lieved. When permission was granted on July
4, 1781, he departed, and Graves became the
commander of the North American station
pending the arrival of Adm. Robert Digby.
Graves accepted the appointment of Digby,
his junior, without dissent, but he suspected
that politics were at work against him. The
probable cause was his marriage to the sister
of Lord North, whose political fortunes were
on the wane, while Digby associated with the
Earl of Sandwich, head of the British Admi-
ralty. It was an awkward arrangement at best,
typical of the Royal Navy’s muddled leader-
ship during the war.
At this juncture, British fortunes in North
America hinged on events in Chesapeake Bay.
A British army of 8,000 men under Gen.
Charles Cornwallis was trapped at York-
town Peninsula with its back to the sea, be-
sieged by a combined Franco-American army
led by Rochambeau and George Washington.
Gen. Henry Clinton, the British commander
in chief, wished to mount an expedition to re-
lieve Cornwallis and possibly evacuate him.
To accomplish this, the Royal Navy would first
have to contend with the powerful French
squadron under Admiral de Grasse, already at
Chesapeake Bay. Graves dithered in New York
until reinforced by the West India squadron of
Adm. Samuel Hood and finally sailed the last
week of August. Much valuable time had been
lost. During this impasse, the French fleet at
Newport slipped past the British and delivered
Rochambeau’s siege artillery. This was an-
other lost opportunity for Graves.
On September 5, 1781, Graves and his
squadron of 19 ships engaged de Grasse’s 24
vessels at the Second Battle of the Virginia
Capes. As in the previous encounter, British
tactical leadership was exceptionally unin-
spired and clumsy. The respective fleets drew
up parallel battle lines, then clashed head-on,
exchanging broadsides as they passed. Unfor-
tunately for Graves, his van was closely en-
gaged, but the rest of his line began shearing
away from the French and fired ineffectually
from a distance. Consequently, the French re-
formed their line for another pass, but the
four leading British ships had been badly shot
up. Graves at this juncture broke off his at-
tack and repaired to New York City. The bat-
tle was a draw, but the British needed a deci-
sive victory. This was something that Graves’s
timid leadership proved incapable of provid-
ing. Cornwallis consequently remained bot-
tled up at Yorktown as American siege lines
drew closer.
On September 24, Admiral Digby arrived at
New York from England with three additional
warships and orders for Graves to depart for
Jamaica. In view of ongoing operations, he
declined to supersede Graves and diplomati-
cally allowed him to complete his mission
without interruption. On October 18, 1781,
Graves and Clinton reembarked from New
York with 7,000 men in a last-ditch effort to
relieve Cornwallis. The British expedition ar-
rived in Chesapeake Bay on October 24, only
to learn of Cornwallis’s surrender eight days
earlier. The game being up, Graves took his
fleet back to New York a second time and left
for Jamaica to join Adms. George Rodney and
Samuel Hood. In view of the recent events in
Virginia, both men treated him shabbily.
Worse, while conducting several prizes back
to England in July 1782, Graves’s flagship was
badly damaged by a squall and sank. The hap-
less admiral eventually arrived at Cork
aboard a transport vessel.
Graves was never officially blamed for his
defeat at the Virginia Capes, but his failure to
relieve Cornwallis clouded his public image.
In truth, based on results, his defeat there
was one of the most decisive naval actions in
history. He assumed it accounted for the long
period of inactivity that followed. Graves
served in minor capacities for the next five
years before rising to vice admiral in Septem-
ber 1787 on the basis of seniority. In this ca-
pacity he commanded the Channel Fleet and
rose again to full admiral in April 1794. He
then partially redeemed himself by fighting
conspicuously under Lord Richard Howeat
the “Glorious First of June” and was made
Baron Graves of the Irish peerage. However,
severe wounds sustained there necessitatedGRAVES, THOMAS