hannel toward which de Grasse turned his fleet is known as
the Saints' Passage from a little group of islands, "les isles des
Saintes," lying to the north of it. In the course of the pursuit,
Hood, with the British van division of nine ships, had got ahead of
the rest and offered a tempting opening for attack in superior force.
If de Grasse had grasped his opportunity he might have inflicted a
crushing blow on Rodney and upset the balance of superiority. But
the lack of aggressiveness in the French doctrine was again fatal
to French success. De Grasse merely sent his second in command
to conduct a skirmish at long range--and thus threw his chance
away.

The light winds and baffling calms kept both fleets idle for a day.
On the 11th de Grasse tried to work his fleet through the channel
on short tacks. Just as he had almost accomplished his purpose he
discovered several of his vessels still so far to westward as to
be in danger of capture. In order to rescue these he gave up the
fruits of laborious beating against the head wind and returned.
The following morning, April 12 (1782), discovered the two fleets
to the west of the strait and so near that the French could no
longer evade battle. The French came down on the port tack and the
British stood toward them, with their admiral's signal flying to
"engage to leeward." When the two lines converged to close range,
the leading British ship shifted her course slightly so as to run
parallel with that of the French, and the two fleets sailed past each
other firing broadsides. So far the battle had followed traditional
line-ahead pattern.

Just as the leading ship of the British came abreast of the rearmost
of the French, the wind suddenly veered to the southward, checking
the speed of the French ships and swinging their bows over toward
the English line. At best a line of battle in the sailing ship
days was an uneven straggling formation, and the effect of this
flaw of wind, dead ahead, was to break up the French line into
irregular groups separated by wide gaps. One of these opened up
ahead as Rodney's flagship, the _Formidable_, forged past the French
line. His fleet captain, Douglas, saw the opportunity and pleaded
with Rodney to cut through the gap. "No," he replied, "I will not
break my line." Douglas insisted. A moment later, as the _Formidable_
came abreast of the opening, the opportunity proved too tempting
and Rodney gave his consent. His battle signal, "engage the