At 07:00, four British ships and six French fought a confused melee while the French vanguard continued eastwards without pause and the slower portions of the British fleet struggled to come up in the light winds. The entire combat was slowly pulling closer to the fortified rocky island of Groix, close to which Villaret intended to shelter his fleet. Douglas in "Queen Charlotte" had been forced out of the engagement due to severe damage to his rigging and sails which made his ship unmanageable. At 07:14, he drifted past the shattered hull of "Alexandre"; Captain Guillemet opened fire briefly before surrendering as Douglas returned it with devastating effect. Even as his ship fell back, Douglas continued to engage the French at long range, turning the guns on "Peuple" and "Tigre", joined by "Sans Pareil" which attacked "Tigre" under Captain Jacques Bedout and forced it out of the French formation with severe damage. Villaret again attempted to gather his forces in support of "Tigre", and even positioned his frigate ahead of his own fleeing ships in hope of cutting off their retreat and forcing them to imitate his own manoeuvres, but in vain; "they would have passed over my very body had not taken command and prevented a collision", he wrote in his report. As "Tigre" fell out of line, "Queen" and "London" joined the attack on the isolated ship, and Bedout was forced to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds. The French ship had been severely damaged, with of water in the hold, the masts and rigging badly torn and more than 130 men killed or wounded, including Bedout, who had been hit three times.