[BATTLE OF SAN DOMINGO.]
Felix Farley's Journal Office. From the London Gazette Extraordinary ...
UNRECORDED ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF SAN DOMINGO
Very rare. Fought on 6 February, 1806, the Battle of San Domingo was an important engagement between the French and English during the Napoleonic Wars. The French fleet sailed under the command of Vice-Admiral Corentin Urbasic Leissègues with instructions to raid British ships crossing the Atlantic.
The text anticipates Admiralty despatches which were due to be published the next day. It states, notably, that Duckworth “discovered a Squadron of French ships, consisting of Five Sail of the Line … Two Frigates, and One Corvette, at anchor in the Bay of St. Domingo, which … he immediately attacked, and, after an action of Two Hours, he ENTIRELY DEFEATED. THREE SHIPS OF THE ENEMY’S LINE FELL INTO HIS HANDS, and TWO … were DRIVEN ON SHORE.”
Following shortly after the Battle of Trafalgar, such was the defeat that it proved the last fleet battle fought in open water during the Napoleonic Wars and devastating to French strategy in the Caribbean.
Not in OCLC or COPAC.
