On that very day Rodney was hurrying from Antigua to Barbadoes to make good the consequences of his mismanagement in March and April. On the 28th April the Comte de Grasse was seen coming round the southern end of Martinique, and now began a series of operations in which all the movements of the British fleet were dictated by the French admiral, and all led up to loss. Hood, held back to leeward by Rodney’s orders, the wind, the calm, and the current, could do nothing to prevent his opponent from hugging the shore and reaching Fort Royal with his warships and convoy. On the 29th Grasse was joined by the four line-of-battle ships in the fort. On that day, on the 30th and on the 1st May, encounters took place between the two fleets. Grasse, having ulterior objects to achieve, would not allow himself to be drawn into close action. The well-trained French captains of guns made excellent practice. Several of Hood’s ships suffered severe damage in their spars, and one, the =Russell=, 74, was badly injured on the water-line. All of course were proportionately disabled for working to windward. Hood, finding himself outmatched in force and his fleet diminished by damage, drew off to the north and sent the injured =Russell= into St. Eustatius. She reached it on the 4th May, and brought Rodney the first news that Grasse had reached Martinique. He sailed to join Hood on the 6th with the two ships of the line he had kept with him, and on the 9th joined his subordinate between Montserrat and Antigua. Injuries to ships and want of stores made it necessary for him to take the whole fleet to the dockyard at Antigua.