ans of their large frigates,
independent of ships of the line."[64] On the other hand, the
_Cornwall, Grafton_, and _Lion_, though they got their heads round,
could not keep up with the fleet (c', c"), and were dropping also to
leeward--towards the enemy. At noon, or soon after, d'Estaing bore
up with the body of his force to join some of his vessels that had
fallen to leeward. Byron very properly--under his conditions of
inferiority--kept his wind; and the separation of the two fleets, thus
produced, caused firing to cease at 1 P.M.

The enemies were now ranged on parallel lines, some distance apart;
still on the starboard tack, heading north-north west. Between the
two, but far astern, the _Cornwall, Grafton, Lion_, and a fourth
British ship, the _Fame_, were toiling along, greatly crippled. At 3
P.M., the French, now in good order, tacked together (t, t, t), which
caused them to head towards these disabled vessels. Byron at once
imitated the movement, and the eyes of all in the two fleets anxiously
watched the result. Captain Cornwallis of the _Lion_, measuring the
situation accurately, saw that, if he continued ahead, he would be
in the midst of the French by the time he got abreast of them. Having
only his foremast standing, he put his helm up, and stood broad off
before the wind (c"), across the enemy's bows, for Jamaica. He was
not pursued. The other three, unable to tack and afraid to wear, which
would put them also in the enemy's power, stood on, passed to windward
of the latter, receiving several broadsides, and so escaped to the
northward. The _Monmouth_ was equally maltreated; in fact, she had
not been able to tack to the southward with the fleet. Continuing
north (a'), she became now much separated. D'Estaing afterwards
reestablished his order of battle on the port tack, forming upon the
then leewardmost ship, on the line BC.

Byron's action off Grenada, viewed as an isolated event, was the most
disastrous in results that the British Navy had fought since Beachy
Head, in 1690. That the _Cornwall, Grafton_, and _Lion_ were not
captured was due simply to the strained and inept caution of the
French admiral. This Byron virtually admitted. "To my great surprise
no ship of the enemy was detached after the _Lion_. The _Grafton_ and
_Cornwall_ might have been weathered by the French, if they had kept
their wind,... but they persevered so strictly in declining every
chance of close action that they contented them