Qualla: Action at Cherbourg (1692)

Action at Cherbourg (1692): Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By the time the Soleil Royal limped into sight of Cherbourg in May 1692, the great ship was finished as a warship. The 104-gun flagship of the French king's Atlantic fleet was holed, dismasted in places, and trailing smoke from her gun decks. Behind her came the Admirable, 90 guns, and the Triomphant, 76 - the three worst-mauled ships from the running fight off Barfleur a few days before. There was no port deep enough at Cherbourg to receive them. So their captains did the only thing left to do: they ran the great ships up on the beach, turned their broadsides seaward, and waited for the English to come.

Action at Cherbourg (1692): After Barfleur

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The action at Cherbourg was not a battle on its own. It was the bitter end of something larger. On 19 May 1692, an Anglo-Dutch fleet under Edward Russell, Earl of Orford, had caught the French fleet of Vice-Admiral Anne-Hilarion de Tourville off the Norman cape of Barfleur and to...

Action at Cherbourg (1692): Beached and Defiant

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The French had made serious preparations. The three ships were grounded with their broadsides facing seaward, every cannon manned, presenting their full firepower like floating fortresses. Shore batteries covered them - the Soleil Royal under the guns at Fosse du Galet, the Admir...

Action at Cherbourg (1692): Tide and Time

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the morning of the 22nd he tried again, this time with a more elaborate plan: St Albans and Advice to work the Admirable while Delaval himself in Grafton of 70 guns, backed by Monk of 60 and the rest of his 3rd and 4th rates, went after the others. The tide betrayed them. Monk...

Action at Cherbourg (1692): The Fireships Come In

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At one o'clock that afternoon, at high water, Delaval sent in his fireships. These were old hulls deliberately packed with combustibles, sailed by skeleton crews who would set their own ship ablaze, lash the wheel, and escape in a boat at the last second. The fireship Blaze, comm...

Action at Cherbourg (1692): What Burned With Them

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Delaval sailed off late that afternoon to rejoin the fleet at La Hogue, where another, larger destruction of French ships was about to follow. The action at Cherbourg cost the English few casualties. But it cost the French something larger than three hulls. The Soleil Royal was n...