Duel - 1721 - April 14 - French Frigate engaged off Charlestown

Ships in Action:
HMS Centurion, 40, Minerva-class fifth rate, Captain Collister

French Frigate, 36, Discovery-class fifth rate, Captain Norris DeMontford

Action Setup:
With the pending battle of Roseau not far off, the waters of the Northern Antilles were hotly contested and infested with French and Spanish privateers. During a short journey from Orleans towards St. John's, Captain Collister of the Centurion spotted a French privateer, looming to the west of Charlestown. The British frigate immediately set full sail to engage. Captain DeMontford proved no coward and did not decline the engagement despite being in a suitable position for a retreat.

The Action Itself:
Being in the outer reaches of the contested waters, the French privateer had the luxury of choosing when to engage and did so commendably with the wind on his stern. Caught in the enemy's lee, Captain Collister brought his larboard battery to bear as the French Captain closed the distance between their vessels. The initial few minutes of combat consisted of an exchange of dismantling shot. Neither Captain succeeded in damaging the other's vessel to any remarkable extent and the Frigates soon both reloaded with roundshot.

Now the differences in the calibre of the Frigates guns showed, and the French ship suffered heavily from the 12 pounders aboard the Centurion. Captain DeMontford, however, succeeded in handling his nimble fifth-rate to its full capacity and kept to windward of the Centurion, controlling the engagement. At some point either grapeshot or canister shot must have been fired upon the Centurion as the amount of crew rapidly declined aboard her. This rendered her steering, acceleration and indeed any control of the vessel most difficult, and without the ability to handle the Centurion Captain Collister found himself raked from the stern without a possibility of bringing his own guns to bear.

With the action taking a dire turn for the worst, the Centurion's surgeon did his best to get men back up to the deck, but to no avail. The crew could not recover quickly enough and the Centurion was soon holed severely. However, with a feint larboard turn and then a relatively quick turn to starboard, Captain Collister managed to bring his guns to bear once more and fired four broadsides into the French Frigate. The two Frigates began to withdraw from eachother and the crew of both ships set about repairs. However, once again Captain DeMontford managed to come around the stern of the disabled and barely manned Centurion and fired the last shots of the engagement into the Centurion's stern. With water pouring into the hold and the ship on the point of foundering, the Centurion's crew was forced to take to her boats.

The Result:
A defeat, and a bitter one at that.

Lessons Learned:
The battle had swung both ways and in the end was a damned near-run thing. I learned two valuable lessons however, and they are the following:

1) When one is in control of the heavier vessel, heavier guns that is, it is not advisable to use dismantling shot; instead, one ought use roundshot and deal so much damage to smaller vessels that they dare not continue the engagement or sink.

2) Loss of crew, though sad in its own way and the cause of heaps of paper-work, had never seemed to me a serious danger in engagements. It was however to my horror that I realised the amount of damage crew losses cause to the sailing capacity of a ship. Henceforth, I shall take better care not to lose man and the hideous rate of this battle.