The Battle of Cape St. Vincent () was a fleet action fought off Cape St. Vincent on 16–17 January 1780 during the American Revolutionary War. A Royal Navy fleet under Admiral of the White Sir George Rodney defeated a smaller Spanish Navy fleet under Squadron Commander Juan de Lángara in what became known as the Moonlight Battle (), unusual since the Age of Sail saw almost exclusively daytime battles. It was the first major British naval victory of the war, and proved the maneuvering value of copper sheathed hulls.
On 21 June 1779 Spain had joined its ally France, which was allied with the United States, in their war with Britain. Rodney was escorting a supply convoy with a powerful fleet of 18 ships of the line to relieve the Spanish siege of Gibraltar, when he encountered Lángara's fleet south of Cape St. Vincent on 16 January 1780. When Lángara saw the size of the British fleet, he rushed toward the safety of Cádiz, but the copper-sheathed British ships chased him down. In a running battle that lasted from mid-afternoon until after midnight, the British captured four ships of the line, including Lángara's flagship .
Two other Spanish ships of the line were also captured but then retaken by their crews. Although Rodney's after action report claimed both ships were grounded and wrecked, one safely returned to Cádiz and resumed service. Following the battle, Rodney successfully resupplied Gibraltar and Minorca before continuing on to the British West Indies. Lángara was released on parole; his career did not suffer from the defeat, and he was promoted to lieutenant general by Charles III of Spain.
Background
One of Spain's principal goals upon its entry into the American War of Independence in 1779 was the recovery of Gibraltar, which had been lost to Great Britain in 1704.Chartrand, pp. 12, 30 The Spanish planned to retake Gibraltar by blockading and starving out its garrison of British and Hanoverian troops.Chartrand, pp. 23, 30–31, 37 The siege formally began in June 1779 with a land blockade around the Rock of Gibraltar.Chartrand, p. 30 The matching naval blockade was comparatively weak, however, and the British discovered that ships which were and small fast enough could evade the blockaders. By late 1779, however, supplies in Gibraltar had become seriously depleted, and its commander, General George Eliott, appealed to London for relief.Chartrand, p. 37 In late December 1779 a large supply convoy and protecting fleet sailed from England under the command of Admiral of the White Sir George Rodney. Rodney's ultimate mission was to join the West Indies fleet, but he had secret instructions to first resupply Gibraltar and Minorca. On 4 January 1780 the fleet divided, with ships headed for the West Indies sailing westward. This left Rodney in command of 19 ships of the line, which were to accompany the supply ships to Gibraltar.Syrett, pp. 234, 237
On 8 January 1780 ships from Rodney's fleet spotted a group of sails. Giving chase with their faster copper-clad ships, the British determined these to be a Spanish supply convoy protected by a single ship of the line and several frigates. The entire convoy was captured, with the lone ship of the line Guipuzcoana striking her colours after a perfunctory exchange of fire. Guipuzcoana was staffed with a small prize crew and renamed , in honour of third son of the King, then serving as a midshipman with the fleet. Rodney detached and the frigate to escort most of the captured ships back to England; Prince William was added to his fleet, as well as some of the Spanish supply ships rerouted to the Gibraltar garrison.Syrett, pp. 238, 306
On 12 January , which had lost part of her topmast on 3 January, suffered additional damage and raised a distress flag. Assisted by , she limped into the neutral port of Lisbon on 16 January.Syrett, p. 311 News of the British fleet had come to the Spanish command. Drawn from the blockading force, a fleet of 11 ships of the line under Squadron Commander Juan de Lángara was dispatched to intercept Rodney's convoy. The Atlantic fleet of Admiral Luis de Córdova y Córdova at Cádiz was also alerted to try to catch him, but after learning the strength of Rodney's fleet, Córdova withdrew to Cádiz. On 16 January the fleets of Lángara and Rodney spotted each other around 1:00 pm south of Cape St. Vincent, the southwestern point of Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula.Chartrand, p. 38 The weather was hazy, with heavy swells and occasional squalls.
