France needed to keep shipping lanes open in order to maintain her overseas empire. To this end she assembled merchantmen into convoys protected by warships. Anson on Prince George and Rear-Admiral Sir Peter Warren on Devonshire had sailed from Plymouth on 9 April to intercept French shipping. When a large convoy was sighted, Anson made the signal to form line of battle. Rear-Admiral Warren, suspecting the enemy to be manoeuvring to promote the escape of the convoy, bore down and communicated his opinion to the admiral; the latter threw out a signal for a general chase.
Battle
Centurion under a press of sail, was the first to come up to the rearmost French ship, which she attacked severely, and two other ships dropped astern to her support. The action became general when three more British ships, including Devonshire, came up. The French, though much inferior in numbers, fought till seven in the evening, when all but two of their ships were taken, as well as nine East India merchantmen. The French lost 700 men killed and wounded, and the British 520. Over £300,000 was found on board the ships of war, which were turned into British ships.
François de Grasse, later the famous Comte, was wounded in this first battle. He was taken prisoner among the crew and officers on La Gloire, which was captured.
Panoramic sketch of the battle
Aftermath
Following his victory, Anson was raised to the peerage. The French assembled another, much bigger, convoy which set sail in October. After Edward Hawke's defeat of this fleet in the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre, the French naval operations were ended for the rest of the war.
According to American historian William Williamson's 1832 account, the battle was a
"most severe blow to the French interests in America. Besides immense property taken, there were found on board … numerous articles designed for the Acadians and Indians".[4]
Chevalier de Saint-George of Invincible surrenders his sword to Admiral Anson after the battle
"...the standard of France was white, sprinkled with golden fleur de lis..." (Ripley & Dana 1879, p. 250).
On the reverse of this plate it says: "Le pavillon royal était véritablement le drapeau national au dix-huitième siecle...Vue du chateau d'arrière d'un vaisseau de guerre de haut rang portant le pavillon royal (blanc, avec les armes de France)" (Vinkhuijzen collection 2011).
"The oriflamme and the Chape de St Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III., the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white standard powdered with fleurs-de-lis. This in turn gave place to the famous tricolour"(Chisholm 1911, p. 460).
^ abClowes, William Laird (1898). The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present. Vol. 3. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company. p. 125.
