14 The Spanish and French attempted to capture Jamaica
After the British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, the French fleet under the Comte De Grasse returned to the West Indies, where it planned a joint operation with the Spanish to capture the Windward Islands and the important British possession Jamaica. The operation’s intent was the disruption of British commerce and the possibility of luring the British fleet in New York to give battle. Sugar from Jamaica and the Caribbean colonies made the islands more economically important to Great Britain than the thirteen North American colonies combined. The threat to the sugar colonies led the British to dispatch George Rodney and his fleet to the Caribbean in the spring of 1782, after relieving Gibraltar.
An inconclusive action was fought by elements of the two fleets on April 9, 1782. De Grasse attempted to evade the British fleet, concerned about the superior speed exhibited by the British ships. On April 12 the fleets again engaged each other. By four in the afternoon, the French flagship, Ville de Paris, was isolated from the rest of the French fleet and overwhelmed by several British ships. De Grasse was captured by the British when his ship was forced to surrender. The French suffered a defeat at the Battle of the Saintes though most of the fleet escaped to Martinique, where they were joined by several Spanish ships. The Jamaica expedition was thwarted by Rodney’s action, and he was awarded a peerage despite criticism from several British officers, who cited his failure to destroy the French fleet.