Battle
Rodney was ill, and spent the entire action in his bunk. His flag captain, Walter Young, urged Rodney to give orders to engage when the Spanish fleet was first spotted, but Rodney only gave orders to form a line abreast. Lángara started to establish a line of battle, but when he realised the size of Rodney's fleet, he gave orders to make all sail for Cádiz. Around 2:00 pm, when Rodney felt certain that the ships seen were not the vanguard of a larger Spanish fleet, he ordered a general chase at top speed,Syrett, pp. 238–239 and engage the Spanish ships from the rear as they came upon them. They were also instructed to sail to the lee side to interfere with Spanish toward shore,Mahan, p. 449 a tactic that also prevented the Spanish ships from opening their lowest gun ports.Syrett, p. 239 Because their copper-sheathed hulls reduced barnacles and drag, the British ships were faster and steadily gained on the Spanish.Willis, p. 34
The chase lasted for about two hours, and the battle finally began around 4:00 pm. , trailing in the Spanish fleet, received broadsides from , , and before blowing up around 4:40, with the loss of all but one of her crew.Syrett, pp. 240, 313 Marlborough and Ajax then passed to engage other Spanish ships. Princesa was eventually engaged in an hour-long battle with before striking her colours at about 5:30.Syrett, p. 240 By 6:00 pm it was getting dark, and there was a discussion aboard , Rodney's flagship, about whether to continue the pursuit. Although Captain Young is credited in some accounts with pushing Rodney to do so, the fleet physician Gilbert Blane reported it as a decision of the council.Mahan, p. 450
The chase continued into the dark, squally night, leading to it later being known as the "Moonlight Battle", since it was uncommon at the time for naval battles to continue after sunset.Stewart, p. 131 At 7:30 pm, came upon Lángara's flagship , engaging her for over an hour. and broadsided Fénix in passing, and Lángara was wounded. Fénix finally struck her colours to , which arrived late in the battle and shot away her mainmast. Fénixs takeover was complicated by an outbreak of smallpox aboard Bienfaisant. Captain John MacBride, rather than sending over a possibly infected prize crew, apprised Lángara of the situation and put him and his crew on parole. At 9:15 Montagu engaged , which struck colors after her maintopmast was shot away. Around 11:00 pm surrendered after having all of her masts shot away by , but the difficult seas made it impossible to board a prize crew until morning. The San Eugenio duel was passed by and Prince George, which engaged and compelled her crew to strike colours around 1:00 am. The last ship to surrender was . She nearly escaped, shooting away 's topmast, but was engaged in a running battle with the much smaller frigate HMS Apollo, which managed to keep up the fight for an hour. Rodney's flagship Sandwich came upon the scene around 2:00 am and fired a broadside, unaware that Monarca had already hauled down her flag.Syrett, p. 241
The British took six ships. Four Spanish ships of the line and the two frigates escaped, although sources are unclear if two of these ships were even present at the time of the battle. Lángara's report states that and were not in his line of battle, though they were listed as part of his fleet.Duro, pp. 259, 263 By one account, Lángara had dispatched these two ship to investigate other unidentified sails sometime before the action. Rodney's report states that San Justo escaped but was damaged in battle, and that San Genaro escaped without damage.
Aftermath
With the arrival of daylight, it was clear that the British fleet and their prize ships were dangerously close to a lee shore with an onshore breeze.Syrett, p. 241 One of the prizes, San Julián, was recorded by Rodney as too badly damaged to save, and was driven ashore. Another prize, San Eugenio, was retaken by her crew and managed to reach Cádiz;Beatson, p. 233 she was later restored to service within two months, and remained so until taken to pieces at Cádiz in 1804. A Spanish history claims that the prize crews of both ships needed the captive Spanish crewmen to escape the lee shore. The Spanish captains retook control, imprisoned the British crews, and sailed to Cádiz.Lafuente, p. 440 The British reported their casualties as 32 killed, 102 wounded. The supply convoy sailed into Gibraltar on 19 January, driving the remaining blockade fleet back to port in Algeciras. Rodney arrived several days later, after first stopping in Tangier. The wounded Spanish prisoners, who included Lángara, were offloaded there, and the British garrison was heartened by the arrival of the supplies and the presence of Prince William Henry.
After also resupplying Minorca, Rodney sailed for the West Indies in February, detaching part of the fleet for service in the Channel. This homebound fleet intercepted a French fleet destined for the East Indies, capturing one warship and three supply ships. Gibraltar was resupplied twice more before the siege was lifted at the end of the war in 1783.Chartrand, p. 31 Lángara and other captured Spanish officers were eventually released on parole, with Charles III of Spain promoting Lángara to lieutenant general.Syrett, p. 366 He continued to serve in the Spanish navy, being appointed as the naval minister during the French Revolutionary Wars.Harbron, p. 85 Rodney was lauded for his victory, the first major victory of the war by the Royal Navy over its European opponents. He distinguished himself for the remainder of the war, notably winning the 1782 Battle of the Saintes in which he captured French Admiral de Grasse. He was, however, criticised by Captain Young, who portrayed him as weak and indecisive in the battle with Lángara.Mahan, p. 535 (He was also rebuked by the admiralty for leaving a ship of the line at Gibraltar, against his express orders.)Mahan, p. 452 Rodney's observations on the benefits of copper sheathing in the victory were influential in British Admiralty decisions to deploy the technology more widely.Mahan, p. 451Syrett, p. 244
Order of battle
None of the listed sources give an accurate accounting of the ships in Rodney's fleet at the time of the action. Robert Beatson lists the composition of the fleet at its departure from England, and notes which ships separated to go to the West Indies, as well as those detached to England to return the prizes captured on 8 January.Beatson, pp. 232–233 He does not list two ships (Dublin and Shrewsbury, identified in despatches reprinted by Syrett) that were separated from the fleet on 13 January. Furthermore, HMS Prince William is sometimes misunderstood to have been part of the prize escort back to England, but she was present at Gibraltar after the action.See Rodney's despatch (Syrett, p. 305) describing her commissioning, and later references to her in orders at Gibraltar (e.g. Syrett, p. 341). Beatson also fails to list a number of frigates, including Apollo, which played a key role in the capture of Monarca.Syrett, pp. 241, 274