The plans of the French for the reduction of Rhode Island having failed, and their fleet having been dispersed in a storm, during which some were disabled, and others captured, and finally the appearance of Lord Howe with a reinforced but still inferior squadron, induced them to abandon the project, and, after refitting at Boston, to steer for the West Indies. The officers and seamen, being now no longer wanted, were ordered a passage home in the Leviathan of fifty guns, on board which ship Lieutenant Saumarez embarked, in company with Captains Dalrymple, Smith, Hudson, Brisbane, Symons, and Graeme, whose ships had also been destroyed. As she was approaching the English Channel, the Leviathan was overtaken by a violent storm, and most providentially saved from shipwreck by the clearing up of a thick fog just in time to avoid the danger, when they found the ship close to the Rocks of Scilly, near to the spot where Sir Cloudesley Shovel was lost. This circumstance has been attributed to a strong northerly current, but it was probably from the position of these dangerous islands being inaccurately laid down in the charts; it is indeed an extraordinary fact, that an error of no less than three leagues in their situation was first discovered by the Swedish surveyor, Nordenanker, about the commencement of last war. The Leviathan, nevertheless, arrived safely at Portsmouth about the beginning of the year 1779, when Lieutenant Saumarez had again an opportunity of visiting his family and friends in Guernsey.