[8] When hostilities broke out between the British and French colonies in North America, d'Estaing considered joining the forces of Louis-Joseph de Montcalm that sailed in 1755, but his family dissuaded him from doing so.

[10] After a lengthy journey, the fleet of the comte d'Aché, carrying the expeditionary forces whose land commander was the count de Lally, arrived off British-occupied Cuddalore in southern India on 28 April 1758.

[11] Lally disembarked his troops, established a blockade around the town, and then traveled to Pondicherry to organize the delivery of siege equipment.

D'Estaing thought he would finesse his parole status by declaring himself to be a "spectator" in case the force came into conflict with the British or their allies, and permitted his second in command to lead such operations.

[18] In command of a two-vessel company fleet (the 50-gun Condé and the frigate l'Expédition), d'Estaing sailed for the Persian Gulf in September 1759.

In a daring commando operation, 50 of Condé's men entered the well-fortified harbour and boarded the ship, taking it without resistance.

In their haste to depart, the men cut lines necessary for towing the ship, and alarm was eventually raised in the port.

A swarm of small boats was driven off by precision fire from Condé, allowing a new line to be attached to the prize so that she could be towed out of the harbour.

D'Estaing's success was notable: in three months he had acquired significant prizes at the expense of only five casualties (28 men died of smallpox).

[21] After a slow crossing (retarded by calms and contrary winds), d'Estaing's fleet reached the coast of Sumatra in early February 1760.

The town was defended by Fort Marlborough and a garrison of 500 Europeans and local sepoys, with the potential to raise over 1,000 additional Malay militia.

Although these forces were alerted to the French arrival by a ship that d'Estaing chased into the harbour, the first broadside directed at the fort panicked its defenders, who fled into the surrounding jungle.

He used Fort Marlborough as a base to subdue the remaining lesser British settlements on the west side of Sumatra.

In the early months of 1762 France made preparations for a major expedition against Portuguese territories in South America.

In order to clarify his command role in the expedition, the king formally removed him from the army and gave him the rank of lieutenant general in the navy.

They had been deported from the French colony of Acadia in present-day Canada by the British during the war, as they had refused to take loyalty oaths to Britain.

The division of their properties was somewhat contentious, leading to court proceedings and appeals that ultimately failed to divide their estates.

In 1777 he was promoted to vice admiral of the Asian and American seas (vice-amiral des mers d'Asie et d'Amérique).

At the entry of France into the American War of Independence in 1778, D'Estaing left Toulon in command of a fleet of twelve ships of the line and four frigates.

He sailed on 13 April, and, between the 11th and the 22nd of July, blockaded the smaller British fleet of Lord Howe at Sandy Hook,[22] New Jersey, off the southern entrance to New York Harbour.

In cooperation with the American generals, d'Estaing planned an attack on Newport, Rhode Island, preparatory to which he compelled the British to destroy some war vessels that were in the harbor.

Owing to a violent storm, which arose suddenly and compelled the two fleets to separate before engaging in battle, many of his vessels were so shattered that he found it necessary to put into Boston for repairs.

In August, d'Estaing sailed for Savannah, Georgia, to join forces with the Americans who wanted to recapture the British-held city.

The siege consisted of a joint Franco-American attempt to retake Savannah from 16 September 1779 to 18 October 1779, with d'Estaing in overall command of the combined forces.

Friends of Benjamin Franklin, then minister in France, jokingly suggested that the French court at Versailles should provide America with the names of other gifted admirals.

[27] In his moments of leisure, d'Estaing wrote a poem, Le Rêve (1755), a tragedy Les Thermopyles (1789), and a book on the colonies.