Robert Duff (Royal Navy Officer)
Vice-Admiral Robert Duff (c. 1721 – 6 June 1787) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence. He briefly served as colonial governor of Newfoundland. Family and early life Duff was born c. 1721, among the youngest of more than thirty children of Patrick Duff of Craigston in Aberdeenshire (about 7 miles (11 km) west of Aberdeen, just north-northeast of Westhill Streetmap UK. Accessed 19 July 2024.), by Craigston's second wife. Little is known about his early life, but a story that does survive attests to his father's fecundity and possibly also to Robert's own spirited approach. Walking in his garden the father, Patrick Duff, came across a small boy and enquired 'And ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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South Queensferry
Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is now administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. It lies ten miles to the north-west of Edinburgh city centre, on the shore of the Firth of Forth between the Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing. The prefix ''South'' distinguishes it from North Queensferry, on the opposite shore of the Forth for postal services. Both towns on the Forth derive their name from the ferry service established by Queen Margaret in the 11th century, which continued to operate at the town until 1964, when the Road Bridge was opened. South Queensferry has been named the most beautiful town in Scotland following a 2025 Telegraph study of 1,250 towns across the UK. The 2022 census counted 10,216 residents in South Queensferry, as it was listed at that time. Its population at the 2011 census was 9,026 based on the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Treaty Of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)
The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, sometimes called the Treaty of Aachen, ended the War of the Austrian Succession, following a congress assembled on 24 April 1748 at the Free Imperial City of Aachen. The two main antagonists in the war, Britain and France, opened peace talks in the Dutch city of Breda in 1746. Agreement was delayed by British hopes of improving their position; when this failed to occur, a draft treaty was agreed on 30 April 1748. A final version was signed on 18 October 1748 by Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic. The terms were then presented to the other belligerents, who could either accept them or continue the war on their own. Austria, Spain, and Sardinia had little choice but to comply, though the terms were favorable for Spain who took land from Austria, and signed separately. Modena and Genoa joined on 21 January 1749. The treaty largely failed to resolve the issues that caused the war, while most of the signatories were unhappy with the term ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in three archipelagos: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago. The subregion includes all the islands in the Antilles, in addition to The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The term is often interchangeable with "Caribbean", although the latter may also include coastal regions of Central America, Central and South American mainland nations, including Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname, as well as the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic island nation of Bermuda, all of which are geographically distinct from the three main island groups, but culturally related. Terminology The English term ''Indie'' is deri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Quiberon Bay
The Battle of Quiberon Bay (known as the ''Bataille des Cardinaux'' by the French) was a decisive naval engagement during the Seven Years' War. It was fought on 20 November 1759 between the Royal Navy and the French Navy in Quiberon Bay, off the coast of France near Saint-Nazaire. The battle was the culmination of British efforts to eliminate French naval superiority, which could have given the French the ability to carry out their planned invasion of Great Britain. In the battle, a British fleet of 24 ships of the line under Sir Edward Hawke tracked down and engaged a French fleet of 21 ships of the line under Hubert de Brienne. After hard fighting, the British fleet sank or ran aground six French ships of the line, captured one and scattered the rest, giving the Royal Navy one of its greatest victories, and ending the threat of French invasion for good. The battle signalled the rise of the Royal Navy in becoming the world's foremost naval power, and, for the British, wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Belle Île
Belle-Île (), Belle-Île-en-Mer (), or Belle Isle (, ; ) is a French island off the coast of Brittany in the ''département in France, département'' of Morbihan, and the largest of Brittany's islands. It is from the Quiberon peninsula. Administratively, the island is divided into four commune in France, communes: * Bangor (Morbihan), Bangor * Le Palais * Locmaria * Sauzon Belle-Île formed a canton in France, canton until 2015 when it was merged into the canton of Quiberon as part of a general overhaul. Geography The island measures and has an average elevation of . The area is about . The coasts are a mixture between dangerously sharp cliff edges on the southwest side, the ''Côte Sauvage'' ("wild coast"), and placid beaches, the largest being ''les Grands Sables'' ("the great sands") and navigable harbours on the northeast side. The island's climate is oceanic climate, oceanic, having less rain and milder winters than on the mainland. The two main ports are Le Palais (ac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Quiberon Bay
