Battle of the Saintes (or Battle of Dominica or of the Saintes). Thirty-six English warships under the command of Sir George Rodney faced thirty-three warships under the command of Count François Joseph Paul de Grasse. The English lost 1,259 sailors killed or wounded, the French approximately 2,000, and 5,000 were captured aboard four ships, while a fifth was sunk. One of the captured ships was the gunboat Ville de Paris, carrying François Joseph Paul de Grasse, along with 104 cannons in three rows. The Ville de Paris sank in a storm on its return to England. Tactically, the battle was won thanks to a movement of English ships that broke ranks and attacked the French from leeward (also the name of the northern English Antilles: Leeward Islands, while the southern ones are the Windward Islands). The French fleet was the same one that had defended the siege of Yorktown from the English fleet.
