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In the 'Battle of Cape St Vincent' (14 February, 1797) a British fleet under John Jervis defeated a larger Spanish fleet under José de Córdoba near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.

Contents

Origins

Battle

Aftermath

British Fleet

Spanish Fleet

References

Origins

The Spanish declaration of war on Britain and Portugal in October 1796 made the British position in the Mediterranean untenable. The combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 38 ships of the line heavily outnumbered the British Mediterranean Fleet of 15 ships of the line, forcing the British to evacuate their positions in first Corsica and then Elba.
Early in 1797, the Spanish fleet of 27 ships of the line, which were supposed to join the French fleet at Brest lay at Cartagena, on the Mediterranean Sea, with the intention of sailing to Cádiz as an escort of a 57 merchant convoy, carrying mainly mercury — necessary for gold and silver production — which would eventually enter that Spanish harbour along with warships ''Neptuno, Terrible'' and ''Bahama'', prior to running into the British force.
Don José de Cordóba and the Spanish fleet left Cartagena on February 1 and might have reached Cádiz safely but for a fierce Levanter, the easterly wind, blowing between Gibraltar and Cádiz, which pushed the Spanish fleet further out into the Atlantic than intended. As the winds died down, the fleet began working its way back to Cádiz.
In the meantime, the British Mediterranean Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Jervis, had sailed from the Tagus with 10 ships of the line to try to intercept the Spanish fleet. On February 6, Jervis was joined off Cape St. Vincent by a reinforcement of five ships of the line from the Channel Fleet under Rear-Admiral William Parker.
On 11 February, the British frigate ''Minerve'', under the command of Commodore Horatio Nelson, passed through the Spanish fleet unseen thanks to heavy fog. Nelson reached the British fleet of 15 ships off Spain on February 13, and passed the location of the Spanish fleet to Jervis, commanding the fleet from his flagship ''Victory''. Unaware of the size of his opponent's fleet — in the fog, Nelson had not been able to count them — Jervis's squadron immediately sailed to intercept.
This pushed the Spanish into the Atlantic and by February 13, close to the British fleet. Early on the 14th, Jervis learnt that the Spanish fleet was 35 miles to windward.

Battle

As dawn broke on the 14th, Jervis's ships were in position to engage the Spanish, and vice versa. It was at this point that Jervis discovered that he was outnumbered nearly two-to-one. It would have been difficult to disengage, however, and Jervis also decided that the situation would only get worse were the Spanish fleet to join up with the French, so he decided to continue.
To the British advantage the Spanish fleet was formed into two groups and were unprepared for battle, while the British were already in line. Jervis ordered the British fleet to pass between the two groups, minimizing the fire they could put into him, while letting him fire in both directions simultaneously. Passing through the Spanish, the larger group managed to sail away in almost the opposite direction of the British line, and the smaller group was also in position to do so. Jervis ordered the line to swing around and go after the larger group before it could get away to Cádiz.
Nelson had returned to his own ship ''Captain'', and was now towards the rear of the British line, much closer to the larger group. He came to the conclusion that the manoeuvre could not be completed so as to allow the British to catch them. Disregarding orders that the British line was to turn while engaging the smaller group, he broke formation before reaching that point, which let him turn and catch the larger Spanish group more quickly. This placed him across the front of the Spanish.
Jervis, seeing what had happened with ''Captain'' then ordered the last ship in his line, ''Excellent'', to perform essentially the same manoeuvre. In the meantime, the front of the British line had completed its manoeuvre, and were approaching a long cannon shot from the rear of the Spanish.

The ''Captain'' was now under fire from as many as six Spanish ships, of which three were 112-gun three-deckers and a fourth Cordóba’s 130-gun flagship ''Santísima Trinidad''. ''Captain'' soon lost so much of her rigging that she was no longer maneuverable. As a result, Nelson moved close enough to the Spanish 80-gun ''San Nicolás'' to send out boarders instead. Meanwhile, Captain Collingwood in ''Excellent'' had engaged the 112-gun ''San José'' (usually, but wrongly, called ''San Josef'' in British accounts), which became so tightly entangled with ''San Nicolás'' that Nelson was able to order his boarders to cross the first Spanish ship onto the second. Both were successfully captured. This manoeuvre was so unusual and so widely admired in the Royal Navy that using one enemy ship to cross to another became known facetiously as "Nelson's patent bridge for boarding enemy vessels."

