Graves signals general chase at Chesapeake

After seeing a thread on the battle of Chesapeake, I searched and found no thread exploring Graves being more aggressive. So lets assume that it is the morning of September 5th 1781 and that perhaps the ASBs have temporarily replaced Admiral Graves by Admiral Hawke from 1759. What are the short term and long term consequences?
 
I do wish 1st Posters would expand the OP.:(:( At least give the Wiki Link:rolleyes:
Using a little known tool called Google, gives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Chesapeake. For Hawke, we can quote Newbolt's peom

Twas long past noon of a wild November day
When Hawke came swooping from the West;
He heard the breakers thundering in Quiberon Bay,
But he flew the flag for battle, line abreast.
Down upon the quicksands roaring out of sight
Fiercely beat the storm-wind, darkly fell the night,
But they took the foe for pilot and the cannon's glare for light
When Hawke came swooping from the West.

Graves did not embrace the violence quite so freely. I did not wish to predict the consequences because they are so unclear. De Grasse's fleet was in disorder and had perhaps as many as a quarter of their crews ashore. However, counting ships of the line, there were 24 French to 19 British. My guess is that a rapid attack would lead to the leading French ships (how many?) being taken before the others could come into action. Even if Graves won a victory, possibly de Barras' arrival (and the 3 detached ships) could reverse the result if the British had suffered enough damage.

Incidently, you do not need ASBs. Just assume Graves has always wanted to bury the criticism that he suffered by not engaging an Indiaman with a frigate or that he was in a rage with gout or both.
 
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OK! Clearly I have to give more speculation on what might have happened. The problem is that I do not know who would have won if Graves had made "General Chase" that morning. However, history would have been very different.

If de Grasse gets all his ships into the battle with enough of their crews to fight them, he should manage to take, burn or sink most of the British fleet. Yorktown falls as OTL but the British are much weaker and may not be able to hold the West Indies. The French may make gains in the peace which may help to pay off their debts. The French fleet will be more aggressive and confident afterwards and the British less willing to try to break the opponents line. Perhaps we are looking at a 19th Century without a dominant Royal Navy.

If Graves takes the leading ships of the French fleet before the others come into the battle, Yorktown is safe and France is well on the way to losing the war. If you want an extreme butterfly, assume that Graves' fleet takes 12 of the French line and the others scatter. However, during the battle Graves is killed. Not only would we be drinking for hundreds of years in pubs called Graves but there might be a surge of patriotism which would enable Lord North to get money for a strong reinforcement of the British Army in America.
 
did somone mention ASBs?
this looks like a good thread, but a TL is even better (just a series of maps would do)
 
did somone mention ASBs?
this looks like a good thread, but a TL is even better (just a series of maps would do)
 
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