Background
France had entered the American Revolutionary War in 1778, and Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in late 1780,when the Dutch refused to stop trading with the French and the Americans. The British had rapidly gained control over most French and Dutch outposts in India when news of these events reached India, spawning the Second Anglo-Mysore War in the process.
The French admiral the Bailli de Suffren was dispatched on a mission to provide military assistance to French colonies in India, leading a fleet of five ships of the line, seven transports, and a corvette to escort the transports from Brest in March 1781. After a happenstance battle with a British fleet at Porto Praya in the Cape Verde Islands in April, and a stop at the Dutch-controlled Cape of Good Hope in October, where he left troops to assist the Dutch in defense of that colony and added some ships to his fleet, he sailed on to Île de France, arriving at Port Louis in December.
There the fleet, further enlarged by ships available there, sailed for India under the command of the elderly Admiral D'Estienne D'Orves, accompanying transports carrying nearly 3,000 men under the command of the Comte du Chemin. D'Orves died in February 1782, shortly before the fleet arrived off the Indian coast, and Suffren once again took command.
Suffren first sailed for Madras, hoping to surprise the British stronghold there. When he found the fleet of Sir Edward Hughes anchored there on 15 February 1782, he turned south with the intent of landing troops at Porto Novo, from where they could march up the coast, recapturing French and Dutch holdings on the way. Hughes raised anchor and sailed after Suffren.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Sadras
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