The Battle of the Restigouche

On the 22nd of June, 1760, the French learned thatByron and his British fleet were off Heron Island. Laterthat day, a French schooner was attacked and captured byfour English boats. The French soon realized theywouldn't be able to withstand the magnitude of the Englishpower.
Map of Bay of Chaluer
When Giraudais received word of the power their foesretained, he landed four twelve pound cannons and one sixpound cannon, and quickly constructed a battery on thenorth shore of Pointe à la Batterie.

Byron's entire squadron reached the mouth of theRestigouche River on the 27th of June. Afterbeing seperated by foul weather the Repulse and theScarborough regrouped with Byron's Fame. TheAchilles andDorsetshire remained five leagues down river.

The English and the French fleets were ready for battle.The English fleet consisted of three warships and twofrigates:

The Fame with 74 gunsThe Dorsetshire with 70 gunsThe Achilles with 60 guns.The Repulse with 32 gunsThe Scarborough with 29 guns.To top it off the English had previously confiscatedfour gunned schooners. They had a total manpower of1700.

The French only had one frigate-the Machault with only 28guns, and two merchant ships: the Marquis de Malauze with16 guns, and the Bienfaisant with a meager 12 guns.

The total French manpower was approximately 450. Their Acadian allies offeredabout 20 schooners and small boats but they weren't ableto handle the firepower the English had to offer. TheFrench also had the support of the Acadian refugees andthe MicMac tribe which in total was about 1500 people onland. They had little strength for a counter attack not tomention defending themselves against the British navalattack.

Due to shallow waters, and limited knowledge of the area,the English were grounded several times. It took themthree days to cover nine intervening miles.

The only (and most vital) advantage the French had overthe English was their knowledge of the river; they wereable to maneuver better then the English. The shallowwaters bought the French some time so they continued to goup river, lightening their load to give more buoyancy.They also formed a blockade by sinking some of the Acadianschooners. Pointe-à-la-Batterie was ready to launch itssurprise attack on the English.

On the 27th of June, the Fame, the twofrigates, and the schooners finally succeeded inmaneuvering just beyond the chain of sunken ships. Once in range, the battery had received a major retaliation.This skirmish lasted all night and was repeated withvarious breaks from the 28thof June to the3rd of July.

While Byron and his ships were fighting the Frenchbattery, Giraudais stayed aboard the Machault and watched.By the 3rd of July, Byron was able to navigatethe Fame into the south channel which gave him the powerto crush Pointe à la Batterie, including 150 to 200 buildingswhich made up the Acadian village community at Pointe à laBatterie. The men at the battery retreated and re-grouped with the Machault.

At this point the French ships discharged most of theircargo and traveled three leagues up river. The Englishcleared the channel by raising some of the sunkenschooners from the blockade; it took them all day tocomplete the task. With less then two fathoms of water inthe river the English lightened their cargo to increasebuoyancy. This brought them within a short distance ofthe French vessels.

The French tried to maintain a blockade by sinking moreschooners along the way. With the knowledge they had ofthe waters they moved faster than the English. At thistime two new batteries were formed, one on the South shoreat Pointe de la Mission (today Listuguj, Quebec), and one onthe North shore at Pointe aux Sauvages (today Campbellton, New Brunswick).Giraudais had also placed the Machault in the middle of the river,armed and ready to go!

The Bienfaisant and the Marquis de Malauze were movedupstream. The English prisoners were placed in the latter's hold to keep themfrom the natives-who they feared would scalp them.

Giraudais took further precautions and formed anotherblockade with the Acadian schooners at Pointe auxSauvages.

"When Byron saw that his great battleships would be unableto navigate the Restigouche River, he placed his best menthroughout the frigates and a crew of 100 on a schooner.However the British were forced to withdraw on twoattempts, but succeeded in defeating the batteries on athird."3

On the 7th Byron spent the day getting rid ofthe battery at Pointe aux Sauvages and later returned tothe task of destroying the Machault. By the morning ofJuly 8th the Scarborough and the Repulse werein range of the blockade and face to face with the Machault.

Artist redition of the battle. cannons firing

The battle commenced early in the morning of July8th. The English carried out several violentblows to the Machault and the remaining battery. TheMachault launched acounter attack. The crews of the other two French vesselswere at the battery. The French were out gunned and outnumbered.

The British Repulse was taking a beating; "her sails wereshredded, her masts were toppled, her hull was pierced,and holes at the water line were visible."4

When the Repulse sank the water was so shallow the crewwas able to get off the ship and repair the damage. In notime it was up and ready for battle again. The Machaultsuffered the same fate but never sank. "The damage andcasualties were light for bothadversaries."5

Having divided up the Machault's gunpowder amongst thethree ships it soon ran out, so Giraudais sent some men tofetch more-unfortunately they never returned.

Without gunpowder Giraudais was powerless. He held ameeting with D'Angeac (the commander of troops), whowasn't going to leave until the ship was blown up. It wasa dark time for the Machault and the crew. Knowing the endwas eminent, Giraudais ordered the Machault and theBienfaisant to be scuttled so they would not fall intoenemy hands.

The Marquis de Malauze, with the English prisoners, wasmoved away from the combat. The prisoners refused to leave theship out of fear of being scalped by the natives, so theywere left on the ship to fend for themselves. The 62English prisoners were petrafied of being blown up at anymoment. One of the prisoners was so afraid he jumped offand swam to the Repulse, which was a league or two away, andinformed the English of the whereabouts of theother prisoners. Captain Allen of the Repulse sent nineboats to rescue the prisoners and then sunk the Marquis deMalauze, losing only six men.

At this point Byron sent a schooner and 17 boats tocapture or destroy any French ships still remaining. Theysafely got past the battery and launched an attack.

Giraudais wasn't about to let his rivals capture any ofhis ships so he set ablaze the best of the remaining four.He prevented the English from landing on the banksby creating another blockade on land and firing at the shipswith muskets. The English retired empty handed.

The battle was over that night. The English withdrewdownstream and later departed for Halifax for repairs.The French stayed behind to salvage what they could, andbecause they had only a few small ships to cross a largeocean.

All in all the English losses amounted to six men, whilethe French lost approximately 23 vessels, 33 including theten Acadian schooners they sunk. To add to the battle toll, many menwere killed and injured.

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