Battles of the Seven Years' War

20 May 1756 · Off Port Mahon, Minorca

Indecisive; Byng withdrew and Minorca fell

In April 1756 a French army landed on Minorca, the British base in the western Mediterranean, and besieged the garrison in St Philip's Castle at Port Mahon. Admiral John Byng was sent out with a squadron of ill-manned ships, and on 20 May met the Marquis de La Galissonière's squadron, which was covering the siege. Byng's approach went wrong: his line came down at an angle, the van under Rear-Admiral West came into action alone and was badly cut up, Intrepid lost her foretopmast and threw the ships behind her into confusion, and Byng, keeping strictly to the Fighting Instructions, held his flagship back to keep the line. The French drew off. After a council of war Byng went back to Gibraltar, leaving the garrison to surrender in June. He was court-martialled for failing to do his utmost and shot on the quarterdeck of Monarch at Portsmouth on 14 March 1757, 'to encourage the others', as Voltaire wrote.

18–19 August 1759 · Off Lagos, Portugal

British victory; five French ships of the line taken or destroyed

The Toulon fleet under La Clue was ordered to join the Brest fleet for the invasion of Britain. On the night of 17 August it slipped through the Strait of Gibraltar, but it was seen, and Boscawen's fleet, refitting at Gibraltar, put to sea in a hurry after it. In the dark half of La Clue's ships lost him and went into Cádiz. Boscawen caught the other seven the next afternoon. Culloden engaged the rearmost ship, Centaure, which fought for five hours to cover the others before she struck, and Boscawen's Namur fought La Clue's Océan until she lost her mizzen mast and had to shift her flag. Two French ships escaped in the night; La Clue, badly wounded, took the other four into neutral Portuguese waters near Lagos. Boscawen followed them in the next morning regardless: Océan and Redoutable were run ashore and burned, and Téméraire and Modeste were taken.

20 November 1759 · Quiberon Bay, Brittany

Decisive British victory; the Brest fleet destroyed and the invasion of Britain abandoned

All summer Hawke had blockaded Brest while an army and transports for the invasion of Britain gathered in Quiberon Bay. In November a gale drove him back to Torbay, and the Comte de Conflans took the Brest fleet out to collect the transports. Hawke was back at sea within days, and on the morning of 20 November, in a rising westerly gale, he sighted the French chasing Duff's small squadron off Belle Île. Conflans ran for the shelter of Quiberon Bay, behind its reefs and shoals, believing the British would not dare follow him in. Hawke signalled a general chase and led his fleet straight in after him, among the rocks of the Cardinals, without a pilot. The British fell on the French rear as it entered the bay: Formidable struck after her admiral was killed, Thésée sank when she heeled over with her lower gunports open, Superbe was sunk by Hawke's flagship, and Héros surrendered. Night ended the fighting. The next day Soleil Royal and Héros ran ashore and were burned, Juste and Inflexible were wrecked, and the rest of the French fleet escaped to Rochefort or into the Vilaine river, where some of the ships were trapped for over two years. Hawke lost Resolution and Essex on the Four shoal.

6 June – 13 August 1762 · Havana, Cuba

British victory; Havana and a fifth of the Spanish navy taken

When Spain entered the war, Britain sent an expedition against Havana, the strongest port in the Spanish Indies. Admiral Sir George Pocock, with Commodore Augustus Keppel as his second, brought more than 20 ships of the line and some 150 transports carrying the Earl of Albemarle's army through the narrow, uncharted Old Bahama Channel, and landed the troops east of the city in June. The Spanish admiral, Gutierre de Hevia, sank three ships of the line to block the harbour entrance and kept the rest inside. The siege turned on the Morro Castle, commanded by Captain Luis Vicente de Velasco. On 1 July four ships of the line closed in to bombard it, but the fort stood too high for their guns, and they were driven off with heavy losses. The army, wasting away with yellow fever, at last mined the walls, and stormed the Morro on 30 July; Velasco was mortally wounded. Havana surrendered on 13 August with nine Spanish ships of the line in the harbour, along with treasure and merchant ships worth millions. It was handed back to Spain at the peace, in exchange for Florida.