Qualla: Battle at The Lizard https://qualla.com/battle-at-the-lizard en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/k/battle-at-the-lizard-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle at The Lizard https://qualla.com/battle-at-the-lizard Battle at The Lizard: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-at-the-lizard/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Three men climbed out of the water at Lizard Point that night. They were all who survived from the five hundred who had sailed in HMS Devonshire. The 80-gun third-rate had been one of five ships of the line escorting a British supply convoy from Plymouth to Portugal when two French squadrons fell on her off the south Cornish coast on the afternoon of 21 October 1707. Devonshire fought seven French ships at once for several hours, refused every chance to strike her colours, and finally caught fire and blew up. The flash and the report carried inland over the Lizard. The remaining merchantmen scattered. By dawn the French were sailing for Brest with their captures and the British Channel fleet was conducting an inquest into how it had lost an entire war's worth of supplies in a single afternoon.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/k/battle-at-the-lizard-wp/gbuk-battle-at-the-lizard-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle at The Lizard: Edwards's convoy https://qualla.com/battle-at-the-lizard/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Commodore Richard Edwards sailed from Plymouth on 20 October 1707 with five ships of the line and a merchant convoy of somewhere between eighty and a hundred and thirty sail. The exact number was never recorded; the contemporary lists disagree by more than fifty ships. The destin...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/k/battle-at-the-lizard-wp/gbuk-battle-at-the-lizard-edwardss-convoy.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle at The Lizard: Forbin and Duguay-Trouin https://qualla.com/battle-at-the-lizard/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The French had been watching for a convoy of this size for weeks. Two squadrons of six ships each were waiting at sea: one under Claude de Forbin, the formal senior officer, the other under Rene Duguay-Trouin, of the corsair city of Saint-Malo, the more aggressive of the two. The...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/k/battle-at-the-lizard-wp/gbuk-battle-at-the-lizard-forbin-and-duguay-trouin.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle at The Lizard: The afternoon https://qualla.com/battle-at-the-lizard/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The fight was not a fair one. Royal Oak slipped clear early and ran for Kinsale on the south coast of Ireland with a handful of merchantmen at her heels. Cumberland — Edwards's own flag — was taken. So was Chester. So was Ruby. The 80-gun Devonshire, captained by William Kerr, wa...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/k/battle-at-the-lizard-wp/gbuk-battle-at-the-lizard-the-afternoon.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle at The Lizard: What it cost https://qualla.com/battle-at-the-lizard/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The numbers, even at their most conservative, mark this as one of the heaviest blows the Royal Navy took in the war. Four ships of the line lost or captured in a single afternoon was a casualty rate the eighteenth-century British system was not designed to absorb. The supplies fo...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/k/battle-at-the-lizard-wp/gbuk-battle-at-the-lizard-what-it-cost.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle at The Lizard: Lizard Point today https://qualla.com/battle-at-the-lizard/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Lizard Point itself is a serrated headland of serpentine rock — the southernmost point of mainland Britain, the first piece of England a westbound ship reaches and the last piece of England an eastbound ship leaves behind. The lighthouse on the cliff has been guiding ships round ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/k/battle-at-the-lizard-wp/gbuk-battle-at-the-lizard-lizard-point-today.mp3 0:06 6 full