers and men are down. Some of his ships became damaged by a storm. He had hoped to make repairs. When he learned of Duckworth, he ordered his men to get back on board. Some men didn’t get back to their boats until after the fighting had begun. He has formed a battle line. The 80 cannons Alexandre was leading her. His flagship, the 120-gun Imperial, came next. Then came the 74 Diomedes, Jupiter, and Brave.
At 8am Duckworth has 3 lines formed.
He leads Line 1 – 74 HMS Superb (his), Northumberland, Spencer and 64 Agamemnon cannons. Rear Admiral Thomas Louis leads Line 2 – HMS Canopus (his) 80-gun and 74-gun Atlas and Donegal. Frigates form line 3. Duckworth had planned to engage the Leissègues front. During the 2 hour chase, his columns start dislocating. At 10:10, Superb fires Alexandre. Northumberland have signed the imperial. Spencer is helping him out. He also hired Diomedes. At 10:25, Alexander took left. He was hoping to run between Spencer and Northumberland and rattle them. Spencer fired in front of Alexandre, crawled over him, approached his opposite side and shot him at close range. Thick smoke hid this maneuver from other British ships. Superb and Northumberland shot at Spencer before they realised their mistake.
Vice-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissègues
The imperial engaged superb. To save him, Northumberland are stepping in. He has sustained some serious damage. Some of the shots from the Imperial ran through it to get to Superb. Louis comes in at 10:35am Three of his ships raided Alexander as they passed, dismantling and paralyzing him. A fire broke out He turned up at 11:10 Donegal crawled over the Brave, then rowed alongside him and shot him. The Brave One has returned.
Donegal spied on Jupiter, trapping it. He also turned himself in Duckworth ships now engaged Imperial and Diomede Atlas and Canopus have collided Atlas is losing his mast Isolated and demathered, the Imperial disengages at 11:30am. Passing out at 11:40 am Diomede failed shortly after. Both ships lost all of their poles and sustained serious damage. Most of the crew has fled to the coast. Duckworth tackled the shipwrecked He took 156 captive. He burned both the ships Leissègues’ smallest ships are escaping.
Duckworth lost 74 killed and 264 injured. Northumberland has lost its big mast and has been heavily damaged. Donegal have lost their upper hand. The beauper of Atlas has disappeared. His pole became damaged; Spencer’s hull had over 60 bullet holes. Canopus has some slight damage Leissègues lost 1,500 dead/wounded, 1,156 captives, 2 lines ships destroyed and 3 captured. If the battle went badly; Duckworth would have probably been court-martialed for abandoning his post. But in fact, he and his victory were celebrated all over Britain. From its catches, only Jupiter was able to navigate. Lastly, he was commissioned again as “HMS Maida”.
The picture is: “Duckworth action off San Domingo, February 6, 1806”- Nicholas Pocock, 1808
Battle of San Domingo
