| Glorious First of June | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAtlantic campaign of May 1794 | |||||||
 Lord Howe's Action, or the Glorious First of June Philip James de Loutherbourg, 1795 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Great Britain | France | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Richard Howe | Villaret de Joyeuse | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 25 ships of the line 7 frigates 2 fireships 2 cutters 1 sloop (OOB) | 26 ships of the line 5 frigates 2 corvettes (OOB) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1,200 killed or wounded | 4,000 killed or wounded 3,000 captured 6 ships of the line captured 1 ship of the line sunk | ||||||
 | |||||||
TheGlorious First of June, also known as theFourth Battle of Ushant, (known in France as theBataille du 13 prairial an 2 orCombat de Prairial)[b] was fought on 1 June 1794 between theBritish andFrench navies during theWar of the First Coalition. It was the first and largestfleet action of theFrench Revolutionary Wars.
The action was the culmination of theAtlantic campaign of May 1794, which had criss-crossed theBay of Biscay over the previous month and saw both sides capturing numerous merchant ships and small warships along with engaging in two partial, but inconclusive, fleet actions. The BritishChannel Squadron under AdmiralLord Howe attempted to prevent the passage of a vital Frenchgrainconvoy from theUnited States, which was protected by the FrenchAtlantic Squadron, commanded byCounter-admiralLouis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse. The two forces clashed in the Atlantic Ocean, some 400 nautical miles (700 km) west of the French island ofUshant on 1 June 1794.
During the battle, Howe defied naval convention by ordering his fleet to turn towards the French and for each of his vessels torake and engage their immediate opponent. This unexpected order was not understood by all of his captains, and as a result, his attack was more piecemeal than he intended. Nevertheless, his ships inflicted a severe tactical defeat on the French fleet. In the aftermath of the battle both fleets were left shattered; in no condition for further combat, Howe and Villaret returned to their home ports. Despite losing seven of hisships of the line, Villaret had bought enough time for the French grain convoy to reach safety unimpeded by Howe's fleet, securing a strategic success. However, he was also forced to withdraw his battle fleet back to port, leaving the British free to conduct a campaign ofblockade for the remainder of the war. In the immediate aftermath, both sides claimed victory and the outcome of the battle was seized upon by the press of both nations as a demonstration of the prowess and bravery of their respective navies.
The battle demonstrated a number of the major problems inherent in the French and British navies at the start of the French Revolutionary Wars. Both admirals were faced with disobedience from their captains, along with ill-discipline and poor training among their shorthanded crews, and they failed to control their fleets effectively during the height of the combat.
Since early 1792 France had been at war with four of its neighbours on two fronts, battling theHabsburg monarchy andPrussia in theAustrian Netherlands, and the Austrians andPiedmontese in Italy. On 2 January 1793, almost one year into theFrench Revolutionary War, republican-held forts atBrest in Brittanyfired on the BritishbrigHMS Childers.[c][2] A few weeks later, following theexecution of the imprisoned KingLouis XVI,[3] diplomatic ties between Britain and France were broken. On 1 February, France declared war on both Britain and theDutch Republic.[4]
Protected from immediate invasion by theEnglish Channel, Britain prepared for an extensive naval campaign and dispatched troops to the Netherlands for service against the French.[5] Throughout the remainder of 1793, the British and French navies undertook minor operations in Northern waters, theMediterranean and theWest andEast Indies, where both nations maintainedcolonies. The closest the BritishChannel Squadron had come to an engagement was when it had narrowly missed intercepting the French convoy from the Caribbean, escorted by 15 ships of the line on 2 August.[6] The only major clash was theSiege of Toulon, a confused and bloody affair in which the British force holding the town—alongsideSpanish,Sardinian, Austrian andFrench Royalist troops—had to be evacuated by theRoyal Navy to prevent its imminent defeat at the hands of theFrench Revolutionary Army.[7] The aftermath of this siege was punctuated by recriminations and accusations of cowardice and betrayal among the allies, eventually resulting in Spain switching allegiance with the signing of theTreaty of San Ildefonso two years later.[8] Nevertheless, the siege produced one major success: SirSidney Smith, with parties of sailors from the retreating British fleet, accomplished the destruction of substantial French naval stores and shipping inToulon.[4] More might have been achieved had the Spanish raiding parties that accompanied Smith not been issued with secret orders to stall the destruction of the French fleet.[9]
The situation in Europe remained volatile into 1794. Off northern France, the FrenchAtlantic Squadron had mutinied due to errors in provisions and pay. In consequence, the French Navy officer corps suffered greatly from the effects of theReign of Terror, with many experienced sailors being executed, imprisoned or dismissed from the service for perceived disloyalty.[10] The shortage of provisions was more than a navy problem though; France itself was starving because the social upheavals of the previous year had combined with a harsh winter to ruin the harvest.[11] By this time at war with all her neighbours, France had nowhere to turn for overland imports of fresh provisions. Eventually a solution to the food crisis was agreed by theNational Convention: food produced in France's overseas colonies would be concentrated on board a fleet of merchant ships gathered inChesapeake Bay, and augmented with food and goods purchased from the United States.[12] During April and May 1794, the merchantmen would convoy the supplies across the Atlantic to Brest, protected by elements of the Atlantic Squadron.[13]