Quiberon Bay (, ; ) is an area of sheltered water on the south coast of Brittany. The bay is in the Morbihan département. Geography The bay is roughly triangular in shape, open to the south with the Gulf of Morbihan to the north-east and the narrow peninsula of Presqu'île de Quiberon providing protection from the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The islands of Belle-Île, Houat and Hœdic add to the bay's protection. There are many dangerous shoals at the entrance to the bay. File:QuiberonBay2.jpg, Aerial view of the bay File:Baie de Quiberon.png, Satellite image of the bay History Quiberon Bay has been the location of several important naval battles. Battle of Morbihan The first recorded battle in Quiberon Bay's history was the Battle of Morbihan in 56 BCE, between the Romans, led by Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, and the local Veneti tribe during the Gallic Wars. The Romans had struggled to overcome the Veneti, who had coastal fortresses that could easily be evacu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brest, France
Brest (; ) is a port, port city in the Finistère department, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of a peninsula and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second largest French military port after Toulon. The city is located on the western edge of continental France. With 139,456 inhabitants (2020), Brest forms Lower Brittany, Western Brittany's largest functional area (France), metropolitan area (with a population of 370,000 in total), ranking third behind only Nantes and Rennes in the whole of historic Brittany, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 25th most populous city in France (2019); moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the ''Prefectures in France, préfecture'' (administrative seat) of the department is in the much smaller town of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke
Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, (21 February 1705 – 17 October 1781) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As captain of the third-rate , he took part in the Battle of Toulon (1744), Battle of Toulon in February 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession. He also captured six ships of a French squadron in the Bay of Biscay in the second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747. Hawke went on to achieve a victory over a French fleet at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759 during the Seven Years' War, preventing a planned French Invasion of Britain (1759), French invasion of Britain. He developed the concept of a Western Squadron, keeping an almost continuous blockade of the French coast throughout the war. Hawke also sat in the British House of Commons of Great Britain, House of Commons from 1747 to 1776 and served as First Lord of the Admiralty for five years between 1766 and 1771. In this post, he was su ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Morbihan
The Morbihan ( , ; ) is a departments of France, department in the administrative region of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Gulf of Morbihan, Morbihan (''small sea'' in Breton language, Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline. It had a population of 759,684 in 2019.Populations légales 2019: 56 Morbihan INSEE It is noted for its Carnac stones, which predate and are more extensive than the Stonehenge monument in Wiltshire, England. Three major military educational facilities are located in Guer, including École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, the national military academy for officers. History The Morbihan is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790 d ...[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brittany
Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duchy of Brittany, duchy before being Union of Brittany and France, united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a provinces of France, province governed as a separate nation under the crown. Brittany is the traditional homeland of the Breton people and is one of the six Celtic nations, retaining Culture of Brittany, a distinct cultural identity that reflects History of Brittany, its history. Brittany has also been referred to as Little Britain (as opposed to Great Britain, with which it shares an etymology). It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, Normandy to the northeast, eastern Pays de la Loire to the southeast, the Bay of Biscay to the south, and the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its land area is 34,023 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Saint Cast
The Battle of Saint-Cast was a military engagement during the Seven Years' War on the French coast between British naval and land expeditionary forces and French coastal defence forces. Fought on 11 September 1758, it was won by the French. During the Seven Years' War, Britain mounted numerous amphibious expeditions against France and French possessions around the world. In 1758 a number of expeditions, then called ''descents'', were made against the northern coast of France. The military objectives of the descents were to capture and destroy French ports, divert French land forces from Germany, and suppress privateers operating from the French coast. The battle of Saint-Cast was the final engagement of a descent in force that ended in a French victory. Background The expedition contained sizable naval and land forces. The naval forces were two squadrons consisting of: Admiral Anson's 22 ships of the line with 9 frigates crewed by 15,500 men and Commodore Howe's 1 ship of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Raid On Cherbourg
The Raid on Cherbourg took place in August 1758 during the Seven Years' War when a British force was landed on the coast of France by the Royal Navy with the intention of attacking the town of Cherbourg as part of the British government's policy of "descents" on the French coasts. Background Since 1757, the policy of the British government to use their naval superiority to launch raids against the French coast, to act as a diversion - drawing French forces and resources away from Germany where Britain's allies Prussia, Hanover and Brunswick were under severe pressure. In Autumn 1757, a British expedition to Rochefort had captured an offshore island, but not made an effort to capture the town. In 1758, the Duke of Brunswick asked the British to put this policy into action as his Allied force was being pushed back. A large naval and military force was assembled in southern England under the direction of George Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty. In June 1758, the British h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |