The French had entered the American Revolutionary War on behalf of the rebels and were conducting actions in the Caribbean to try to take over British colonies there. On 7 September 1778, the French governor of
Martinique, the
marquis de Bouillé, surprised and captured the British island of
Dominica. On 4 November, French
Admiral Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, Comte d'Estaing sailed for the West Indies from the port of
Boston, Massachusetts. On that same day,
Commodore William Hotham was dispatched from
Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to reinforce the British fleet in the West Indies. Hotham sailed with "five men of war, a bomb vessel, some frigates, and a large convoy." The convoy Hotham was escorting consisted of 59 transports carrying 5,000 British soldiers under Major General Grant. The French fleet was blown off course by a violent storm, preventing it from arriving in the Caribbean ahead of the British.
Admiral Samuel Barrington, the British naval commander stationed on the
Leeward Islands, joined the newly arrived Commodore Hotham on 10 December at the island of
Barbados. Grant's men were not permitted to disembark and spent the next several days aboard their transports. Barrington and Hotham sailed for the island of
St. Lucia on the morning of 12 December. supported by additional troops under
Brigadier General William Medows and
Brigadier General Robert Prescott, landed at Grand Cul de Sac, St. Lucia. Grant and Prescott took control of the high ground around the bay, while Medows continued on and took
Vigie the following morning (14 December). On 14 December the French fleet under d’Estaing arrived, forcing Admiral Barrington to move his ships into line of battle and forgo his plan of moving the transports into Carénage Bay. == Battle ==