page_title: Troude's expedition to the Caribbean
section_title: Îles des Saintes
hierarchical_section_title: Troude's expedition to the Caribbean / Îles des Saintes
caption_attribution_description: Map of the French overseas département of Guadeloupe showing major cities.
context_page_description: Troude's expedition to the Caribbean was a naval operation by a French force under Commodore Amable-Gilles Troude during the Napoleonic Wars. The French squadron departed from Lorient in February 1809 in an attempt to reach and resupply the island colony of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, then under invasion from a British expeditionary force. The force arrived much too late to affect the outcome of the successful invasion and took shelter from a British squadron in the Îles des Saintes, where they were blockaded by part of the British invasion fleet, led by Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane. Two weeks after the French ships arrived, British troops invaded and captured the Saintes, constructing mortar batteries to bombard the French squadron. With his position unsustainable, Commodore Troude decided to break out.
  Attempting to escape under cover of darkness on 14 April, the French squadron was spotted by a number of small British ships stationed close inshore. These ships raised the alarm and the main British squadron followed in pursuit.
context_section_description: Troude was wary on his arrival in the Leeward Islands on 29 March, refusing to approach Martinique and instead anchoring near the Îles des Saintes until the situation in the islands could be established. Before he could make contact with nearby Guadeloupe, he was discovered by patrolling British warships and a warning sent to Cochrane, who was on his flagship HMS Neptune off Martinique. Within hours Neptune was cruising off the Saintes, joined by the ships of the line HMS Pompee, HMS York, HMS Belleisle, HMS Captain, HMS Polyphemus and a number of smaller warships that could operate closer inshore. Blockading the Saintes was a difficult task: the French had three channels through which they could escape, too many to be effectively blocked by the forces at Cochrane's disposal. In addition, Troude's force could not be attacked directly, the width of the channels making it impossible for the British ships to attack in full strength.
  For two weeks the British and French squadrons watched one another, the British unable to attack and the French unable to escape. In an effort to break the deadlock, Cochrane sent to Martinique for a body of 3,000 men under Major-General Frederick Maitland. With this force he launched a surprise invasion of the islands on 14 April, the amphibious operation commanded by Captain Philip Beaver in HMS Acasta and executed successfully with only minor casualties. Parties of seamen went ashore in the wake of the soldiers, working rapidly to establish a battery of two 8-inch howitzers on Morne-Russell. These guns began firing during the afternoon and by 20:00 Troude had given orders for his squadron to sail through the western channel during the night.
  In their efforts to monitor the French, Cochrane's squadron had become divided, so that Neptune and Pompee were the only ships within reach of Troude's squadron when they passed through the channel. Neither ship was well placed to fight the larger French force and both were taken by surprise, only alerted to the French escape by the brig HMS Hazard under Captain Hugh Cameron shortly before 22:00. Pompee was closest to the French, and Captain William Charles Fahie managed to fire two broadsides into the rearmost ship, Hautpoult before Troude's squadron pulled away from her. Neptune, Pompee and the small brig HMS Recruit took up the chase, the fast Recruit annoying the French with persistent minor attacks, while Neptune came too close to Hautpoult and was fired on, losing one man killed and four wounded. The French escape, while necessitated by the British battery, was actually a feint: the frigates Félicité and Furieuse had remained hidden off the Saintes during the night and at 09:00 on 15 April, with the main combat continuing to the west, slipped away into Basse-Terre on Guadeloupe, chased in vain by HMS Intrepid under Captain Warwick Lake. French batteries drove off the British pursuit and the frigates were anchored in harbour and their stores successfully unloaded.
caption: Guadeloupe and associated islands. The Saintes are in the southwest corner
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