The battle that sealed American independence was not fought on land but at sea, off the Virginia Capes on September 5, 1781, between French and British fleets. This episode explains how Admiral de Grasse’s fleet trapped Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown while the Royal Navy fumbled its response.

We follow Samuel Hood’s early arrival at an empty bay, the French scramble out of the Chesapeake, Admiral Thomas Graves’ strict adherence to the line of battle, and the wind that kept British lower gun ports shut. Then we look at contradictory signal flags, the scuttling of HMS Terrible, the arrival of de Barras with siege guns, Cornwallis’s surrender, and the lasting impact of the Great Hurricane of 1780.

• Why Rochambeau favored Virginia over New York as the target
• How Hood’s assumption about an empty bay left the British scrambling
• Why the weather gauge worked against the British on September 5
• How conflicting signals and Hood’s response left the British rear out of action
• Why Washington said the navy held the casting vote in the war