The navies of Britain and France in 1794 were at very different stages of development. Although the British fleet was numerically superior, the French ships were larger (even if more lightly built), and carried a heavier weight of shot.[14] The largest French ships were three-deckerfirst rates, carrying 110 or 120 guns, against 100 guns on the largest British vessels.[15]
Since theNootka Crisis of 1790, the Royal Navy had been at sea in a state of readiness for over three years.[16] The Navy's dockyards underFirst Lord of the AdmiraltyCharles Middleton were all fully fitted and prepared for conflict. This was quite unlike the disasters of theAmerican Revolutionary War ten years earlier, when an ill-prepared Royal Navy had taken too long to reach full effectiveness and was consequently unable to support the North American campaign, which ended in defeat at theSiege of Yorktown due to lack of supplies.[17] With British dockyards now readily turning out cannon, shot, sails, provisions and other essential equipment, the only remaining problem was that of manning the several hundred ships on the Navy list.[18]
Unfortunately for the British, gathering sufficient manpower was difficult and never satisfactorily accomplished throughout the entire war. The shortage of seamen was such thatpress gangs were forced to take thousands of men with no experience on the sea, meaning that training and preparing them for naval life would take quite some time.[18] The lack ofRoyal Marines was even more urgent, and soldiers from theBritish Army were drafted into the fleet for service at sea. Men of the2nd. Regiment of Foot – The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) and the29th Regiment of Foot served aboard Royal Navy ships during the campaign; their descendant regiments still maintain thebattle honour "1 June 1794".[19][20]
Despite these difficulties, the Channel Squadron was possessed of one of the best naval commanders of the age; its commander-in-chief,Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, had learned his trade underEdward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke and fought at theBattle of Quiberon Bay in 1759.[21] In the spring of 1794, with the French convoy's arrival in European waters imminent, Howe had dispersed his fleet in three groups.George Montagu, inHMS Hector, was sent with six ships of the line and twofrigates to guard British convoys to the East Indies, West Indies andNewfoundland as far asCape Finisterre.Peter Rainier, inHMS Suffolk and commanding six other ships, was to escort the convoys for the rest of their passage. The third force consisted of 26 ships of the line, with several supporting vessels, under Howe's direct command. They were to patrol the Bay of Biscay for the arriving French.[22]
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In contrast to their British counterparts, theFrench Navy was in a state of confusion. Although the quality of the fleet's ships was high, the fleet hierarchy was riven by the same crises that had torn through France since theRevolution five years earlier.[18] Consequently, the high standard of ships and ordnance was not matched by that of the available crews, which were largely untrained and inexperienced. With the Terror resulting in the death or dismissal of many senior French sailors and officers, political appointees and conscripts—many of whom had never been to sea at all, let alone in a fighting vessel—filled the Atlantic Squadron.[23]
The manpower problem was compounded by the supply crisis which was affecting the entire nation, with the fleet going unpaid and largely unfed for months at times.[24] In August 1793, these problems came to a head in theBrest Fleet, when a lack of provisions resulted in a mutiny among the fleet'snaval ratings. The crews overruled their officers and brought their ships into harbour in search of food, leaving the French coast undefended.[25] TheNational Convention responded by instantly executing a swathe of the fleet's senior officers and non-commissioned officers. Hundreds more officers and sailors were imprisoned, banished or dismissed from the navy. The effect of this purge was devastating, seriously degrading the fighting ability of the fleet by removing at a stroke many of its most capable personnel.[10] In their places were promoted junior officers, merchant captains and even civilians who expressed sufficient revolutionary zeal, although few of them knew how to fight or control a battle fleet at sea.[26][1]
The newly appointed commander of this troubled fleet wasLouis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse; although formerly in a junior position, he was known to possess a high degree of tactical ability, and had served under Vice-AdmiralPierre André de Suffren in the Indian Ocean during the American War of Independence.[14][27] However, Villaret's attempts to mould his new officer corps into an effective fighting unit were hampered by another new appointee, a deputy of the National Convention namedJean-Bon Saint-André. Saint-André's job was to report directly to the National Convention on the revolutionary ardour of both the fleet and its admiral. He frequently intervened in strategic planning and tactical operations. Shortly after his arrival, Saint-André proposed issuing a decree ordering that any officer deemed to have shown insufficient zeal in defending his ship in action should be put to death on his return to France, although this highly controversial legislation does not appear to have ever been acted upon. Although his interference was a source of frustration for Villaret, Saint-André's dispatches to Paris were published regularly inLe Moniteur Universel, and did much to popularise the Navy in France.[28]
