of the line to oppose the
thirty that were with De Grasse at Martinique. In the English fleet there
were five great three-deckers, three of them carrying 98 and two of them 90
guns. There were twenty-one 74's, a 70-gun ship, and nine 64's. In the
French fleet there was one of the largest war vessels then afloat, De
Grasse's flagship, the "Ville de Paris," of 104 guns. There were five ships
of 80 guns, twenty of 74, one of 70, and three of 64. This enumeration
gives Rodney an advantage of six ships and more than two hundred guns. It
is quite true that the ships of the same rating in the French service were
generally larger than the English, but even apart from numbers, the latter
had advantages in armament that were more important than any trifling
difference in size. The English guns were mostly mounted on an improved
system that gave a larger arc of training fore and aft, the practical
result being that as ships passed each other the Frenchman was kept longer
under fire than the Englishman. Further, the English ships mounted, besides
the guns counted in their armament, a number of carronades, mounted on the
upper decks, short guns of large calibre, throwing a heavy shot when the
fighting was carried on at close quarters, a weapon not yet introduced in
the French navy. Thanks to these improvements in the armament of his ships,
Rodney had an advantage in gun-power beyond the mere superiority in numbers
of ships and guns. He had a further advantage in the fact that a larger
number of his ships were copper-sheathed. This meant less fouling while the
ships were waiting at their anchorage, and therefore better speed for the
English when they put to sea.

De Grasse was encumbered with a large convoy of merchantmen and storeships,
and many of his ships were overcrowded with the troops destined for the
descent on Jamaica. It was expected that when he sailed it would be to
form, in the first instance, a junction with the Spanish part of the
expedition off San Domingo. Rodney kept his fleet at St. Lucia, ready to
weigh anchor on the shortest notice, and a smart frigate, the "Andromache"
(commanded by Captain Byron, grandfather of the poet), cruised off
Martinique, watching the Frenchman.

At dawn on 8 April Byron saw that the French were coming out, and he
hastened to St. Lucia under press of sail with the news. Off the port he
flew the signal that told Rodney that De Grasse was at sea. Anchors came up
and sails were shaken out,