he relief of Cornwallis, and
that it was expedient for Graves to remain in command until after this
expedition. He could not start, however, until the 18th of October,
by which time Cornwallis's fate was decided. Graves then departed for
Jamaica to supersede Sir Peter Parker. On the 11th of November Hood
sailed from Sandy Hook with eighteen ships of the line, and on the
5th of December anchored at Barbados. On the 5th of November de Grasse
also quitted the continent with his whole fleet, and returned to the
West Indies.

[Footnote 94: _Ante_, p. 153.]

[Footnote 95: See _ante_, p. 153.]

[Footnote 96: Along the north coast of Cuba, between it and the Bahama
Banks.]

[Footnote 97: The _Ville de Paris_, to which Troude attributes 104
guns. She was considered the biggest and finest ship of her day.]

[Footnote 98: This reproduced the blunder of Byng, between
whose action and the one now under discussion there is a marked
resemblance.]

[Footnote 99: _I.e._ she had stopped.]

[Footnote 100: Hood himself.]

[Footnote 101: Letters of Lord Hood, p. 32. Navy Records Society. My
italics. Concerning the crucial fact of the signal for the line of
battle being kept flying continuously until 5.30 P.M., upon which
there is a direct contradiction between Hood and the log of the
_London_, it is necessary to give the statement of Captain Thomas
White, who was present in the action in one of the rear ships. "If the
_London's_ log, or the log of any other individual ship in the fleet,
confirm this statement," (that Hood was dilatory in obeying the order
for close action), "I shall be induced to fancy that what I that
day saw and heard was a mere chimera of the brain, and that what I
believed to be the signal for the line was not a union jack, but an
_ignis fatuus_ conjured up to mock me." White and Hood also agree
that the signal for the line was rehoisted at 6.30. (White: "Naval
Researches," London, 1830, p. 45.)]

[Footnote 102: "Letters of Lord Hood." Navy Records Society, p. 35.]

CHAPTER XI

NAVAL EVENTS OF 1781 IN EUROPE. DARBY'S RELIEF OF GIBRALTAR, AND THE
BATTLE OF THE DOGGER BANK

In Europe, during the year 1781, the two leading questions which
dominated the action of the belligerents were the protection, or
destruction, of commerce, and the attack and defence of Gibraltar. The
British Channel Fleet was much inferior to the aggregate sea forces of
France and Spain in the waters of Europe; and the Dutch n