Battle of Quiberon Bay The naval Battle of Quiberon Bay took place on 20 November 1759 during the Seven Years ' War in Quiberon Bay , off the coast of France near St . Nazaire . The British Admiral Sir Edward Hawke with 24 ships of the line caught up with a French fleet with 21 ships of the line under Marshal de Conflans and , after hard fighting , sank , captured , or forced aground six of them and dispersed the rest , giving the Royal Navy one of its greatest victories , as part of the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 . In French it is known as Bataille des Cardinaux . Background . During 1759 , the British , under Hawke , maintained a close blockade on the French coast in the vicinity of Brest . In that year the French had made plans to invade England and Scotland , and had accumulated transports and troops around the Loire estuary . The defeat of the Mediterranean fleet at the Battle of Lagos in August made the invasion plans impossible , but Choiseul still contemplated a plan for Scotland , and so the fleet was ordered to escape the blockade and collect the transports assembled in the Gulf of Morbihan . During the first week of November a westerly gale came up and , after three days , the ships of Hawke ' s blockade were forced to run for Torbay on the south coast of England . Robert Duff was left behind in Quiberon Bay , with a squadron of five ' fifties ' and nine frigates to keep an eye on the transports . In the meantime , a small squadron from the West Indies joined Conflans in Brest and , when an easterly wind came on the 14th , Conflans slipped out . He was sighted by which had remained on station off Brest despite the storms but which failed to rendezvous with Hawke , by & which tried to warn Duff but were apparently chased off by the French , and by the victualler " Love and Unity " returning from Quiberon , which sighted the French fleet at 2pm on the 15th , 70 miles west of Belle - Isle . She met Hawke the next day and he sailed hard for Quiberon into a SSE gale . Meanwhile had arrived in Quiberon Bay the night before to warn Duff and he had put his squadron to sea in the teeth of a WNW gale . Battle . Having struggled with unfavourable winds , Conflans had slowed down on the night of the 19th in order to arrive at Quiberon at dawn . 20 miles off Belleisle he sighted seven of Duff ' s squadron . Once he realised that this was not the main British fleet , he gave chase . Duff split his ships to the north and south , with the French van and centre in pursuit , whilst the rearguard held off to windward to watch some strange sails appearing from the west . The French broke off the pursuit but were still scattered as Hawke ' s fleet came into sight . sighted the French at 8 . 30 and Hawke gave the signal for line abreast . Conflans was faced with a choice , to fight in his current disadvantageous position in high seas and a " very violent " WNW wind , or take up a defensive position in Quiberon Bay and dare Hawke to come into the labyrinth of shoals and reefs . About 9am Hawke gave the signal for general chase , along with a new signal for the first 7 ships to form a line ahead and , in spite of the weather and the dangerous waters , set full sail . By 2 . 30 Conflans rounded Les Cardinaux , the rocks at the end of the Quiberon peninsula that give the battle its name in French . The first shots were heard as he did so , although Sir John Bentley in " Warspite " claimed that they were fired without his orders . However the British were starting to overtake the rear of the French fleet even as their van and centre made it to the safety of the bay . Just before 4pm the battered " Formidable " surrendered to the , just as Hawke himself rounded The Cardinals . Meanwhile " Thésée " lost her duel with HMS " Torbay " and foundered , " Superbe " capsize d , and the badly damaged " Héros " struck her flag to Viscount Howe before running aground on the Four Shoal during the night . Meanwhile the wind shifted to the NW , further confusing Conflans ' half - formed line as they tangled together in the face of Hawke ' s daring pursuit . Conflans tried unsuccessfully to resolve the muddle , but in the end decided to put to sea again . His flagship , " Soleil Royal " , headed for the entrance to the bay just as Hawke was coming in on . Hawke saw an opportunity to rake " Soleil Royal " , but " Intrépide " interposed herself and took the fire . Meanwhile " Soleil Royal " had fallen to leeward and was forced to run back and anchor off Croisic , away from the rest of the French fleet . By now it was about 5pm and darkness had fallen , so Hawke made the signal to anchor . During the night eight French ships managed to do what " Soleil Royal " had failed to do , to navigate through the shoals to the safety of the open sea , and escape to Rochefort . Seven ships and the frigates were in the Villaine estuary ( just off the map above , to the east ) , but Hawke dared not attack them in the stormy weather . The French jettisoned their guns and gear and used the rising tide and northwesterly wind to escape over the sandbar at the bottom of the Villaine river . One of these ships was wrecked , and the remaining six were trapped throughout 1760 by a blockading British squadron and only later managed to break out and reach Brest in 1761 / 1762 . The badly damaged " Juste " was lost as she made for the Loire , 150 of her crew surviving the ordeal , and grounded on the Four Shoal during the night . " Soleil Royal " tried to escape to the safety of the batteries at Croisic , but pursued her with the result that both were wrecked on the Four Shoal beside " Heros " . On the 22nd the gale moderated , and three of Duff ' s ships were sent to destroy the beached ships . Conflans set fire to " Soleil Royal " while the British burnt " Heros " , as seen in the right of Richard Wright ' s painting . Hawke tried to attack the ships in the Villaine with fireboats , but to no effect . Aftermath . The power of the French fleet was broken , and would not recover before the war was over ; in the words of Alfred Thayer Mahan ( " The Influence of Sea Power upon History " ) , " The battle of 20 November 1759 was the Trafalgar of this war , and [ . . . ] the English fleets were now free to act against the colonies of France , and later of Spain , on a grander scale than ever before " . For instance , the French could not follow up their victory at the land Battle of Sainte - Foy in what is now Canada in 1760 for want of reinforcements and supplies from France , and so Quiberon Bay may be regarded as the battle that determined the fate of New France and hence Canada . France experienced a credit crunch as financiers recognised that Britain could now strike at will against French trade . The French government was forced to default on its debt .