Count Grasse-Tilly.

Count Grasse-Tilly became a marine in the Order of Malta (1734), entered the French navy (1740), rose from captain (1762) to commodore (1778), and served commendably in the West Indies (1779–1781). In the American Revolution (1775–1783), Rear Admiral Count Grasse-Tilly, commanding twenty-four French vessels, including his flagship Ville de Paris, triumphed over British Rear Admiral Thomas Graves, commanding nineteen vessels, including his London, outside Chesapeake Bay on September 5, 1781. This victory prevented the British from supplying their forces, who were besieged at Yorktown, and led to the eventual British surrender.