Battle at The Lizard

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The naval Battle at the Lizard took place on 21 October 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession near Lizard Point, Cornwall between two French squadrons under René Duguay-Trouin and Claude de Forbin and an English convoy protected by a squadron under Commodore Richard Edwards.

During this war the French and Spanish fleet could not face the English and Dutch in an open sea battle and therefore had switched to privateering. Duguay-Trouin and Forbin were two of the most successful and they had caused much damage to the allied merchant fleet.

On 20 October 1707 a large merchant fleet consisting of 80 to 130 English ships left Plymouth for Portugal with supplies for the war in Spain. There were five escorting English ships under command of Commodore Edwards.

The next day near Lizard Point they were spotted by 2 French squadrons of 6 ships each. Technically Forbin was the senior French officer, but Duguay-Trouin was the more aggressive, and his ships led the attack and suffered most of the damage, after Forbin's had discovered the British convoy.

This battle was a complete victory for the French: Cumberland, Chester and Ruby were taken, but Royal Oak escaped into Kinsale with a few merchantmen. Devonshire defended herself for several hours against seven French ships until she caught fire and blew up, only two men escaping out of 900.

Ships involved:

1 France
2 Britain (Richard Edwards)
3 Notes
4 Links

[edit] France

Duguay-Trouin's squadron
Lys 74 (2nd flag)
Achille 66
Jason 54
Maure 50
Gloire 40
Amazon 36

Forbin's squadron
Mars 60 (flag)
?
?
?
Blackwall 54 (recently captured from the British)
Salisbury 52 (recently captured from the British)

[edit] Britain (Richard Edwards)

Cumberland 80 - Captured by Lys and Gloire
Devonshire 80 - Exploded
Royal Oak 76 - Escaped
Chester 50 - Captured
Ruby 50 - Captured
80 to 130 merchant ships

[edit] Notes

There is no unanimity on the number of merchant ships captured. French sources speak of 60 ships out of 80, some British of none at all.

The fact that René Duguay-Trouin and Claude de Forbin quarrelled for many years about which of the two squadrons had the biggest role in the victory, points to a considerable number of ships captured.

Probably the truth is somewhere in between: Polak in "Bibliographie maritime française" speaks of 15 merchant ships captured.