page_title: Battle of Negapatam (1782)
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Negapatam (1782) / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a detail from a period map showing the major coastal colonial outposts in southern India and Ceylon in 1794. Control of many of these outposts changed hands during the 18th century; which state (usually France, the Dutch Republic, or the United Kingdom) controls which locations is not shown.
context_page_description: The Battle of Negapatam was the third in the series of battles fought between a British fleet, under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, and a French fleet, under the Bailli de Suffren, off the coast of India during the American Revolutionary War. The battle was fought on 6 July 1782. The battle was indecisive but Suffren was stopped in his goal by Hughes and withdrew to Cuddalore, while the British remained in control of Negapatam.
context_section_description: Suffren was in the process of forming his battle line around 3 pm when a squall took down the main and mizzen top masts of Ajax, under Bouvet-Précourt, forcing her to drop out of his line.  When the squall calmed, the breeze was to Hughes' advantage so he sailed from his anchorage at the harbour of Negapatam. The two fleets spent the night anchored two cannonshots apart.
  The next morning, Suffren was infuriated to learn that repairs had not been made to Ajax, and that her captain wanted to retreat. Given that battle was imminent, Suffren refused. He then ordered his line to bear down on the British line for close action. As they began to move, Ajax stood away and did not join the action. At 9:30 am on 6 July, the fleets opened fire on each other, first at long range. Flamand engaged Hero and Exeter, Annibal engaged Isis, Sévère faced Burford, and Brillant opposed Sultan while the two flagships, Héros and Superb, did battle with each other. The remainder of the British line was not able to directly line up against the French, resulting in an angle in their line where Sphinx and Monarca battled that minimized the action between the ships at the end of the line. Flamand took significant damage, but was able to return the favour to its opponents. Brillant began to suffer under the fire of Sultan, but Suffren managed to detach from Héros to come to her rescue.
  The battle proceeded with vigour until about 1 pm, when the wind suddenly changed, throwing both lines into confusion. With the wind head-on to the two parallel lines of ships, some ships turned to starboard and some to port. The majority turned away from the engagement but six ships, four British and two French, turned in towards one another. The four British ships were the fourth, fifth, eighth and tenth in line, respectively Burford, Sultan, Worcester and Eagle; the two French were Sévère (third in line) and towards the rear of the line Brillant, which was dismasted by this stage. Sévère was engaged by Sultan and "two other ships", and escaped through the arrival of Suffren in his flagship and the filling of her sails as she fell off to starboard, while Brillant was fired on by Worcester and Eagle, and was also rescued by the approach of Suffren's ship, though not before the loss of over a third of her complement dead or wounded.
  With occasional meetings between two ships, Hughes attempted to reform his line around 2 pm, but neither fleet was in a state to adopt battle positions easily, so Suffren decided to draw away downwind, to the north, toward Cuddalore. One British observer noted that "our fleet was utterly incapable of preventing or pursuing them".
caption: Detail of a 1794 map of south India and Ceylon. Batticaloa is north of the southeastern point of Ceylon
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