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The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), or Battle of Dominica was an important naval battle that took place over 4 days, 9 April 1782 – 12 April 1782, during the American War of Independence, and was a victory of a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney over a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica.〔O'Shaughnessy p. 314〕 The battle is named after the Saintes (or Saints), a group of islands between Guadeloupe and Dominica in the West Indies. The French fleet defeated here by the Royal Navy was the same French fleet that had blockaded the British Army during the Siege of Yorktown. The French suffered heavy casualties and many were taken prisoner including the Comte de Grasse. Four French ships of the line were captured (including the flagship) as well as one destroyed. Rodney was credited with pioneering the tactic of "breaking the line" in the battle, though this is disputed.〔〔Valin p.67-68〕 == Origins == (詳細はFrancisco Saavedra de Sangronis, General Bureau for the Spanish Indies, court representative and aide to the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez. The strategic objectives of this plan were to guide the Franco-Spanish military forces in the West Indies to accomplish the following objectives: * To aid the Americans and defeat the British naval squadron at New York * The capture of the British Windward Islands and * The conquest of Jamaica.〔Dull p. 244〕 This plan became known as the ''De Grasse – Saavedra Convention'' and the first objective was essentially met with the surrender of the British army under General Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown in September 1781. De Grasse and his fleet had played a decisive part in that victory, after which they then sailed to the Caribbean. On arrival in Saint Domingue November 1781 he was given news that the plan was given the go ahead: to proceed with the conquest of Jamaica.〔Dull p. 248-49〕 Jamaica was the largest and most profitable British island in the Caribbean, in particular the commodity that stood out the most was sugar; it was more valuable to the British economy than the thirteen American colonies. In a letter from King George III to Lord Sandwich he declared that he would risk protecting Britain's important Caribbean islands at the risk of Britain herself, and this was strategy implemented in 1779.〔O'Shaughnessy p. 208〕 Sugar made up 20% of all British imports and was worth five times as much as tobacco.〔Rogoziński p. 115〕 As well as the gradual expulsion of the British from the West Indies by the French and Spanish, the conquest was to force a massive blow on the British economy.〔Trew p. 154-55〕 The invasion itself though was perceived in the courts at Paris and Madrid as an alternative to the Spanish and French attempts to take Gibraltar which for two years had been a costly disaster.〔Dull p. 282〕 While de Grasse waited for reinforcements to undertake the Jamaica campaign, he captured St. Kitts in February 1782. The rest of the windward islands Antigua, St Lucia, and Barbados still remained under British control while Admiral George Rodney arrived in the Caribbean theater the following month having brought reinforcements. These included seventeen ships of the line, and gave the British a slight advantage in number.〔Trew p. 157-62〕 On 7 April 1782, de Grasse set out from Martinique with 35 ships of the line, including two 50-gun ships and a large convoy of more than 100 cargo ships, to meet with a Spanish fleet consisting of 12 ships of the line. In addition de Grasse was to rendezvous with 15,000 troops at Saint Domingue earmarked for the conquest by landing on Jamaica's North coast.〔 Rodney on learning of this then sailed from St Lucia in pursuit now with 36 ships of the line the following day.〔Mahan. p. 205−226〕 The British ships by this time had hulls which had gone through a process known as copper sheathing; found to be a practicable means of protecting them from marine growth and fouling as well as salt water corrosion. The result of this was that the speed and sailing performance as a whole in good wind improved dramatically.〔Lavery p. 144-45〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of the Saintes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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