Battle of the Windward Passage
The Battle of the Windward Passage was a small naval action between French and British fleets that occurred on 17 to 19 October 1760 during the Seven Years war. The action took place in the Caribbean between Cap-François and Eastern Cuba and resulted in a British victory. At dawn on 17 October 1760, Admiral Charles Holmes in the 50-gun "Hampshire", Captain Coningsby Norbury, took HMS "Boreas", Samuel Uvedale, and the 20-gun "Lively", Frederick Lewis Maitland, to intercept a French convoy they had sighted in the Windward Passage. The convoy was escorted by  the 32-frigates "Sirène", "Duc de Choiseul", "Prince Edward", and "Fleur de Lys", and the 20-gun corvette "Valeur". The British gave chase but light winds slowed hampered them so it was evening before the lead ship "Boreas" could engage "Sirène". French fire disabled "Boreas" aloft with the result that "Boreas" could not engage "Sirène" again until the following afternoon. "Boreas" emerged victorious from the engagement, capturing "Sirène", which suffered about 80 men killed and wounded, most of whom died later; "Boreas" lost only one man killed and one wounded. The next day "Lively", using her sweeps, caught up at  daybreak with the rearmost French vessel, "Valeur". She had a crew of 160 men under the command of a Captain Talbot. "Lively" overhauled her off the eastern tip of Cuba and pounded her into submission after an engagement of 90 minutes. "Lively" had two men killed but no wounded; "Valeur" had 38 killed and 25 wounded, including her captain, master, and boatswain. At the same time "Hampshire", off the coast of Sainte Domingue, chased the frigate "Prince Edward" on shore where the 180 crewmen under the command of Captain Dubois set fire to her, causing her to blow up. "Duc  de Choiseul", with 180 men under the command of Captain Bellevan, escaped into Port-de-Paix. "Fleur de Lys", with 190 crewmen under the command of Captain Diguarty, was found in an unprotected bay to leeward on 19 October; her crew scuttled her to prevent capture by "Hampshire". The British also captured three merchant frigates – two carried cargoes of sugar and indigo and had only been a day out of Cap-François. , "Boreas", , and , shared by agreement in the prize money for "Sirene", "Valeur", the merchant ships "Maria", "Elizabeth", and "Pursue".