Battle -1722 - January 20 - Defense of Bridgetown

Ships in Action:
British Fleet

SGS Captains

Captain the Lord Robert Middlemore - '''HMS Superb

Captain Paul Melhuish - '''HMS Hammerhead

Captain Edward Southwick - '''HMS King George

21 other British Captains (Fleet being 7 3rd rates 8 Hercules mastercrafted frigates and mix of Macedons and Heavy Hercules frigates)

French Fleet

24 French Captains in 6 third rates and mostly Macedons and heavy frigates.

Action Setup:
I hereby report the events during the battle for Bridgetown. On January, 20st 1722 a British fleet consisting of 24 ships and commanded by Admiral Wild Fire fought a French detchement of equal strength lead by Admiral Ubert le Danois.

HMS King George was assigned to White squadron commanded by Commodore Randy Bear. I had the honor to sail alongside Captain Melhuish and Captain the Lord Middlemore who were also part of white squadron.

The battle took place on the Arch Coastline Map during a storm.

The Action Itself:
After leaving port the British fleet formed line with green squadron commanded by Captain Brogsitter leading the the formation. Followed by black group and white group who formed double line, while red group was forming at the rear of the line. After the French fleet was closing in on the nose of our fleet, green group disengaged and reformed at the rear of the line. The French fleet then turned to linefight with main of the British fleet. After several of the leading French ships past the leading ships of our line, Admiral Wild Fire ordered the fleet to turn into the French line and split it. With charging towards land the general idea was to cut through the enemy line and then turn right and form line again. While cutting through the enemy fleet, several ships of white group got stuck between French ships and sailed onto the beach. At this point white group took heavy damage loosing 3 ships. Captains Melhuish, Shropshire and me got caught between a French Reason class ship and a Macedon class ship. With the rest of the fleet reforming into line, our sterns where now exposed to the French fleet. The heavy frigates of green and red group attacked the enemy giving us time to sink the Reason and the Macedon. Captain Melhuish then sailed forward to cover the stern of my ship and helped me turning away from the island by pushing my ship. Once we were clear again, we were able to rejoin the British fleet sucessfully sinking a Wenden class ship and 3 Macedon class ships at the end of the line. After taking heavy losses from the reformed British fleet the enemy line broke and they turned to flee from battle. Several surrenders were taken at this point. The British fleet chased down the remaining French ships, that refused to surrender.

The Result:
The battle for Bridgetown was over and the port was defended.

God save the King!

British Losses

7 (1 Valiant, 2 HMCs, 2 Macedons, 2 HHs)

French Losses

15 (3 Wendens, 3 Valiants, 3-4 HMCs, Macedons, Reasons, HHs)

Lessons Learned:
This was one of the most exciting port battles i ever fought. When charging into the French fleet and clashing onto the beach i thought - this is over. The heavy frigates saved the day for us by buying us the them to reform and engange the enemy again. So it is not my place to critisise the commanding Admiral i learned it can lead to a terrible disaster when charing towards an island.