The Atlantic Squadron was even more dispersed than the British in the spring of 1794: Counter-AdmiralPierre Jean Van Stabel had been dispatched, with five ships including two of the line, to meet the much-needed French grain convoy off the American eastern seaboard. Counter-AdmiralJoseph-Marie Nielly had sailed fromRochefort with five ships of the line and assorted cruising warships to rendezvous with the convoy in the mid-Atlantic. This left Villaret with 25 ships of the line at Brest to meet the threat posed by the British fleet under Lord Howe.[15]
By early spring of 1794, the situation in France was dire. With famine looming after the failure of the harvest and the blockade of French ports and trade, the French government was forced to look overseas for sustenance.[17] Turning toFrance's colonies in the Americas, and the agricultural bounty of the United States, the National Convention gave orders for the formation of a large convoy of sailing vessels to gather atHampton Roads in theChesapeake Bay, where Admiral Vanstabel would wait for them. According to contemporary historianWilliam James this conglomeration of ships was said to be over 350 strong, although he disputes this figure, citing the number as 117 (in addition to the French warships).[15]
The convoy had also been augmented by the United States government, in both cargo and shipping, as repayment for French financial, moral and military support during theAmerican Revolution. In supporting the French Revolution in this way, the American government, urged especially by AmbassadorGouverneur Morris, was fulfilling its ten-year-old debt to France.[11] Friendly relations between the United States and France did not long survive theJay Treaty which came into effect in 1796; by 1798 the two nations would be engaged in theQuasi War.[29]
The French convoy, escorted by Vanstabel, departed America fromVirginia on 2 April, and Howe sailed fromPortsmouth on 2 May, taking his entire fleet to both escort British convoys to theWestern Approaches and intercept the French.[30] Checking that Villaret was still inBrest, Howe spent two weeks searching the Bay of Biscay for the grain convoy, returning to Brest on 18 May to discover that Villaret had sailed the previous day.[d][31] Returning to sea in search of his opponent, Howe pursued Villaret deep into the Atlantic. Also at sea during this period were the squadrons of Nielly (French) and Montagu (British), both of whom had met with some success; Nielly had captured a number of British merchant ships and Montagu had taken several back. Nielly was the first to encounter the grain convoy, deep in the Atlantic in the second week of May. He took it under escort as it moved closer to Europe, while Montagu was searching fruitlessly to the south.[32]
Despite Howe's pursuit, the main French sortie found initial success, running into a Dutch convoy and taking 20 ships from it on Villaret's first day at sea. For the next week Howe continued to follow the French, seizing and burning a trail of French-held Dutch ships and enemy corvettes.[33] On 25 May Howe spotted a straggler from Villaret's fleet and gave chase;Audacieux led Howe straight to his opponent's location.[34] Having finally found Villaret, on 28 May Howe attacked, using a flying squadron of his fastest ships to cut off its rearmost vesselRévolutionnaire. Thisfirst rate was at various times engaged with six British ships and took heavy damage, possibly striking her colours late in the action.[35] As darkness fell the British and French fleets separated, leavingRévolutionnaire and her final enemy,HMS Audacious, still locked in combat behind them. These two ships parted company during the night and eventually returned to their respective home ports.[36] By this stage Villaret knew through his patrolling frigates that the grain convoy was close, and deliberately took his fleet to the west, hoping to decoy Howe away from the vital convoy.[11]
Taking the bait, the following day Howe attacked again, but his attempt to split the French fleet in half was unsuccessful when his lead ship,HMS Caesar, failed to follow orders.[37] Much damage was done to both fleets but the action was inconclusive, and the two forces again separated without having settled the issue. Howe had however gained an important advantage during the engagement by seizing theweather gage, enabling him to further attack Villaret at a time of his choosing.[e][38] Three French ships were sent back to port with damage, but these losses were offset by reinforcements gained the following day with the arrival of Nielly's detached squadron.Battle was postponed during the next two days because of thick fog, but when the haze lifted on 1 June 1794, the battle lines were only 6 miles (10 km) apart and Howe was prepared to force a decisive action.[39]
Although Howe was in a favourable position, Villaret had not been idle during the night. He had attempted, with near success, to distance his ships from the British fleet; when dawn broke at 05:00 he was within a few hours of gaining enough wind to escape over the horizon.[41] Allowing his men to breakfast, Howe took full advantage of his position on the weather gage to close with Villaret, and by 08:12 the British fleet was just four miles (6 km) from the enemy. By this time, Howe's formation was deployed in an organised line parallel to the French, withfrigates acting as repeaters for the admiral's commands.[42]The French were likewise inline ahead and the two lines began exchanging long-range gunfire at 09:24, whereupon Howe unleashed his innovative battleplan.[41]
