Excerpt from the book:

"The Life of George Lord Anson"
Admiral of the Fleet; Vice-admiral of Great Britain; and First Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty; Previous to, and During, The Seven-Years' War

by Sir John Barrow, Bart., F.R.S.
(published by John Murray, Albemarle street, London, 1839)

 
 
EXPEDITIONS TO THE FRENCH COAST

The fleet at Louisbourg in 1757

pages 294-295

In the spring and summer of this year, as in the last, Admirals Boscawen, West, and Brodrick had the command of the Channel fleet alternately, to cruise off Brest and in soundings, to watch the enemy's movements, distress his trade, and to intercept any supplies or reinforcements that might be sent out from Brest to the colonies. Their navy had been very much reduced by the preceding war, and their ships in commission and ready in the western ports were barely sufficient to escort their convoys; but it did so happen, that our cruising squadrons could not, with all their vigilance, prevent M. Bois de la Mothe from slipping out of Brest with a squadron of ships of war and transports, carrying reinforcements and supplies for Louisbourg, where he arrived in safety.

A reinforcement of four ships of the line was immediately sent out to Admiral Holborne at Halifax. His fleet, now consisting of nineteen sail-of-the-line, two of fifty guns, and some frigates, proceeded to block up the French in the harbour of Louisbourg, but having arrived twenty leagues from the port, on the night of the 24th September, it blew a perfect hurricane, which continued to the middle of the following day, when, most fortunately, it veered round to the north, or the whole fleet, then close in with the rocky shore of Cape Breton, would in all probability have been doomed to destruction. As it was, the Tilbury was wrecked, and the captain and most of her crew perished. Many of them were obliged to throw their guns overboard, and in others, some of the seamen were lost. Twelve or thirteen ships of the line were dismasted, and otherwise so disabled that the admiral, after collecting his shattered squadron and ascertaining their damages, sent those that were in the worst condition to England under Sir Charles Hardy and Commodore Holmes, and repaired with the rest to Halifax. The French did not escape the effects of the storm. Several of them suffered so severely as to make it necessary to send them home, and such as escaped capture by our cruisers arrived at Brest in a very shattered state.

Excerpt from the book:

"The Conquest of Canada"

by George Warburton
(published by Harper & brothers, 1850)

 
The English Army and Fleet before Louisburg
1757

pages 60-63

... by the end of January, 1757, seven regiments of infantry and a detachment of artillery, all commanded by Major-general Hopson, were ordered to assemble at Cork, and await the arrival of a powerful fleet of fourteen line-of-battle ships, destined to bear them to America. June had nearly closed, however, before this powerful armament, under Admiral Holborne, arrived at the place of rendezvous.

Lord Loudon had arranged to meet the expedition at Halifax with all the force he could collect; to accomplish this transport, he was injudiciously led to lay an embargo on all the ships in the British North American ports. This arbitrary measure at once aroused a storm of indignation among the merchants and planters, whose trade it ruinously affected. The home government, ever jealous of commercial liberty, immediately disapproved the high-handed proceeding, and issued peremptory orders against its repetition.

On the 20th of June, 1757, Lord Loudon had embarked at New York with a considerable force drawn from the protection of the vast colonial borders. Sir Charles Hardy commanded a fleet of four ships of war and seventy transports for the troops; each ship had orders, in case of separation, to make the best of her way to Halifax. On the 30th they all reached that port, where they found eight vessels of war and some artillery, with two regiments of infantry. The troops were landed as soon as possible, and busied in various and somewhat trivial occupations, while fast-sailing vessels were dispatched to examine the French strength at Louisburg, and also to watch for the arrival of the remainder of the English fleet under Holborne.

By the 9th of July the whole of the enormous armament had assembled. Nineteen ships of the line, with a great number of smaller craft, and an army of thirteen battalions in high spirit and condition, were now at the disposal of the British leaders.

Much valuable time was wasted at Halifax in unnecessary drills and silly sham fights; at length, however, on the 1st and 2nd of August, the troops were embarked, with orders to proceed to Gabarus Bay, to the westward of Louisburg; but on the 4th, information received by a captured sloop that eighteen ships of the line and 3000 regular troops, with many militia-men and Indians, were prepared to defend the harbor, altered the views of the English chiefs. The attack was abandoned, the troops were directed to land in various places on the Acadian peninsula, while the fleet was to cruise off Louisburg and endeavor to bring the French to action.

About the middle of the month, a dispatch from Boston, containing the disastrous news of the loss of Fort William Henry, reached Lord Loudon; in consequence, his orders were again altered. The luckless general himself, with a part of the troops and fleet, made sail for New York; the remaining regiments, not before landed, were directed upon the Bay of Fundy, and Admiral Holborne, with the bulk of this vast armament, bore away for the harbor of Louisburg.

The objects of this cruise can hardly be even conjectured; some imagine that curiosity was Holborne's sole motive. It is obvious that he did not mean to engage the enemy; for, when he approached within two miles of the hostile batteries, and saw the French admiral's signal to unmoor, he immediately made the best of his way back to Halifax. Being re-enforced by four ships of the line about the middle of September, Holborne again sailed within sight of Louisburg, being then certain that the French would not leave the shelter of their batteries to encounter his superior strength, and thus risk unnecessarily the safety of their colony.

While continuing this useless demonstration, a violent storm from the southwest assailed the British fleet on the 24th of October, at the distance of about forty leagues from the rock-bound coast. In twelve hours the ships were driven almost to within gunshot of the shore, when a happy shift of wind saved them from total destruction. But the Tilbury, a magnificent vessel of sixty guns, went to pieces on Cape Breton, and 225 of her crew perished in the waves; the Newark drove into Halifax crippled and damaged; others subsequently gained the same shelter, dismasted, and in a still more disastrous plight.

When the weather moderated, Admiral Holborne made the best of his way for England with the remainder of the fleet, leaving, however, a small squadron, under Lord Colville, to protect the British traders in those northern seas.