Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1833)

Battle of Cape St. Vincent
Part of Liberal Wars
The Battle of Cape St. Vincent by Léon Morel-Fatio
Date 5 July 1833 Location Near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal Result Loyalist victory
Belligerents
Loyalists	Miguelites
Commanders and leaders
Charles Napier for Dom Pedro	Manuel António Marreiros for Dom Miguel
Strength
6 ships: 3 frigates 1 corvette 1 brig 1 schooner	10 ships: 3 ships of the line 1 frigate 1 xebec 3 corvettes 2 brigs
Casualties and losses
about 100 killed or wounded	between 200 and 300 killed or wounded 6 ships captured

between 200 and 300 killed or wounded

The fourth Battle of Cape St Vincent was fought on 5 July 1833 and was a decisive encounter in Portugal's Liberal Wars. A naval squadron commanded by the British officer Charles Napier, on behalf of Dom Pedro IV, regent for the rightful Queen Maria II, defeated the navy of the usurper Dom Miguel.

While serving in the Azores, Napier had come to know members of the exiled Portuguese liberals, who had offered him command of the small fleet serving Dom Pedro, which largely consisted of a few old men-o'-war and some East Indiamen purchased from the British. In February 1833 Napier accepted their proposals, in succession to another British officer, Captain George Rose Sartorius, who was already serving as Admiral of Pedro's navy. Using the name 'Carlos de Ponza' in a transparent attempt to disguise his identity as a British officer to escape penalties under the Foreign Enlistment Act, in June 1833 Napier joined his new command in the Douro River off Oporto. ('Carlos de Ponza' = Charles of Ponza; one of Napier's most daring feats in the Napoleonic War had been the capture of the island of Ponza in the Mediterranean in 1813). Dom Pedro, currently being besieged in Oporto by the forces of Dom Miguel, bestowed on Napier his commission as Vice Admiral, Major General of the Portuguese Navy and Commander in Chief of the fleet. An eccentric but indomitable character, Napier restored the situation in the fleet, which had been close to mutiny because of lack of pay, and proposed a new strategy to break the siege. Flying his flag in the frigate Rainha de Portugal 46, commanded by Captain F.G. MacDonough and with his stepson Charles Elers Napier as Chief of Staff, on 20 June he sailed from Oporto with his small fleet, transporting the Duke of Terceira and half the constitutional army to the Algarve so that they could open a second front in the south of the country and march on Lisbon. After successfully disembarking this force, on the return voyage he encountered the considerably superior fleet of Dom Miguel off Cape St Vincent on 3 July 1833, and after two days of maneuvering in calm and very light winds he brought them to action.

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