It was normal in fleet actions of the 18th century for the two lines of battle to pass one another sedately, exchanging fire at long ranges and thenwearing away, often without either side losing a ship or taking an enemy.[43] In contrast, Howe was counting on the professionalism of his captains and crews combined with the advantage of the weather gage to attack the French directly, driving through their line.[18] However, this time he did not plan to manoeuvre in the way he had during the two previous encounters, each ship following in the wake of that in front to create a new line arrowing through his opponent's force (asRodney had done at theBattle of the Saintes 12 years earlier).[44] Instead, Howe ordered each of his ships to turn individually towards the French line, intending to breach it at every point and rake the French ships at both bow and stern. The British captains would then pull up on the leeward side of their opposite numbers, cutting them off from their retreat downwind, and engage them directly, hopefully forcing each to surrender and consequently destroying the French Atlantic Fleet.[38]
Within minutes of issuing the signal and turning his flagshipHMS Queen Charlotte, Howe's plan began to falter. Many of the British captains had either misunderstood or ignored the signal and were hanging back in the original line.[45] Other ships were still struggling with damage from Howe's earlier engagements and could not get into action fast enough. The result was a ragged formation tipped byQueen Charlotte that headed unevenly for Villaret's fleet. The French responded by firing on the British ships as they approached, but the lack of training and coordination in the French fleet was obvious; many ships which did obey Howe's order and attacked the French directly arrived in action without significant damage.[46]
AlthoughQueen Charlotte pressed on all sail, she was not the first through the enemy line. That distinction belonged to a ship of thevan squadron underAdmiral Graves:HMS Defence under CaptainJames Gambier, a notoriously dour officer nicknamed "Dismal Jimmy" by his contemporaries.[47]Defence, the seventh ship of the British line, successfully cut the French line between its sixth and seventh ships;Mucius andTourville. Raking both opponents,Defence soon found herself in difficulty due to the failure of those ships behind her to properly follow up.[48] This left her vulnerable toMucius,Tourville and the ships following them, with which she began a furious fusillade. However,Defence was not the only ship of the van to break the French line; minutes laterGeorge Cranfield Berkeley inHMS Marlborough executed Howe's manoeuvre perfectly, raking and then entangling his ship withImpétueux.[49][50]
In front ofMarlborough the rest of the van had mixed success.HMS Bellerophon andHMS Leviathan were both still suffering the effects of their exertions earlier in the week and did not breach the enemy line. Instead they pulled along the near side ofÉole andAmerica respectively and brought them to close gunnery duels. Rear-AdmiralThomas Pasley ofBellerophon was an early casualty, losing a leg in the opening exchanges.HMS Royal Sovereign, Graves's flagship, was less successful due to a miscalculation of distance that resulted in her pulling up too far from the French line and coming under heavy fire from her opponentTerrible. In the time it took to engageTerrible more closely,Royal Sovereign suffered a severe pounding and Admiral Graves was badly wounded.[50]
More disturbing to Lord Howe were the actions ofHMS Russell and HMSCaesar.Russell's captainJohn Willett Payne was criticised at the time for failing to get to grips with the enemy more closely and allowing her opponentTéméraire to badly damage her rigging in the early stages, although later commentators blamed damage received on 29 May for her poor start to the action.[51] There were no such excuses, however, for CaptainAnthony Molloy ofCaesar, who totally failed in his duty to engage the enemy. Molloy completely ignored Howe's signal and continued ahead as if the British battleline was following him rather than engaging the French fleet directly.[52]Caesar did participate in a desultory exchange of fire with the leading French shipTrajan but her fire had little effect, whileTrajan inflicted much damage toCaesar's rigging and was subsequently able to attackBellerophon as well, roaming unchecked through the melee developing at the head of the line.[46]
The centre of the two fleets was divided by two separate squadrons of the British line: the forward division under admiralsBenjamin Caldwell andGeorge Bowyer and the rear under Lord Howe. While Howe inQueen Charlotte was engaging the French closely, his subordinates in the forward division were less active. Instead of moving in on their opposite numbers directly, the forward division sedately closed with the French in line ahead formation, engaging in a long distance duel which did not prevent their opponents from harassing the embattledDefence just ahead of them.[48] Of all the ships in this squadron onlyHMS Invincible, underThomas Pakenham, ranged close to the French lines.Invincible was badly damaged by her lone charge but managed to engage the largerJuste.[53]Barfleur under Bowyer did later enter the action, but Bowyer was not present, having lost a leg in the opening exchanges.[54]
Howe andQueen Charlotte led the fleet by example, sailing directly at the French flagshipMontagne. Passing betweenMontagne and the next in lineVengeur du Peuple,Queen Charlotte raked both and hauled up close toMontagne to engage in a close-range artillery battle.[52] As she did so,Queen Charlotte also became briefly entangled withJacobin, and exchanged fire with her too, causing serious damage to both French ships.[55]
