Edward Hughes

Edward Hughes fought Suffren five times in fourteen months and neither of them ever quite won. He went to sea young, was present at Porto Bello and at Quiberon Bay, and was commander-in-chief in the East Indies when France entered the American war. The campaign that followed, off the Coromandel coast and around Ceylon in 1782 and 1783, is the most sustained fleet-versus-fleet duel of the age of sail: Sadras, Providien, Negapatam, Trincomalee and Cuddalore, fought between squadrons of roughly equal force with no dockyard nearer than Bombay and no reinforcement for either side. Suffren was the more aggressive and inventive admiral and was repeatedly let down by captains who would not follow him in; Hughes was cautious, defensively skilful, and kept his fleet in being, which was the strategically decisive thing since Britain held the ports and France did not. Trincomalee was Suffren's one clear success, taken by land assault while Hughes was refitting at Madras. The war ended before either could force a conclusion, and Suffren sailed home to a hero's reception while Hughes came back extremely rich - the East Indies command carried the best prize money in the navy - and retired to Hampshire. He was made Knight of the Bath and a full admiral, and never held a fighting command again. He had served as a lieutenant under Vernon in the Caribbean and commanded a ship of the line at Quiberon Bay in 1759. His squadron in the Indies was chronically short of men, and he made up crews from the Company's forces ashore. Suffren himself is recorded as respecting his handling of a fleet while regretting that he would not be drawn into a decisive action. He died at Luxborough in Essex in 1794, one of the wealthiest officers in the service.

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