By the time ''Santísima Trinidad'' had struck her colours to surrender, ''Pelayo'' and ''San Pablo'', separated from de Cordoba's group during action, having been dispatched by the commander the day before, sailed in and bore down on ''Diadem'' and ''Excellent''. ''Pelayo''´s captain Cayetano Valdés warned ''Santísima'' to fly her flag again under threat she would be deemed an enemy ship and raked. The Spanish four-decker raised her flag. She was saved from being captured by the British.
Also Admiral Moreno's squad put together the survivors of Cordoba's group and turned to assist the harassed Spanish sails. Jervis then signalled retreat and he loitered while making sure his ripped ships and prizes were safe away from the just-arrived Spanish ships. The next day both fleets were in sight of each other but none regarded themselves strong enough to resume battle.
The major British accomplishment of this engagement was that the Spanish fleet was forced to stay in port for the next two years, frustrating the French aim to invade England. Rather a discredit for the Spanish navy - most of its crew were non-professional sailors - this British victory was actually achieved over 16 ships of the line, as they concentrated on de Córdoba's group and within this group, only 6 ships were engaged by the British fleet, but never one-to-one, except when Nelson's ''Captain'' showed up before de Cordoba's group at the beginning due to Nelson's taking his own initiative and diverging from Jervis´ orders.
Jervis crossed over to ''Irresistible'', to which Nelson had gone - ''Captain'' no longer being suitable - and made a show of approving Nelson's "disobeying" of his orders. Had the Spanish fleet been as well-manned and trained as the British, Nelson's action would likely have been suicidal. As it was, his quick thinking was central to the success of the engagement.

Aftermath

Jervis had given orders to destroy the 4 prizes had the action restarted.
Several days later, the frigate Terpsichore (32) spotted the damaged ''Santísima Trinidad'' making her way back to Spain.
The captain, Orozco, now commissioned by de Cordoba had flown his flag in frigate ''Diana''.
Terpsichore engaged but kept always out of range from the stern guns of the ship anytime ''Santísima Trinidad'' bore down on the English frigate.
Terpsichore nonetheless was hit twice with those cannons in a sudden move, resulting in damage in her rigging, masts and sails as well as some impacts on her hull.
Captain Richard Bowen then ordered to keep the pursuit but from a longer distance until the frigate vanished away.
The British casualties were 73 killed, 227 badly wounded, c. 100 lightly wounded. The Spanish casualties were about 1,000 men killed or wounded.
Jervis was elevated to the peerage as Earl St. Vincent. Nelson was knighted as a member of the Order of the Bath and promoted to Rear-Admiral. Cordóba was dismissed from the Spanish navy and forbidden from appearing at court.
Having demonstrated that the fighting efficiency of the Spanish fleet didn’t match that of his own, Jervis now imposed a close blockade of the Spanish fleet at Cádiz. He sent Nelson to try and capture that Spanish coastal city, but Nelson failed to do so and was repelled heartily by the city batteries. At Cape St. Vincent the British attempted to strike the Spanish navy lethally yet all they did was take four ships (two of them first rates). Their frustration stung them and they sailed for Cadiz in March and then for Sta. Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands) in the summer of that year where their capture expedition was fiercely faced by the Spanish and Nelson lost his arm after being shot elbow high by the famous cannon “El Tigre”.
The continuation of that blockade for most of the following three years, largely curtailed the operations of the Spanish fleet until the Peace of Amiens in 1802.
The containment of the Spanish threat, and the further reinforcement of his command, enabled Jervis to send a squadron under Nelson back into the Mediterranean the following year. That squadron, including Saumarez’s ''Orion'', Troubridge’s ''Culloden'' and the ''Goliath'', now under Foley, re-established British command of the Mediterranean at the Battle of the Nile.

British Fleet

Admiral Sir John Jervis was on his flagship ''Victory''. The British ships are listed in order from van to rear. Many of the British wounded were badly wounded and later died. There were about 100 lightly wounded.

