Battle of Martinique (1779) Battle of Martinique (1779) The Combat de la Martinique, or Battle of Martinique, was a naval encounter on 18 December 1779 between a British squadron under Admiral Hyde Parker and a French squadron under Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte near the island of Martinique in the West Indies. In the fall of 1779, a British fleet under Admiral Hyde Parker was anchored at St. Lucia (which they had captured a year before), while a French fleet under Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte was undergoing a refit at the nearby island of Martinique in the West Indies. Parker was
Culture of Martinique to the newly formed (1664) Compagnie des Indes occidentales. Dominica is a former French and British colony in the Eastern Caribbean, located about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to the south). Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday ("domingo" in Latin), 3 November 1493. In the hundred years after Columbus's landing, Dominica remained isolated. At the time it was inhabited by the Island Caribs, or Kalinago people, and over time more settled there after being driven from surrounding islands, as European powers