When news of the outbreak of the war reached the West Indies, the French governor of Martinique seized Dominica, while Admiral Barrington, in command of a small squadron at Barbadoes, was waiting for orders. As soon as Barrington received the reinforcements sent by Clinton, he attacked St. Lucia. D'Estaing came over from America with a fleet of twice the size, but failed to engage our ships closely, and, after some fighting on the island, in which the French lost heavily, sailed off to Martinique. St. Lucia was surrendered on December 29. Nothing further of importance took place in those parts until the summer of 1779, when D'Estaing seized St. Vincent while Byron, who was then in command, was engaged in guarding a convoy. D'Estaing then sailed with all his fleet to Grenada and forced the garrison to surrender. Byron, though encumbered by a number of transports and with a smaller fleet, engaged him in the hope of relieving the island. Some of Byron's ships suffered badly, and when he found that the garrison had surrendered, he sailed off. D'Estaing did not press his advantage, for his sole object was to secure his conquest, and only one transport ship was taken. England was no longer supreme by sea. The fault lay not with her admirals, who were still skilful, nor with her seamen, who were as bold as ever. Her weakness was due to her government, which first allowed the navy to fall into an inefficient condition and then adopted a wrong system of naval warfare. She began the contest unprepared, and instead of preventing the fleets of the enemy from reaching the ocean, had to fight in distant parts with inferior forces. As the war went on strenuous efforts brought her navy to a higher pitch; yet she still neglected her first line of defence, did not concentrate her forces off the ports of the enemy, and strove to defend the distant parts of her empire with fleets of inadequate strength.[143]