Battle of Roatán

Battle of Roatán
Part of the Anglo-Spanish War
A 1782 Spanish map of Roatán. New Port Royal is visible on the right side of the island.
Date March 16, 1782 Location Roatán Island, present-day Honduras Coordinates: 16°23′0.35″N 86°25′4.20″W / 16.3834306°N 86.4178333°W / 16.3834306; -86.4178333 Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Matías de Gálvez Gabriel Herbias Enrique Macdonell	Edward Marcus Despard?
Strength
600 soldiers, 3 frigates	at least 81
Casualties and losses
2 killed 4 wounded	2 wounded 81 captured

The Battle of Roatán (sometimes spelled "Rattan") was an American War of Independence battle fought on March 16, 1782, between British and Spanish forces for control of Roatán, an island off the Caribbean coast of present-day Honduras.

A Spanish expeditionary force under Matías de Gálvez, the Captain General of Spanish Guatemala, gained control of the British-held island after bombarding its main defences. The British garrison surrendered the next day. The Spanish evacuated the captured soldiers, 135 civilians and 300 slaves, and destroyed their settlement, which they claimed had been used as a base for piracy and privateering.

The assault was part of a larger plan by Gálvez to eliminate British influence in Central America. Although he met with temporary successes, the British were able to maintain a colonial presence in the area.

Following the entry of Spain into the American War of Independence in 1779, both Spain and Great Britain contested territories in Central America. Although most of the territory was part of the Spanish Captaincy General of Guatemala, the British had established logging rights on the southern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula (present-day Belize), and had established informal settlements (lacking formal colonial authority) on the Mosquito Coast of present-day Honduras and Nicaragua. Guatemalan Governor Matías de Gálvez had moved quickly when the declaration of war arrived, seizing St. George's Caye, one of the principal British island settlements off the Yucatan coast. Many of the British fled that occupation to the island of Roatán, another British-controlled island about 40 miles (64 km) off the Honduran coast. British commander Edward Marcus Despard used Roatán as a base for guerilla-style operations to extend and maintain British influence on the Mosquito Coast, and for privateering operations against Spanish shipping. (Sources do not indicate whether Despard was present on Roatán at the time of the Spanish attack; if he was, he was probably not captured, since he continued to be active in the area. Stephens suggests that he was on Jamaica at the time.)

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