To the right ofQueen Charlotte,HMS Brunswick had initially struggled to join the action. Labouring behind the flagship, her captainJohn Harvey received a rebuke from Howe for the delay. Spurred by this signal, Harvey pushed his ship forward and almost outstrippedQueen Charlotte, blocking her view of the eastern half of the French fleet for a time and taking severe damage from French fire as she did so. Harvey hoped to run aboardJacobin and support his admiral directly, but was not fast enough to reach her and so attempted to cut betweenAchille andVengeur du Peuple. This manoeuvre failed whenBrunswick's anchors became entangled inVengeur's rigging. Harvey'smaster asked ifVengeur should be cut loose, to which Harvey replied "No; we have got her and we will keep her".[56] The two ships swung so close to each other thatBrunswick's crew could not open their gunports and had to fire through the closed lids, the ships battering each other from a distance of just a few feet.[57]
Behind this combat, other ships of the centre division struck the French line,HMS Valiant underThomas Pringle passing close toPatriote which pulled away, her crew suffering fromcontagion and unable to take their ship into battle.[58]Valiant instead turned her attention onAchille, which had already been raked byQueen Charlotte andBrunswick, and badly damaged her before pressing on sail to join the embattled van division.[55]HMS Orion underJohn Thomas Duckworth andHMS Queen under AdmiralAlan Gardner both attacked the same ship,Queen suffering severely from the earlier actions in which her masts were badly damaged and her captainJohn Hutt mortally wounded.[55] Both ships bore down on the FrenchNorthumberland, which was soon dismasted and left attempting to escape on only the stump of a mast.Queen was too slow to engageNorthumberland as closely asOrion, and soon fell in withJemmapes, both ships battering each other severely.[59]
Of the British rear ships, only two made a determined effort to break the French line. AdmiralHood's flagshipHMS Royal George pierced it betweenRépublicain andSans Pareil, engaging both closely, whileHMS Glory came through the line behindSans Pareil and threw herself into the melee as well. The rest of the British and French rearguard did not participate in this close combat;HMS Montagu fought a long range gunnery duel withNeptune which damaged neither ship severely,[60] although the British captainJames Montagu was killed in the opening exchanges, command devolving to LieutenantRoss Donnelly.[61] Next in line,HMS Ramillies ignored her opponent completely and sailed west, CaptainHenry Harvey seekingBrunswick, his brother's ship, in the confused action aroundQueen Charlotte.[62]
Three other British ships failed to respond to the signal from Howe, includingHMS Alfred which engaged the French line at extreme range without noticeable effect, and CaptainCharles Cotton inHMS Majestic who likewise did little until the action was decided, at which point he took the surrender of several already shattered French ships. FinallyHMS Thunderer underAlbemarle Bertie took no part in the initial action at all, standing well away from the British line and failing to engage the enemy despite the signal for close engagement hanging limply from her mainmast. The French rear ships were no less idle, withEntreprenant andPelletier firing at any British ships in range but refusing to close or participate in the melees on either side. The French rear shipScipion did not attempt to join the action either, but could not avoid becoming embroiled in the group aroundRoyal George andRépublicain and suffered severe damage.[63]
Within an hour of their opening volleys the British and French lines were hopelessly confused, with three separate engagements being fought within sight of one another. In the van,Caesar had finally attempted to join the fight, only to have a vital spar shot away byTrajan which caused her to slip down the two embattled fleets without contributing significantly to the battle.Bellerophon andLeviathan were in the thick of the action, the outnumberedBellerophon taking serious damage to her rigging. This left her unable to manoeuvre and in danger from her opponents, of whichÉole also suffered severely. CaptainWilliam Johnstone Hope sought to extract his ship from her perilous position and called up support; the frigateHMS Latona under CaptainEdward Thornbrough arrived to provide assistance. Thornbrough brought his small ship between the ships of the French battleline and opened fire onÉole, helping to drive off three ships of the line and then towingBellerophon to safety.Leviathan, underLord Hugh Seymour, had been more successful thanBellerophon, her gunnery dismastingAmerica despite receiving fire fromÉole andTrajan in passing.Leviathan only leftAmerica after a two-hour duel, sailing at 11:50 to joinQueen Charlotte in the centre.[64]
Russell had not broken the French line and her opponentTémeraire got the better of her, knocking away a topmast and escaping to windward withTrajan andÉole.Russell then fired on several passing French ships before joiningLeviathan in attacking the centre of the French line.Russell's boats also took the surrender ofAmerica, her crew boarding the vessel to make her a prize (although later replaced by men fromRoyal Sovereign)[65]Royal Sovereign lost Admiral Graves to a serious wound and lost her opponent as well, asTerrible fell out of the line to windward and joined a growing collection of French ships forming a new line on the far side of the action. Villaret was leading this line in his flagshipMontagne, which had escaped fromQueen Charlotte, and it wasMontagne whichRoyal Sovereign engaged next, pursuing her close to the new French line accompanied byValiant, and beginning a long-range action.[50]