★ ''Culloden'', 74 (Captain Thomas Troubridge) - Damaged, 10 killed, 47 wounded


★ , 90 (Captain Thomas Lenox Frederick) - Damaged, 12 killed, 49 wounded


★ ''Prince George'' (Rear-Admiral William Parker, Captain John Irwin) - 8 killed, 7 wounded


★ ''Orion'', 74 (Captain James Saumarez) - 9 wounded


★ ''Colossus'', 74 (Captain George Murray) - 5 wounded


★ , 74 (Captain George Martin) - 5 killed, 14 wounded


★ ''Victory'', 100 (Admiral Sir John Jervis, Captains Robert Calder and George Grey) - 1 killed, 5 wounded


★ ''Egmont'', 74 (Captain John Sutton)


★ ''Goliath'', (Captain Charles H. Knowles) - 8 wounded


★ ''Barfleur'', 98 (Vice-Admiral William Waldegrave, Captain James Richard Dacres) - 7 wounded


★ ''Britannia'', 100 (Vice-Admiral Charles Thompson, Captain Thomas Foley) - 1 wounded


★ ''Namur'', 90 (Captain James Hawkins Whitshed) - 2 killed, 5 wounded


★ ''Captain'', 74 (Commodore Horatio Nelson, Captain Ralph Willett Miller) - Badly damaged, 24 killed, 56 wounded


★ ''Diadem'', 64 (Captain George Henry Towry) - 2 wounded


★ , 74 (Captain Cuthbert Collingwood) - 11 killed, 12 wounded

;Frigates, etc.

★ ''Minerve'', 38 (Captain George Cockburn)


★ ''Lively'', 32 (Captain Lord Garlies)


★ ''Niger'', 32 (Captain Edward James Foote)


★ ''Southampton'', 32 (Captain James Macnamara)


★ ''Bonne-Citoyenne'', 20 (Commander Charles Lindsay)


★ ''Raven'' (sloop), 18 (Commander William Prowse)


★ ''Fox'' (cutter), 10 (Lieutenant John Gibson)

Spanish Fleet

Under José de Córdoba on his flagship ''Santísima Trinidad''. The Spanish were in no particular order.

★ ''Santísima Trinidad'', 130 flag of Admiral José de Córdoba - Badly damaged, 200+ casualties


★ ''Purísima Concepción'', 112, flag of Admiral Morales de los Ríos


★ ''Conde de Regla'', 112,


★ ''Mexicano'', 112, flag of Admiral P. De Cárdenas


★ ''Principe de Asturias'', 112, flag of Admiral J. Moreno; captain A. De Escaño


★ ''Salvador del Mundo'', 112, Captain D. A. Yepes - Captured, 42 killed, 124 wounded


★ ''San José'', 112, flag of Admiral F. J. Winthuysen - Captured, 46 killed, 96 wounded


★ ''San Nicolás'', 74, Cpt. T. Geraldino - Captured, 144 killed, 59 wounded


★ ''Atlante'', 74, Cpt. G. Vallejo


★ ''Conquistador'', 74, Cpt. J. Butler


★ ''Firme'', 74, Cpt. B. Ayala


★ ''Glorioso'', 74,


★ ''Oriente'', 74, Cpt. J. Suárez


★ ''Infante Pelayo'', 74, Cpt. C. Valdés


★ ''San Antonio'', 74, Cpt. S. Medina


★ ''San Domingo'', 74, Cpt. M. De Torres


★ ''San Fermín'', 74, Cpt. J. De Torres


★ ''San Francisco de Paula'', 74, Cpt. J. De Guimbarda


★ ''San Genaro'', 74, Cpt. A. de Villavicencio


★ ''San Ildefonso'', 74, Cpt. R. Maestre


★ ''San Juan Nepomuceno'', 74, Cpt. A. Boneo


★ ''San Pablo'', 74, Cpt. B. de Cisneros


★ ''San Isidro'', 74, Cpt. T. Argumosa - Captured, 29 killed, 63 wounded


★ ''Soberano'', 74, Cpt. J. V. Yáñez

;'Frigates, etc.'


★ ''Ceres'', 34


★ ''Atocha'', 34


★ ''Diana'', 34


★ ''Matilda'', 34


★ ''Mercedes'', 34


★ ''Perla'', 34


★ ''Santa Brigida'', 34

References

★ Navies of the Napoleonic Era, Otto von Pivka, , , David & Charles, 1980, ISBN 0-7152-7767-1