GRAVES, THOMAS
Graves, Thomas
(October 23, 1725–February 9, 1802)
English Admiral
G
raves was a com-
petent naval leader
but beset by a cau-
tious and conservative
leadership style. His fum-
bling at the Second Battle
of the Virginia Capes
sealed the doom of
British forces trapped at
Yorktown and lost the
American Revolution for
England.
Thomas Graves was
born in Thanckes, Corn-
wall, around 1725, a son
of Adm. Thomas Graves
(d. 1755). He went to sea
at an early age and in
1739 volunteered for ser-
vice with the squadron of
Commodore Henry Med-
ley at Newfoundland.
Soon after he transferred
to the frigate HMS Nor-
folkunder his father and participated in the
aborted expedition against Cartagena (Colom-
bia) in 1741. Graves proved himself a capable
sailor, so in 1743 he rose to lieutenant and
committed himself to the study of seamanship
and French. He rose to captain by 1755 and
went on to serve with a succession of war-
ships during the Seven Years’ War (1756–
1763). On the night of December 26, 1756,
while commanding the 20-gun frigate HMS
Sheernessoff the coast of France, he espied a
large French vessel that appeared to be a
larger ship-of-the-line. When the majority of
his officers agreed with this assessment,
Graves declined to initiate combat with his un-
known visitor. However, the admiralty subse-
quently concluded that the vessel was, in fact,
a large East Indiaman (transport), and they
castigated Graves for not investigating his
quarry aggressively. A
court-martial sentenced
him to a public repri-
mand, and he resumed ac-
tive sea duty. In the sum-
mer of 1761 Graves
assisted in repelling a
French squadron off New-
foundland, and he spent
the next three years serv-
ing as governor of that
province. After a long
stint of uneventful service
in home waters and the
West Indies, he was ele-
vated to rear admiral in
1779.
In the spring of 1780
Graves conveyed six
ships-of-the-line into North
American waters and re-
inforced Adm. Marriot
Arbuthnotat New York
City. He arrived at his
destination in record time on July 13, 1780,
but just missed intercepting a French
squadron under Charles Louis d’Arac de Ter-
nay, then anchoring at Narragansett Bay,
Rhode Island. Unfortunately for the British,
these ships were transporting the artillery
train intended for the expeditionary force of
General Rochambeau. The episode, though
not entirely Graves’s fault, was the first of
many missteps that dogged his Revolutionary
War service. After refitting in New York,
Graves participated in Arbuthnot’s timid
blockade of Rhode Island waters for several
months. He next accompanied his superior to
Chesapeake Bay and was closely engaged at
the First Battle of the Virginia Capes on
March 16, 1781. There a French fleet under
Admiral de Grasse rebuffed the British. By
then Arbuthnot was ill and requested to be re-Thomas Graves
National Maritime Museum