BehindRoyal Sovereign wasMarlborough, inextricably tangled withImpétueux. Badly damaged and on the verge of surrender,Impétueux was briefly reprieved whenMucius appeared through the smoke and collided with both ships.[66] The three entangled ships continued exchanging fire for some time, all suffering heavy casualties withMarlborough andImpétueux losing all three of their masts. This combat continued for several hours. Captain Berkeley ofMarlborough had to retire below with serious wounds, and command fell to LieutenantJohn Monkton, who signalled for help from the frigates in reserve.[48]Robert Stopford responded inHMS Aquilon, which had the assignment of repeating signals, and towedMarlborough out of the line asMucius freed herself and made for the regrouped French fleet to the north.Impétueux was in too damaged a state to move at all, and was soon seized by sailors from HMSRussell.[65]
Dismasted,Defence was unable to hold any of her various opponents to a protracted duel, and by 13:00 was threatened by the damagedRépublicain moving from the east. AlthoughRépublicain later hauled off to join Villaret to the north, Gambier requested support for his ship from the fleet's frigates and was aided byHMS Phaeton under CaptainWilliam Bentinck. AsImpétueux passed she fired onPhaeton, to which Bentinck responded with several broadsides of his own.[48]Invincible, the only ship of the forward division of the British centre to engage the enemy closely, became embroiled in the confusion surroundingQueen Charlotte.Invincible's guns droveJuste onto the broadside ofQueen Charlotte, where she was forced to surrender to LieutenantHenry Blackwood in a boat fromInvincible.[53] Among the other ships of the division there were only minor casualties, althoughHMS Impregnable lost severalyards and was only brought back into line by the quick reactions of two junior officers, LieutenantRobert Otway and MidshipmanCharles Dashwood.[67]
The conflict betweenQueen Charlotte andMontagne was oddly one-sided, the French flagship failing to make use of her lower-deck guns and consequently suffering extensive damage and casualties.Queen Charlotte in her turn was damaged by fire from nearby ships and was therefore unable to follow whenMontagne set her remaining sails and slipped to the north to create a new focal point for the survivors of the French fleet.[68]Queen Charlotte also took fire during the engagement fromHMS Gibraltar, underThomas Mackenzie, which had failed to close with the enemy and instead fired at random into the smoke bank surrounding the flagship. CaptainSir Andrew Snape Douglas was seriously wounded by this fire.[54] FollowingMontagne's escape,Queen Charlotte engagedJacobin andRépublicain as they passed, and was successful in forcing the surrender ofJuste.[69] To the east ofQueen Charlotte,Brunswick andVengeur du Peuple continued their bitter combat, locked together and firing main broadsides from point blank range. Captain Harvey ofBrunswick was mortally wounded early in this action bylangrage fire fromVengeur, but refused to quit the deck, ordering more fire into his opponent.[56]Brunswick also managed to driveAchille off from her far side when the French ship attempted to intervene.Achille, already damaged, was totally dismasted in the exchange and briefly surrendered, although her crew rescinded this when it became clearBrunswick was in no position to take possession.[62] With her colours rehoisted,Achille then made what sail she could in an attempt to join Villaret to the north. It was not until 12:45 that the shatteredVengeur andBrunswick pulled apart, both largely dismasted and very battered.Brunswick was only able to return to the British side of the line after being supported byRamillies, whileVengeur was unable to move at all.[69]Ramillies tookVengeur's surrender after a brief cannonade but was unable to board her and instead pursued the fleeingAchille, which soon surrendered as well.[70]
To the east,Orion andQueen forced the surrender of bothNorthumberland andJemmappes, althoughQueen was unable to secureJemmappes and she had to be abandoned later.Queen especially was badly damaged and unable to make the British lines again, wallowing between the newly reformed French fleet and the British battleline along with several other shattered ships.[59][g]Royal George andGlory had between them disabledScipion andSans Pareil in a bitter exchange, but were also too badly damaged themselves to take possession. All four ships were among those left drifting in the gap between the fleets.[71]
Villaret inMontagne, having successfully broken contact with the British flagship and slipped away to the north, managed to gather 11 ships of the line around him and formed them up in a reconstituted battle squadron.[59] At 11:30, with the main action drawing to a close, he began a recovery manoeuvre intended to lessen the tactical defeat his fleet had suffered. Aiming his new squadron at the batteredQueen, Villaret's attack created consternation in the British fleet, which was unprepared for a second engagement.[72] However, discerning Villaret's intention, Howe also pulled his ships together to create a new force. His reformed squadron consisted ofQueen Charlotte,Royal Sovereign,Valiant,Leviathan,Barfleur, andThunderer.[73] Howe deployed this squadron in defence ofQueen, and the two short lines engaged one another at a distance before Villaret abandoned his manoeuvre and hauled off to collect several of his own dismasted ships that were endeavouring to escape British pursuit.[74] Villaret was subsequently joined by the batteredTerrible, which sailed straight through the dispersed British fleet to reach the French lines, and he also recovered the dismastedScipion,Mucius,Jemmappes, andRépublicain—all of which lay within reach of the unengaged British ships—before turning eastwards towards France.[75][h] At this stage of the battle, Howe retired below and the British consolidation was left to hisCaptain of the Fleet,Sir Roger Curtis. Curtis was subsequently blamed by some in the Navy for not capturing more of the dismasted French ships, and was also accused of dissuading Howe from attempting further pursuit.[14]
