Order of battle at the Battle of San Domingo The Battle of San Domingo was the last fleet engagement of the Napoleonic Wars , contested off the Southern coast of the Spanish colonial Captaincy General of Santo Domingo , then under French occupation , on 6 February 1806 . A British squadron of seven ships of the line under Vice - Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth surprised and destroyed a French squadron of five ships of the line led by Contre - Admiral Corentin Urbain Leissègues as the French sailed westwards along the San Domingo coast . Using his superior numbers and speed , Duckworth struck at the head of the French line with his leading ships while the slower eastern division of his squadron intercepted and captured the French stragglers . The only French ships to escape were two frigate s and a corvette – three ships of the line were captured and two destroyed , including Leissègues ' flagship , the 120 - gun " Impérial " . French casualties were estimated as more than 1 , 500 men killed and wounded and the British suffered nearly 350 casualties in the engagement , which lasted for just over two hours . Leissègues ' squadron had escaped from Brest on 13 December 1805 , taking advantage of a lapse in the British blockade . Sailing with another squadron under Contre - Admiral Jean - Baptiste Willaumez , Leissègues separated from Willaumez after two days and passed north of the Azores , where his ships were damaged and scattered by winter storms . Sailing for Santo Domingo to reconstitute his squadron and make urgent repairs , Leissègues arrived on 20 January 1806 . Duckworth had been tasked with watching the remnants of the French and Spanish fleets in Cádiz following the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 , but in November had gone hunting to the south in search of a French raiding squadron and on his route back to his station had encountered a frigate that reported the escape of Leissègues and Willaumez . Sailing in pursuit , Duckworth encountered Willaumez on 25 December but refused battle and instead sailed for the West Indies to replenish his supplies before making the journey back to European waters . News reached him of the French arrival while anchored at Basseterre on 1 February and he immediately sailed to investigate , joined by part of the West Indies squadron under Rear - Admiral Alexander Cochrane . British squadron . Duckworth ' s squadron was principally formed from his original Cádiz squadron , except for HMS " Powerful " which had been sent to the Indian Ocean in December 1805 , and with the addition of two ships from the West Indies squadron under Cochrane , HMS " Northumberland " and HMS " Atlas " . Frigate s and smaller craft joined the fleet as it sailed north through the Leeward Islands , but none were engaged during the battle itself except to act as tows for the more seriously damaged ships of the line . As he approached the French line , Duckworth separated his force into two divisions : a western force to windward under Duckworth himself and a slower eastern force led by Duckworth ' s second in command Rear - Admiral Thomas Louis . During the engagement the divisions became separated and as a result Duckworth ' s division fought the strongest French forces at the head of the line . Louis was initially engaged with the French rear , but later assisted his commander against the huge " Impérial " during the final stages of the battle . British casualties were recorded in detail in Duckworth ' s despatches , based on the returns of each ship , although they were not evenly distributed : HMS " Agamemnon " arrived late in the battle and suffered minimal losses , while " Northumberland " was heavily engaged with the French flagship and suffered correspondingly severe casualties . French squadron . Contre - Admiral Leissègues ' squadron was unchanged from the force that left Brest on 13 December . All ships however , especially " Jupiter " and " Diomède " , had been badly damaged by storms off the Azores in late December and repairs were incomplete by the time of Duckworth ' s attack , most the fleet still undergoing caulking at Santo Domingo . Recognising that if he was caught at anchor he would be destroyed , Leissègues sent orders from his offices in Santo Domingo for the fleet to sail , joining them later by small boat . Trapped against the land with the wind from the west , Leissègues had no option but to form a line of battle and wait to meet the British squadron . Although his ships fought hard , they were unable to mutually support one another and were rapidly overwhelmed : three surrendered , while " Diomède " and " Impérial " were driven ashore and wrecked to prevent their capture . The only ships to escape were the two frigates and a corvette that and slipped between the French line and the land early in the battle and made sail to the west , eventually reaching France . French casualties are hard to calculate , as the best available source is the vague totals submitted by Duckworth in his account to the Admiralty . He estimates , apparently based on reports by the senior remaining French officers on " Alexandre " , " Jupiter " and " Brave " , that those three ships suffered 760 casualties in total . These accounts were subsequently called into question by historian William James , who considered them too high . James also criticised the assumed totals for " Impérial " and " Diomède " , which are even less certain but reportedly totalled 500 and 250 respectively . In addition to those killed and wounded , the entire surviving crews of " Alexandre " , " Jupiter " and " Brave " were taken prisoner , as were 150 men from " Diomède " and six from " Impérial " seized by British boarding parties on 8 February .