Action off Pondicherry

10 August 1778, Coromandel Coast, off Pondicherry

Indecisive; Tronjoly then abandoned Pondicherry

News of the war reached India in July, and the British at once marched on Pondicherry, the chief French town in India, while Commodore Sir Edward Vernon blockaded it from the sea. The French squadron under Tronjoly came out and the two small squadrons fought for two hours before Vernon drew off to repair. When he came back ten days later Tronjoly did not fight again: he sailed for Mauritius and left Pondicherry to its fate. It surrendered in October, and the French had no squadron in Indian waters until Suffren came three years later.