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515]
open to censure for his inactivity during the
Chap. XXV.} 1781. Aug. 30. |
long-continued sale of his prize-goods.
Pleading ill health, he escaped from uncongenial cares by sailing for
England.
To the north he sent in his stead
Sir Samuel Hood, with fourteen sail of the line, frigates, and a fire-ship into the
Chesapeake, where a junction with
Graves would have given the
English the supremacy in the bay. But
Graves, who was of higher rank than
Hood, was out of the way on a silly cruise before
Boston, which had no purpose unless to pick up a few prizes.
Meantime
de Barras, with eight ships of the line, sailed from
Newport, convoying ten transports, which contained the ordnance for the siege of
Yorktown.
There was no want of information at New York, yet the British fleet did not leave
Sandy Hook until the day after
de Grasse had arrived in the Ches-
apeake.
Early on the fifth of September,
Graves discovered the French fleet at anchor in the mouth of the
Chesapeake.
De Grasse, though eighteen hundred of his seamen and ninety officers were on duty in
James river, ordered his ships to slip their cables, turn out from the anchorage ground, and form the line of battle.
The action began at four o'clock in the afternoon, and continued till about sunset.
The
British sustained so great a loss that, after remaining five days in sight of the
French, they returned to New York.
On the first day of their return voyage,
they evacuated and burned ‘The Terrible,’ a ship of the line, so much had it been damaged in the engagement.
De Grasse, now undisturbed master of the
Chesapeake, on his way back to his anchoring ground captured two British ships, each of thirtytwo
