BEACHY HEAD, promontory, Sussex, England, south-west of Eastbourne, about 3m. from centre of the town. It is a per pendicular chalk cliff 532ft. high, and forms the east end of the South Downs. The old Bell Tout lighthouse, 285f t. above high water mark, erected in 1831 on the second cliff to the westward in o° 10' 18" E.,
43' 3o" N.. has been superseded by a new lighthouse built in the sea at the foot of the head itself.
This naval battle, known to the French as Bevisier (a corruption of Pevensey), was fought on June 3o, 169o. An allied force of 37 British sail of the line, under command of the earl of Torrington (Arthur Herbert), and of 22 Dutch under C. Evertsen, was at anchor under the headland, while a French fleet of over 7o sail, commanded by the comte de Tourville, was anchored some miles off to the south-west, with orders to co-operate with an expected Jacobite rising in England. Torrington had suggested to the council of Regency that he ought to retire to the mouth of the Thames until he could be reinforced. The council, however, ordered him to remain and rather to fight if he could secure an advantage of position. The admiral elected to treat this as a peremptory order to fight. At day-break on the 3oth he bore down on the enemy, but the numerical inferiority of the allies made it inevitable that there should be gaps between the different divisions. The English rear division under Sir Ralph Delaval, fought a close action with the French, but the French ships, ahead of the leading Dutchman, succeeded in turning to windward and putting part of Evertsen's squadron between two fires. The tide turned from flood to ebb during the action, and the surface current began to carry the fleets with it. The Dutch and English dropped anchor, but the French did not and were carried westward. When the tide turned the allies retreated to the Thames, abandoning several of the most damaged ships in Pevensey bay. Torrington was tried for his conduct but acquitted.
A full account of the battle of Beachy Head, written with ample quotation of documents, and for the purpose of vindicating Herbert, will be found in Admiral Colomb's Naval Warfare (London,
