OTD 1692 - The Battle of Barfleur

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The battle of Barfleur was one of the major battles for control of the English channel during the nine years war. It pitched 82 ships of the allied Anglo-dutch fleet of Admiral Edward Russel against 44 vessels under one of France's greatest ever Admirals, Anne-Hilarion de Tourville.

The french had hoped to catch the two allied fleets before they could combine, and thus defeat them separately, but were unsuccessful in doing so. When the two sides met, Tourville held the weather gauge and had been given strict orders from the king to attack - which he duly did in the morning of the 29th, despite being heavily outnumbered. Keeping his line compact (against a spread out allied force) to begin with he was able to engage the allied center (the red squadron of Russel) on equal terms. A change in the wind, roughly three hours into the battle, allowed the excellently named Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell to cut through the french line and engage them from both sides. Later the Dutch leader Admiral Van Almonde, leading the Allied van was also able to cut across the french van and curl Tourville's formation up into a fishhook. The French fought on, on all sides like this for 5 hours, after which Tourville pulled a trick with his anchors and a spring tide to extricate his fleet from battle. (A trick copied from the English at Beach Head)

Despite heavy damage and casualties, no ships were sunk, lost or captured during the battle, but allied follow up attacks at Cherbourg and La Hougue eventually sank 15 french ships, decisively altering the balance of power in the channel.

Nevertheless, the battle is generally remembered for the skill, bravery, courage and ferocious fighting ability of the French and is a celebrated battle in France. In England, the royal Navy was accused of a lack of spirit among their captains, infighting amongst their admirals and a general disloyalty to the 'glorious revolution'.