Battle of San Domingo

Unit/ Formation: HM Ships

Location: San Domingo

Period/ Conflict: Napoleonic Wars

Year: 1806

Date/s: 6th February 1806

The Battle of San Domingo was a naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars fought on 6 February 1806 between squadrons of French and British ships of the line off the southern coast of the French-occupied Spanish colonial Captaincy General of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean.

Duckworth's action off San Domingo, 6 February 1806, Nicholas Pocock

All five of the French ships of the line commanded by Vice-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissègues were captured or destroyed. The Royal Navy led by Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth lost no ships and suffered fewer than a hundred killed while the French lost approximately 1,500 men.

Only a small number of the French squadron were able to escape.

In the course of the fighting, in which Royal Marines played an important role, Captain James Malcolm (Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Malcolm, KCB) for his valour in that action was brevetted a Major on the Army List with seniority in that grade dating 6 February 1806.

The battle of San Domingo was the last fleet engagement of the war between French and British capital ships in open water.

Read more here: Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Malcolm, KCB