The English imitated this movement, except the van ship "Monmouth" (a'), which being too badly hurt to manoeuvre kept on to the northward, and the three separated ships.

Two of these (c') kept on north and passed once more under the French broadsides; but the "Lion" (c''), unable to keep to the wind, kept broad off before it across the bows of the enemy, for Jamaica, a thousand miles away.

She was not pursued; a single transport was the sole maritime trophy of the French.

"Had the admiral's seamanship equalled his courage," wrote the celebrated Suffren, who commanded the French van ship, "we would not have suffered four dismasted vessels to escape." "D'Estaing, at the age of thirty, had been transferred from the army to the navy with the premature rank of rear-admiral.

The navy did not credit him with nautical ability when the war broke out, and it is safe to say that its opinion was justified by his conduct during it."[137] "Brave as his sword, D'Estaing was always the idol of the soldier, the idol of the seaman; but moral authority over his officers failed him on several occasions, notwithstanding the marked protection extended to him by the king."[138] Another cause than incapacity as a seaman has usually been assigned by French historians for the impotent action of D'Estaing on this occasion.