The Action of 19 December 1796 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought off the coast of Murcia between a small squadron of two British frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and a small squadron of two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart, who was descendent of the British royal house of Stuart. Nelson managed to capture one of the Spanish frigates, but the unexpected appearance of superior Spanish forces forced him to withdraw hurriedly abandoning his prize.

By October 1796, the Genoese position in Corsica and continued French advances led the British to decide that the Mediterranean fleet could no longer be supplied and so they ordered it to be evacuated to Gibraltar. Commodore Nelson was then required to cover the evacuation of the British garrison at the island of Elba. He sailed from Gibraltar aboard the frigate HMS Minerve of 42 guns commanded by Captain George Cockburn. They were accompanied by the frigate HMS Blanche of 32 guns, commanded by Captain d’Arcy Preston in substitution of Charles Sawyer who had been court-martialled for homosexuality. At 10 pm on December 19 two Spanish frigates were sighted cruising off Cartagena. These frigates were the Sabina of 40 guns, flagship of Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart, who was descendant of James II of England, and the Matilde, commanded by Miguel Gastón, later commander of the ship of line San Justo at Trafalgar.

The action started at midnight. The Minerve engaged the Sabina while the Blanche, agreeably to Nelson's directions, began a persecution of the Matilde, keeping off the action. The Sabina struck her colours after a hard resistance of three hours which was later praised by Nelson in his official letter about the combat. The loss aboard the Spanish frigate amounted to ten men killed and forty five wounded, although Nelson claimed to have inflicted 164 casualties. She lost her mizenmast, and had her fore and main masts shot through in several places. The Minerve, whose masts were, as well as her rigging and sails, much wounded, had seven men killed and thirty four wounded.

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