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In fact, the British fleet was unable to pursue Villaret, having only 11 ships still capable of battle to the French 12, and having numerous dismasted ships and prizes to protect. Retiring and regrouping, the British crews set about making hasty repairs and securing their prizes; seven in total, including the badly damagedVengeur du Peuple.Vengeur had been holed by cannon firing fromBrunswick directly through the ship's bottom, and after her surrender no British ship had managed to get men aboard. This leftVengeur's few remaining unwounded crew to attempt to salvage what they could—a task made harder when some of her sailors broke into the spirit room and became drunk.[70] Ultimately the ship's pumps became unmanageable, andVengeur began to sink. Only the timely arrival of boats from the undamagedAlfred andHMS Culloden, as well as the services of the cutter HMSRattler, saved any of theVengeur's crew from drowning, these ships taking off nearly 500 sailors between them.[76] Lieutenant John Winne ofRattler was especially commended for this hazardous work.[70] By 18:15,Vengeur was clearly beyond salvage and only the very worst of the wounded, the dead, and the drunk remained aboard. Several sailors are said to have wavedthe tricolor from the bow of the ship and cried "Vive la Nation, vive la République!"[j]
Having escaped to the east, Villaret made what sail his battered fleet could muster to return to France, and dispatched his frigates in search of the convoy. Villaret was also hoping for reinforcements; eight ships of the line, commanded by AdmiralPierre-François Cornic Dumoulin, were patrolling near theUshant headland. Behind him to the west, the British took the whole night to secure their ships and prizes, not setting out to return to Britain until 05:00 on 2 June.[75]
Casualties in the battle are notoriously hard to calculate exactly.[k] With only one exception (Scipion), records made by the French captains of their losses at the time are incomplete. The only immediately available casualty counts are the sketchy reports of Saint-André and the records made by British officers aboard the captured ships, neither of which can be treated as completely reliable.[84] Most sources accept that French casualties in the campaign numbered approximately 7,000, including around 3,000 captured, but these figures are vague and frequently do not agree with each other on details.[l] British casualties are easier to confirm but here, too, there are some discrepancies; overall British casualties are generally given as around 1,200.[k]
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With a large portion of his fleet no longer battleworthy, Howe was unable to resume his search for the French convoy in the Bay of Biscay. TheAdmiralty, though unaware of Howe's specific circumstances, knew a battle had taken place through the arrival ofHMS Audacious in Portsmouth, and was preparing a second expedition underGeorge Montagu. Montagu had returned to England after his unsuccessful May cruise, and was refitting in Portsmouth when ordered to sea again.[75] His force of ten ships was intended to both cover Howe's withdrawal from Biscay, and find and attack the French grain convoy. Montagu returned to sea on 3 June, and by 8 June was off Ushant searching for signs of either the French or Howe; unknown to him, neither had yet entered European waters. At 15:30 on 8 June Montagu spotted sails, and soon identified them as the enemy. He had located Cornic's squadron, which was also patrolling for the convoy and the returning fleets. Montagu gave chase and drove Cornic into Bertheaume Bay, where he blockaded the French squadron overnight, hoping to bring them to action the following day.[86] However, on 9 June, Montagu sighted 19 French ships appearing from the west—the remnants of Villaret's fleet. Hastily turning his ships, Montagu sailed south to avoid becoming trapped between two forces which might easily overwhelm him.[87] Villaret and Cornic gave chase for a day before turning east towards the safety of the French ports.[86]
Howe benefited from Montagu's withdrawal, as his own battered fleet passed close to the scene of this stand-off on 10 June, pushing north into the English Channel. With Villaret and Cornic fortuitously pursuing Montagu to the south, Howe was free to pass Ushant without difficulty and arrived offPlymouth on 12 June, joined soon afterwards by Montagu. Villaret had anchored with Cornic in Bertheaume Bay the day before, but Saint-André refused to allow him to enter Brest until the republican attitudes of the town's population had been assessed. On 12 June, the convoy from America finally arrived off France, having lost just one ship in passage during a storm.[88]
Both Britain and France claimed victory in the battle: Britain by virtue of capturing or sinking seven French ships without losing any of her own and remaining in control of the battle site; France because the vital convoy had passed through the Atlantic unharmed and arrived in France without significant loss.[65] The two fleets were showered by their respective nations with both praise and criticism—the latter particularly directed at those captains not felt to have contributed significantly to the fighting.[89]
