Under the conditions, the French passed without difficulty round Pointe des Salines, the transports hugging the coast, the ships of war being outside and to leeward of them.  Thus they headed up to the northward for Fort Royal Bay (Cul de Sac Royal), Hood standing to the southward until after 10, and being joined at 9.20 by a sixty-four (not reckoned in the list above) from Santa Lucia, making his force eighteen.  At 10.35 the British tacked together to the northward.  The two fleets were now steering the same way, the French van abreast of the British centre.  At 11 the French opened their fire, to which no reply was made then.  At 11.20, the British van being close in with the shore to the northward of the Bay, Hood tacked again together, and the enemy, seeing his convoy secure, wore, also together, which brought the two lines nearer, heading south.  At this time the four French ships in the Bay got under way and easily joined the rear of their fleet, it having the weather-gage.  The French were thus 24 to 18.  As their shot were passing over the British, the latter now began to reply.  At noon Hood, finding that he could not close the enemy, shortened sail to topsails and hove-to, hoping by this defiance to bring them down to him.  At 12.30 the French admiral was abreast of the British flagship, and the action became general, but at too long range.  “Never, I believe,” wrote Hood, “was more powder and shot thrown away in one day before.”  The French continuing to stand on, Hood filled his sails again at 1 P.M., as their van had stretched beyond his.

As the leading ships, heading south, opened the channel between Santa Lucia and Martinique, they got the breeze fresher, which caused them to draw away from the centre.  Hood, therefore, at 1.34 made the signal for a close order, and immediately afterwards ceased firing, finding not one in ten of the enemy’s shot to reach.  The engagement, however, continued somewhat longer between the southern—­van—­ships, where, by the account of Captain Sutherland, who was in that part of the line, four of the British were attacked very smartly by eight of the French.  The Centaur, Russell, Intrepid, and Shrewsbury appear to have been the ships that suffered most heavily, either in hull, spars, or crews.  They were all in the van on the southern tack.  The Russell, having several shot between wind and water, was with difficulty kept afloat, the water rising over the platform of the magazine.  Hood sent her off at nightfall to St. Eustatius, where she arrived on the 4th of May, bringing Rodney the first news of the action, and of the numbers of the French reinforcement.  During the 30th Hood held his ground, still endeavouring to get to windward of the enemy; but failing in that attempt, and finding two of his squadron much disabled, he decided at sunset to bear away to the northward, because to the southward the westerly currents set so strong that the crippled ships could not regain Santa Lucia.  On the 11th of May, between St. Kitts and Antigua, he joined Rodney, who, after hurried repairs to the Russell, had left St. Eustatius on the 5th, with that ship, the Sandwich, and the Triumph.