Repairs and a warning carried Finisterre's effects to the Caribbean

Finisterre damaged every British ship and left the captured French ships badly battered, with four prizes losing all their masts. Hawke, himself wounded in a gunpowder explosion, had to pause for two days of repairs. Although only seven merchantmen had been captured in the battle, he sent the sloop Weasel to warn George Pocock's squadron in the Leeward Islands. Pocock could then intercept some merchants and trap others in Caribbean ports. Those that eventually sailed home would still lack the escort lost at Finisterre.