Battle of Quiberon Bay (1759): Hawke Crushes the French Fleet

The Battle of Quiberon Bay, fought on 20 November 1759 off the coast of Brittany, was the decisive naval battle of the Seven Years’ War. In a rising gale, Admiral Sir Edward Hawke chased the French Brest fleet into a bay full of rocks and shoals and destroyed it. The victory ended French plans to invade Britain and secured British command of the sea for the rest of the war.

Background

The Seven Years’ War was fought across the world, from Germany to North America and India. By 1759 France was losing the overseas war and stalemated in Europe. The French foreign minister, the Duc de Choiseul, decided on a bold stroke: an invasion of the British Isles that would force Britain to make peace.

The plan changed several times, but by the autumn it centred on an army of around 20,000 men under the Duc d’Aiguillon, gathered near Vannes on the Gulf of Morbihan in southern Brittany. Transports would carry it to Scotland or Ireland, escorted by the main French battle fleet from Brest under Marshal Hubert de Brienne, Comte de Conflans.

Since May, Hawke had kept a close blockade of Brest with the Western Squadron, staying at sea through the summer and autumn and supplying his ships at sea, which was unusual for the time. A separate small squadron under Commodore Robert Duff watched the invasion transports in Quiberon Bay. In August another French squadron trying to leave the Mediterranean had been defeated at Lagos, off Portugal.

The chase

In early November westerly gales drove Hawke’s ships back to shelter in Torbay on the English coast. The same winds brought a French squadron home from the West Indies, adding sailors to Conflans’s undermanned fleet. On 14 November, while Hawke was away, Conflans sailed from Brest with 21 ships of the line and headed south-east for Quiberon Bay to collect the transports.

Hawke had left Torbay the same day. Learning that the French were out, he pursued them with 23 ships of the line. On the morning of 20 November Conflans was chasing Duff’s small squadron near the entrance to Quiberon Bay when Hawke’s sails appeared. Rather than fight in the open sea, the French admiral ran for the shelter of the bay.

What happened

The bay was protected by a maze of reefs and shoals, including the rocks known as the Cardinals. A westerly gale was blowing and the short winter day was ending. Conflans believed no admiral would follow a fleet into such waters without local pilots. Hawke, according to a long-standing tradition, told his sailing master, who warned of the danger, to lay his flagship alongside the French admiral.

The British ships followed the French in, attacking the rear of their line as it entered the bay. Around 2:30 pm the fighting began near the Cardinals. The French ship Formidable was battered and captured. The Thésée, firing from her lower gun ports in heavy seas, was flooded and sank with most of her crew. The Superbe was sunk by a broadside from Hawke’s flagship, the Royal George.

As night fell the battle broke off in confusion. The next day the French flagship Soleil Royal and the Héros ran aground and were burned. Seven or eight French ships escaped south to Rochefort, while others threw guns overboard and crossed the bar into the mouth of the River Vilaine, where some were trapped for many months. Two British ships, the Resolution and the Essex, were wrecked on the Four shoal.

Key people

Sir Edward Hawke (1705–1781) was one of the most aggressive British admirals of his day. He was rewarded with a pension of £2,000 a year, later served as First Lord of the Admiralty (1766–1771) and was made Baron Hawke in 1776.

Hubert de Brienne, Comte de Conflans (1690–1777), a Marshal of France, commanded the French fleet. He was widely blamed for the defeat and never held sea command again.

Étienne-François, Duc de Choiseul (1719–1785), the French minister who devised the invasion plan, went on to rebuild the French navy after the war.

By the numbers

Figures for French losses are estimates; many men drowned when the Thésée and the Superbe sank.

Consequences

The invasion of Britain was abandoned, and d’Aiguillon’s army was dispersed. The French Atlantic fleet had ceased to exist as an effective force, and France could no longer reinforce its colonies in strength. That helped Britain complete the conquest of Canada after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and later to win in India and the Caribbean.

Quiberon Bay was the last of the great British victories of 1759, which also included Minden, Lagos, Quebec and Guadeloupe. Contemporaries called it the “year of victories” or annus mirabilis, the wonderful year.

Legacy

The battle became a model of aggressive naval leadership, comparable in British memory to Trafalgar in 1805. The French name, the Bataille des Cardinaux, recalls the rocks where it began. The song Heart of Oak, written by David Garrick with music by William Boyce in 1759, celebrates this “wonderful year” and remains the official march of the Royal Navy.

Timeline

• 1759, May: Hawke begins the close blockade of Brest.
• 1759, 18–19 August: British victory over a French squadron at Lagos, Portugal.
• 1759, 13 September: Battle of the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec.
• 1759, early November: Gales force Hawke back to Torbay.
• 1759, 14 November: Conflans sails from Brest; Hawke leaves Torbay.
• 1759, 20 November, morning: The British sight the French fleet near Quiberon Bay.
• 1759, 20 November, afternoon: Hawke follows the French into the bay in a gale.
• 1759, 21 November: The Soleil Royal and the Héros are burned after running aground.

Why it matters

Quiberon Bay removed the threat of a French invasion and left Britain master of the seas. That naval supremacy underpinned British gains in the peace of 1763 and the growth of its empire over the following century.