Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797)

Battle of Cape St. Vincent
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
The Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797 by Robert Cleveley
Date 14 February 1797 Location Near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Sir John Jervis Charles Thompson Sir William Parker Horatio Nelson	Don José de Córdoba y Ramos
Strength
15 ships of the line 5 frigates 1 sloop 1 cutter	24 ships of the line 7 frigates 1 brig 4 armed merchantmen
Casualties and losses
73 dead 327 wounded	4 ships captured 250 dead 550 wounded 3,000 prisoners

The Battle of Cape St Vincent (14 February 1797) was one of the opening battles of the Anglo-Spanish War (1796–1808), as part of the French Revolutionary Wars, where a British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.

After the signing of the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1796 allying Spanish and French forces against Great Britain, the British navy blockaded Spain in 1797, impairing communications with its American colonies.

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 Córdoba and the Spanish fleet left Cartagena on 1 February 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.

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