Naval battle off St. John (1696)

Naval battle off St. John
Part of the King William's War
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
Date 14 July 1696 Location Bay of Fundy, off present-day Saint John, New Brunswick Result French victory
Belligerents
England	France
Commanders and leaders
Captain Eames, Captain Paxen	Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
Strength
2 ships of the line with a province tender	2 ships of the line
Casualties and losses
unknown	none

The Naval battle off St. John took place on July 14, 1696, between France and England toward the end of King William's War in the Bay of Fundy off present-day Saint John, New Brunswick. The English ships were sent from Boston to interrupt the supplies being taken by French officer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville from Quebec to the capital of Acadia, Fort Nashwaak (Fredericton, New Brunswick) on the Saint John River. The French ships of war Envieux and Profond captured the English frigate Newport ( 24 guns), while the English frigate Sorlings (34 guns) and a provincial tender escaped.

In 1696, King William's war was in its seventh year. D'Iberville was about to be engaged in the Siege of Pemaquid (1696), the New England stronghold in present-day Maine. D'Iberville sailed from Rochefort, Charente-Maritime to Quebec City, where he took on board eighty troops and Canadians; then proceeded to Havre à l'Anglois (future site of Louisbourg), Cape Breton and embarked thirty Mi'kmaq, and departed for the St. John River. While at nearby Baie des Espagnols, D'Iberville heard two English vessels were in the Bay of Fundy and decided to attempt to capture them.

On July 5, 140 natives (Mi'kmaq and Maliseet), with Jacques Testard de Montigny and Chevalier, from their location of Manawoganish island, ambushed the crews of four English vessels. Some of the English were coming ashore in a long boat to get firewood. A native killed five of the nine men in the boat. The Mi'kmaq burned the vessel under the direction of Father Florentine (missionary to the Micmacs at Chignectou).

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