Duc d'Anville Expedition

The Duc d'Anville expedition (June – October 1746) was sent from France to recapture Louisbourg and take peninsular Acadia (present-day mainland Nova Scotia). The expedition was the largest military force ever to set sail for the New World prior to the American Revolution. This effort was the fourth and final French attempt to regain the Nova Scotian capital, Annapolis Royal, during King George's War. The Expedition was also supported on land by a force from Quebec under the command of Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay. Along with recapturing Acadia from the British, d'Anville was ordered to "consign Boston to flames, ravage New England and waste the British West Indies." News of the expedition spread fear throughout New York and New England.

The expedition was a complete failure. It was beset by bad weather and took three months to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Many in the ships' crews and the troops being transported fell ill before the expedition finally reached Chebucto Bay (present-day Halifax Harbour), and d'Anville died not long after its arrival. His successors in command attempted to mount an assault on Annapolis Royal, but eventually gave up and returned to France.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized the expedition with his poem A Ballad of the French Fleet.

The British had conquered the capital of Acadia in the siege of Port Royal (1710) and renamed it Annapolis Royal. Over the next fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the city. The Duc d'Anville expedition, which was coordinated with Ramezay's expedition from Quebec, was the last French attempt to retake the capital of Acadia. After the stinging French defeat at the siege of Louisbourg (1745) during King George's War, King Louis XV sent the expedition to win back Acadia by conquering Annapolis Royal.

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