In France the revolutionary principles ofégalité precluded extensive awards, but Villaret was promoted to vice admiral on 27 September 1794[90] and other minor awards were distributed to the admirals of the fleet. In addition the fleet's officers took part in a celebratory parade from Brest to Paris, accompanying the recently arrived food supplies. The role ofVengeur du Peuple was mythified byBertrand Barère, giving birth to an exalted legend. Opinion in France concerning the battle's outcome was divided; while many celebrated Saint-André's exaggerated accounts of victory inLe Moniteur, senior naval officers disagreed. Among the dissenters was the highly experienced but recently dismissed AdmiralYves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec. Kerguelen was disgusted by Villaret's failure to renew the battle after he had reformed his squadron, and felt that the French fleet could have been successful tactically as well as strategically if only Villaret had made greater efforts to engage the remains of Howe's fleet.[91]
The French Navy had suffered its worst losses in a single day since the 1692Battles of Barfleur and La Hougue, and the revolutionary excesses of the period would ultimately prove disastrous for the navy's capabilities.[38] Poor leadership, conflicting and arbitrary orders and the decimation of experienced sailors in the ranks promoted a defeatist attitude among the French navy's officer corps. The French did not contest British dominance in Northern European waters again, and their raiding operations repeatedly ended in failure at the hands of aggressive British squadrons and the unforgiving Atlantic weather. By 1805, when the last great French fleet to take to the sea was crushed at theBattle of Trafalgar, poor training and low investment in the navy had reduced its efficiency to levels unthinkable 20 years earlier.[92]
In Britain, the fleet inSpithead was treated with a Royal visit by KingGeorge III and the entire royal household.[59] Numerous honours were bestowed on the fleet and its commanders. Admiral Howe, already an earl, refused any further elevation, and one of Howe's political opponents dissuaded King George III from making him aKnight of the Garter.[93] Vice-Admiral Graves was elevated to thePeerage of Ireland asBaron Graves, while Vice-Admiral Hood was madeViscount Bridport.[m] Rear-AdmiralsBowyer, Gardner, Pasley and Curtis (the last-named was promoted from captain on 4 July 1794) were all madebaronets, and Bowyer and Pasley also received pensions of £1,000 a year to compensate them for their severe wounds.[93] All first lieutenants were promoted tocommander and numerous other officers were promoted in consequence of their actions. The thanks ofparliament were unanimously passed to all who fought at the action and various other gifts and awards were distributed among the fleet.[94] A memorial to Captains John Hutt and John Harvey, both of whom had died of their wounds on 30 June, was raised inWestminster Abbey.[56]
There was, however, a bitter consequence of the awards, rooted in Howe's official dispatch to the Admiralty concerning the battle, which according to some accounts was actually written by Curtis.[38] Howe had appended a list to his report containing the names of officers whom he believed merited special reward for their part in the battle. The list included Vice-Admirals Graves and Hood, Rear-Admirals Bowyer, Gardner, and Pasley, and Captains Seymour, Pakenham, Cranfield Berkeley, Gambier, John Harvey, Payne, Henry Harvey, Pringle, Duckworth, Elphinstone, Nichols, and Hope. Also mentioned were Lieutenants Monkton and Donnelly.[95] The list had omitted a number of officers who had served in the battle, and the justice of their omission was a highly controversial issue in the Navy.[96] Rear-Admiral Caldwell was the sole British flag officer present not to receive a hereditary honour, although he was promoted to Vice-Admiral on 4 July (as were Bowyer and Gardner). After studying the ship's logs and reports of the battle, the Admiralty minted a medal to be awarded to the living captains on the list only (although CaptainWilliam Parker of HMSAudacious was awarded one as well).[38] The captains excluded from the list were furious, and the furore from this selective commendation lasted years: in 1795 Vice-Admiral Caldwell quit the service in anger as a result,[97] whileCuthbert Collingwood, flag captain ofBarfleur, refused all awards for future service until the Glorious First of June medal was presented to him as well. He eventually received it after theBattle of Cape St Vincent in 1797.[98] Over five decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to theNaval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.[99]
Bitterest of all was thewhispering campaign directed at Anthony Molloy, captain of HMSCaesar. Molloy was accused of cowardice by fellow officers for his failure to follow Howe's orders on both 29 May and 1 June. Molloy's request for an official court-martial to clear his name failed, and although his personal courage was not called into question, his professional ability was.[94] Molloy was dismissed from his ship.[100]
Of the captured ships, several were purchased and enjoyed long careers in the Royal Navy, in particular the two 80-gun shipsHMS Sans Pareil, which was decommissioned in 1802 but not broken up until 1842, andHMSJuste, which was a popular command until her decommissioning in 1802 at thePeace of Amiens. Of the four 74-gun prizes,Achille andNorthumberland (both 74s built in the late 1770s) were broken up as unserviceable soon after arrival in Britain, whileImpétueux was destroyed in a dockyard fire on 24 August 1794 while undergoing repairs.America, the final prize, was taken into the Royal Navy as HMSAmerica but renamedHMSImpetueux in July 1795 and remained in service until 1813.[101] The combinedprize money for these ships was £201,096 (equivalent to £27 million in 2023),[n] divided among the ships under Lord Howe's command.[102]
Media related toGlorious First of June at Wikimedia Commons
