Battle of Bantry Bay

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Battle of Bantry Bay
Part of the Nine Years' War
and Williamite War

Battle of Bantry Bay by Adriaen van Diest.
Date11 May 1689[1]
Location
Bantry Bay, Ireland
51°39′N 9°43′W / 51.650°N 9.717°W / 51.650; -9.717
Result French victory[2]
Belligerents
 Kingdom of England  Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
Earl of Torrington
Châteaurenault
Strength
19[3]-22[4] ships 24 ships[5]
Casualties and losses
94 killed
c. 300 wounded
No ships lost		 40 killed
93 wounded
No ships lost

The Battle of Bantry Bay was a naval engagement fought on 11 May 1689, a week before the declaration of the

François Louis de Rousselet, Marquis de Châteaurenault. Apart from the inshore operations at La Rochelle in 1627–28, the Battle of Bantry Bay was the first time English and French navies had met in fleet action since 1545.[6]

The battle near the southern Irish coast was somewhat inconclusive but the French, endeavouring to supply King James II in his attempt to re-establish his throne, had managed to unload their supplies for James's Irish campaign. But although the French failed to follow up their tactical success with strategic gain, Châteaurenault had inflicted considerable damage on the English fleet.

Background

Following the '

Louis XIV, but was determined to regain his throne. In this endeavour Louis was willing to support James, primarily for two reasons: firstly, he fervently believed[citation needed] in the Stuart king’s God-ordained right to the English throne; secondly, and primarily, the war in Ireland would divert William's energy and forces away from the Spanish Netherlands, a theatre which would later become the main focus for both William's and Louis's efforts during the conflict.[2]

While in France, James built up an army to support his Lord Deputy in Ireland, the Earl of Tyrconnell. James had already sent financial help, but it was not until March 1689 that he was ready to sail in person to lead the campaign.[7] After landing in Kinsale with 100 French officers and about 2,500 mixed troops, James, together with Tyrconnell – whom he now made a duke – travelled to Dublin. James hoped to quickly establish control over Ireland before pressing on to Scotland or England, but this was impossible while Protestant strongholds in northern Ireland remained outside his control. The campaign, therefore, urgently required supplies and equipment from France, but English Parliamentarians, acutely worried of the situation developing in Ireland, were determined to use the Royal Navy and frustrate James’s designs.[8]

Battle

Battle of Bantry Bay, 11 May 1689.

The newly appointed commander-in-chief of the English main fleet,

fireships, and transports carrying weapons and supplies for James’s campaign, left the port of Brest on 6 May.[2]

As the French approached southern Ireland Herbert's squadron had made offloading supplies at Kinsale impossible, thus forcing Châteaurenault to anchor his fleet in Bantry Bay, joining up with a further three French frigates there. The following morning on 11 May, as the French were landing 1,500 men with money, arms and ammunition, Admiral Herbert’s fleet came into view. The French weighed anchor, and a running battle ensued in the confined waters of the bay. Initially the two fleets opposed each other in parallel lines but Châteaurenault, enjoying the weather gage, drove Herbert from the bay into the open sea.[8] The ensuing battle – which in total lasted four hours – was somewhat inconclusive, but the French had protected the transports which managed to unload.[2] When the French broke off the action late in the afternoon in order to return to the anchorage, Herbert's ships were too damaged to follow, and he had suffered many casualties.[10]

Ships involved

Aftermath

19th-century depiction of the battle.

The fleets withdrew: Château-Renault returned to Brest on 18 May, seizing on the way seven Dutch merchant vessels bound from the

North Channel.[16]

The Allies now began to build up their naval strength in the Channel; the fleet would soon comprise 34 English and 20 Dutch ships of the line, with four frigates and 17 fireships. After rendezvousing with victuallers, the Anglo-Dutch squadrons patrolled south of Kinsale to prevent further French supplies reaching Ireland.[17] However, when the French Brest fleet – now joined by Tourville’s squadron of 20 rated vessels and four frigates – set sail on 15 August, it cruised in the Bay of Biscay, posing no threat to England or English communications with Ireland.[18] The French, therefore, were unable to prevent Admiral Rooke relieving the siege of Derry on 10 August, or, forestall Marshal Schomberg's army from England landing near Carrickfergus on 23 August. With Schomberg's reinforcements, the Williamite army opposing James in Ireland now amounted to some 40,000 troops.[citation needed]

Notes

  1. ^ All dates in the article are New Style (unless otherwise stated). The Old Style calendar as used in England differed by ten days. Thus, the Battle of Bantry Bay is 11 May N.S or 1 May O.S., while the Battle of the Boyne is 11 July N.S or 1 July O.S.
  2. ^ a b c d Lynn: The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714, p. 203
  3. ^ Aubrey states 18
  4. ^ Weigley states 22
  5. ^ Roger and Aubrey state 24 ships; Lynn, 26.
  6. ^ Tunstall: Naval warfare in the Age of Sail: The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650-1815, p. 52
  7. ^ Kinross: The Boyne and Aughrim: The War of the Two Kings, p. 14
  8. ^ a b c Roger: The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815, p.143
  9. ^ Roger: The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815, p. 143: Herbert had succeeded Admiral George Legge, Earl of Dartmouth.
  10. ^ a b Aubrey: The Defeat of James Stuart’s Armada 1692, p. 35
  11. ^ O. Troude, Batailles Navales de La France, Vol.1, p.192
  12. ^ Wm Laird Clowes, The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Vol.2, p.328.
  13. ^ Roger: The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815, p. 143: when Herbert accepted to be made commander-in-chief of the Dutch navy that brought William across the Channel for the invasion of England in 1688.
  14. ^ Aubrey: The Defeat of James Stuart’s Armada 1692, p. 36
  15. ^ Two of Duquesne's captains were English, followers of King James.
  16. ^ Roger: The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815, p. 144
  17. ^ Aubrey: The Defeat of James Stuart’s Armada 1692, p. 37
  18. ^ Roger: The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815, p. 144. Aubrey gives the date as 29 July (O.S).

References

  • Aubrey, Philip. The Defeat of James Stuart’s Armada 1692. Leicester University Press, (1979).
    ISBN 0-7185-1168-9
  • Lynn, John A. The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714. Longman, (1999).
    ISBN 0-582-05629-2
  • Kinross, John. The Boyne and Aughrim: The War of the Two Kings. The Windrush Press, (1998).
    ISBN 1-900624-07-9
  • Roger N.A.M. The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815, Penguin Group, (2006).
    ISBN 0-14-102690-1
  • Weigley, Russell The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo, Indiana University Press, (2004).
    ISBN 978-0253217073
  • Tunstall, B. Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650-1815. Conway Maritime, (2001).
    ISBN 978-0-85177-544-9
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