Action of 31 May 1762

Action of 31 May 1762
Part of the Anglo-Spanish War (1762–63)
A view of the captured Spanish frigate Hermione with Favourite (left) and Active (right) in background: painting by Richard Wright
Date 31 May 1762 Location off Cadiz, Spain Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Herbert Sawyer Philemon Pownoll	Juan de Zabaleta
Strength
1 frigate 1 Sloop	1 Frigate
Casualties and losses
Light	1 frigate captured

The Action of 31 May 1762 was a minor naval engagement that took place off the Spanish coast off Cadiz, between a British Royal Naval frigate and a sloop against a Spanish frigate during the recently declared Anglo-Spanish War (1762–63). When the Spanish ship surrendered, it was found that she carried a large cargo of gold and silver that would lead to the greatest amount of prize money awarded to British warships.

The war with Spain was only four months old when the Royal Navy sent a blockading force to the Spanish coast. The aims of the blockade were to block the dispatch of Spanish reinforcements to the Caribbean where Havana was under British siege, and to impede Spanish operations against Gibraltar or in the Mediterranean.

On 15 May 1762 Captain Herbert Sawyer's frigate, the 28-gun HMS Active, was sailing in company with the 18-gun sloop Favourite, Captain Philemon Pownoll, off the coast of Spain near the port of Cadiz. There they sighted the 26-gun Spanish frigate Hermione.

The Hermione, under Lieutenant Juan de Zabaleta, had sailed from Callao, west of Lima on 6 January 1762, prior to, and probably ignorant of, the declaration of the Anglo-Spanish War. On sighting the Active and Favourite in the morning, the officers were slow to prepare for battle, only relocating officers and passengers to make way for the gunners by ten o’clock. The guns were not prepared and the path to the powder magazine was cluttered. At one in the afternoon the British ships tacked and started to head toward the Hermione. At three o'clock lieutenant Francisco Javier Morales de los Rios, in charge of artillery, warned Zableta to call battle stations who inexplicably responded by refusing to do so until after dinner at five o'clock.

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