Five transports also were sunk north of Goat Island, between it and Coaster's Harbour, to protect the inside anchorage in that direction.

These preliminary operations cost the British five frigates and two sloops, besides some galleys.

Guns and ammunition taken from them went to increase the defences; and their officers and crews, over a thousand in number, served in the fortifications.
[Illustration] On the 8th of August the eight remaining French ships of the line ran the batteries on Rhode and Goat Islands, anchoring above the latter, between it and Conanicut, and were rejoined there by the four previously detached to the western passage.

Ten thousand American troops having by this time crossed from the mainland to the northern part of Rhode Island, d'Estaing immediately landed four thousand soldiers and seamen from the fleet upon Conanicut, for a preliminary organisation; after which they also were to pass to Rhode Island and join in the operations.

For the moment, therefore, the British garrison, numbering probably six thousand men,[29] was hemmed in by vastly superior forces, by land and by water.