1778 Naval Strategy: French Actors and British Reactors

On February 6, 1778, the American colonies signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce and a Treaty of Alliance with the country of France. The former treaty recognized the absolute sovereignty and independence of the colonies and established commercial rights in direct opposition to England’s Navigation Acts; the latter guaranteed financial and military support. On March 13, the Marquis de Noailles, the French Ambassador to the Court of St. James, informed the Court that France had signed the two treaties. This did not surprise many at the Court. On January 6, Lord William Stormant, the Court’s Ambassador to France, had predicted the alliance,[1] and on January 20, 25 and 26, Lord George Germain, the Secretary of State for the American Department, received updates on the negotiations from James Hutton, his spy in Paris.[2] On February 18, Germain sent orders to Admiral Richard Howe, Naval Commander of the British Fleet in American waters: he was to destroy all of the shipyards in and all of the ships belonging to Connecticut and New Hampshire. [3] On the 20th, Stormont informed Lord Weymouth, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, that he was certain war between France and England would soon break out. [4] On March 6, Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, submitted a report to Prime Minister Lord Frederick North’s cabinet on the number and location of all French ships of the line; there were twenty-one at Brest, the French port on the western tip of Brittany on the Atlantic Ocean and twelve at Toulon, a French port near the mouth of the Rhone River in the Mediterranean. [5] These numbers were important because if the treaties were signed, war would then be declared between the two countries and England could be fighting on two fronts—in the English Chanel and off the coasts of North America.

On March 15, two days after the Marquis delivered copies of the treaties, Sandwich submitted a second report to North’s Cabinet on the number and location of all English ships of the line, “Our whole force at home at present in commission consists of 55 lines of battle and 46 frigates . . . of these 40 of the line may be considered as applicable to immediate service, the other 15 are getting forward, and if the men can be had may soon be ready.” [6]

Out of the forty active ships, twenty were assigned to the Channel for “defense of the kingdom” and twenty were assigned to America to “protect our distant.”[7] Sir Augustus Keppel was made commander of the Home Fleet the next day. The Home Fleet had four responsibilities: first, to blockade the French port at Brest; second, to secure the Channel; third, to prevent France (or Spain) from dispatching an expedition overseas; and to serve as a strategic reserve, that is, to be able to send squadrons to support overseas offensives.[8] In Lord Sandwich’s mind, from the English Channel “all our exterior efforts are derived.”[9]