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
Caribbean Plate a subduction zone, the Lesser Antilles subduction zone, where oceanic crust of the South American Plate is being subducted under the Caribbean Plate. Subduction forms the volcanic islands of the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc from the Virgin Islands in the north to the islands off the coast of Venezuela in the south. This boundary contains seventeen active volcanoes, most notably Soufriere Hills on Montserrat; Mount Pelée on Martinique; La Grande Soufrière on Guadeloupe; Soufrière Saint Vincent on Saint Vincent; and the submarine volcano Kick 'em Jenny which lies about 10 km north of Grenada. Large historical earthquakes in 1839 and