A minor 1780 naval engagement off County Cork illustrating British efforts to suppress French privateering during the American Revolutionary War.
Key Facts
- Date
- 13 August 1780
- French privateer guns
- 64 guns
- HMS Bienfaisant guns
- 64 guns
- HMS Charon guns
- 44 guns
- French privateer name
- Comte d'Artois
- British commander
- John MacBride
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following Admiral Rodney's relief of Gibraltar in early 1780, HMS Bienfaisant was assigned to patrol the Irish coast. Reports in early August indicated the 64-gun French privateer Comte d'Artois had sailed from Brest to cruise along Ireland's south coast, threatening British merchant convoys departing from Cork.
On 13 August 1780, HMS Bienfaisant under Captain John MacBride and the 44-gun HMS Charon intercepted the Comte d'Artois off the Old Head of Kinsale, County Cork, after sighting the privateer chasing ships from a British convoy. The two Royal Navy vessels engaged the French privateer in a minor naval battle.
The source does not detail the outcome of the engagement explicitly, but the action represented a British naval effort to neutralize the French privateering threat off the Irish south coast during the broader conflict of the American Revolutionary War, protecting merchant convoys operating out of Cork.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
John MacBride.
Side B
1 belligerent