[2] By the end of 1782 the Spanish and French had been on the defensive since the Battle of the Saintes, which signaled British domination of the seas in the Caribbean.

[5] Captain George Stoney in HMS Fox, a thirty-gun frigate was sent to Jamaica in charge of a captured Spanish privateer, one of two simultaneously taken near Santo Domingo.

In the subsequent action which lasted for nearly four hours, the Spanish frigate was eventually dismasted by Fox's devastating carronades.

[1] Santa Catalina, a Spanish frigate of 22 guns and 163 men, was sent from Havana for the express purpose of making a prize of the British ship.

[6] Fox had four men killed and one wounded in the action, whilst Santa Catalina was totally dismasted and sustaining nearly 35 casualties, with the rest of her crew of sailors and marines taken prisoner.