One of a set of four watercolours of this action (PAH9527-9530) in which Admiral Sir George Rodney, as commander-in-chief in the West Indies in the 'Formidable' at the end of the War of American Independence, intercepted the French fleet of the Comte de Grasse sailing from Martinique for a projected invasion of Jamaica. After a skirmish up the west coast of Dominica, the French were trapped between the wind and the off-lying rocky islets to the north called the Saints (Les Saintes). A line action ensued on opposing courses, during which a shift of wind, forced the French to bear away and allowed Rodney to pass through their line with devastating effect. It was the first occasion in which 'breaking the line', albeit partly accidentally achieved, gained the tactical credibility it afterwards enjoyed. Rodney - who was not in good health - did not press his advantage as much as Hood, his infuriated second-in-command in the 'Barfleur wished but it was still a notable victory, above all for its political effect in the peace negotiations which shortly afterwards ended the war. For while these confirmed Britain's loss of thirteen of her American colonies, Rodney's victory secured British dominance against the French and Spaniards in the West Indies, a principal source of colonial wealth. Hood took the surrender of de Grasse in the 'Ville de Paris', but she and other prizes were subsequently lost to hurricane en route for England. Exhibited: NMM Pocock exhib. (1975), no. 67. Bristol Art Gallery, Marine Artists of Bristol, Nov. 1982-Jan. 1983, no. 4 [wrong number - they were shown as a set of four but not early in the show sequence] [PvdM 10/08].