Seven Years War
“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.”
- Ernest Hemmingway
My first novel took place in North America during what we would call the French and Indian War. This second novel, Private Man of War, broadens the scope of action to the larger Seven Years War. The first truly world war, this conflict for supremacy between France and the Great Britain was fought for preeminence in Europe, but also throughout their far-flung colonies. From India to the Caribbean, French and British armies and navies fought for control of trade and influence.
In the Caribbean the larger share of wealth was in the sugar colonies, which for France at least brought in more revenue than all of their North American colonies combined. The French Windward Islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Dominica were the principal focus of the British Royal Navy and privateers, while those further south were ancillary to the conflict. The British Leeward Islands from Antigua to St. Kitts were the focus of French privateers, who sought the wealth of the British sugar trade.
When Private Man of War begins, the war had gone poorly for the British, though the victory at Plassey in India did gain them control of the subcontinent in 1757. It wasn’t until 1759, five years into the war, that Great Britian had what would be called the “Year of Victories”. In North America, the last stand of the French colonial forces at Quebec ended on the Plains of Abraham with the defeat of General Montcalm. The Royal Navy of Great Britain defeated the French fleet first off Lagos in Portugal, then again at Quiberon Bay in Brittany.
The British effort to take the French sugar islands during this period is the backdrop to my novel and the final chapters follow those battles as the climax to the story. What I found interesting in my research is how incompetent the British effort comes across. This seems to be a trend both in my novels and in history … weird. The 1759 invasion force, gathered with such care, first tried to take the island of Martinique, some 140 nautical miles south of Antigua. They made landfall off St. Pierre on the northwest coast of Martinique and bombarded the town, burning great parts of it, but without silencing the French fortifications and artillery. They then moved back north to Guadeloupe, the island closest to Antigua from hence they started.
Here, after again bombarding a French town, they landed troops and ultimately stalled their advance as the British general waited for capitulation. Fortunately, the British admiral was more sanguine and launched an offensive with the limited sailors and marines at his command. As the British soldiers started dying of disease, including their commander, the British began a series of raids into the interior of the island that brought the French planters to the negotiating table.
My main character, Captain Robert Marshal, is one of the few fictional characters in the novel. He navigates the global events of the war as a privateer, shunning patriotism for profit, though in the end he is drawn back to duty and honor.
REF:
Seale, R. (1755). “A new & accurate map of the West Indies and the adjacent parts of North & South America.” Retrieved from https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:6t053r92b
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