Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1657)
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife was a military operation in the Anglo–Spanish War
(1654–1660) in which an English fleet
under Admiral Robert Blake
attacked a Spanish treasure fleet
that had already landed the treasure at Santa Cruz de Tenerife
in the Spanish Canary Islands
. Most of the spanish merchantmen were scuttled and the remainder were burnt by the English.
assembled the following year. One of the prime enterprises was the blockade of Cadiz, which had not previously been attempted on such a scale. Robert Blake was to be in charge and also to come up with methods that he had used in his previous encounters with the Dutch and Barbary pirates.
Blake kept the fleet at sea throughout an entire winter in order to maintain the blockade. A further six ships were sent from England as reinforcements towards the end of 1656, including the George
, which became Blake's flagship
. In February 1657, Blake received intelligence that the convoy from Mexico
was on its way across the Atlantic. Although his captains wanted to search for the Spanish galleon
s immediately, Blake refused to divide his forces and waited until victualling ships from England arrived to re-provision his fleet at the end of March. In the meantime a Spanish convoy was destroyed
by one of Blake's captains; Richard Stayner. After this Blake (with only two ships to watch Cadiz
), sailed from Cadiz Bay on 13 April 1657 to attack the plate fleet, which had docked at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands to await an escort to Spain.
Blake's fleet arrived off Santa Cruz on 19 April. Santa Cruz lies in a deeply-indented bay and the harbour was defended by a castle armed with forty guns and a number of smaller forts connected by a triple line of breastworks to shelter musketeers. Seventeen Spanish ships were moored in a semicircle in the harbour under cover of the shore batteries, including seven great galleons of the plate fleet.
In an operation similar to the raid on the Barbary pirates
of Porto Farina in Tunisia in 1655, Blake planned to send twelve frigates under the command of (now) Rear-Admiral Stayner in the Speaker
into the harbour to attack the galleons while he followed in the George with the rest of the fleet to bombard the shore batteries.
Around noon, the flagship of the Spanish admiral Don Diego de Egues caught fire; shortly afterwards it was destroyed when the powder magazine exploded. English sailors took to boats to board Spanish ships and set them on fire. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, all sixteen Spanish ships in the harbour were sunk, surrendered or ablaze. Contrary to orders, the Swiftsure
and four other frigates each took a surrendered ship as a prize and attempted to tow it out of the harbour. Blake sent peremptory orders that the prizes were to be burnt. He had to repeat his order three times before the reluctant captains obeyed.
Having achieved its objective of destroying the Spanish vessels, the English fleet was faced with the hazardous task of withdrawing from Santa Cruz harbour under continuing fire from the forts. According to accounts the wind miraculously shifted from the north-east to the south-west at exactly the right moment to carry Blake's ships out of the harbour. However, this story is probably based upon a misunderstanding of a report pertaining to general weather conditions on the voyage as a whole. The English fleet worked its way back out to the open sea by warping out, or hauling on anchor ropes, a tactic Blake had introduced during the raid on Porto Farina. The Speaker
, which was the first ship to enter the harbour and last to leave, had been badly damaged, but no English ships were lost in the battle.
News of the victory reached England the following month. On 28 May, Parliament voted to reward Blake with a jewel worth £500, which was equivalent to the reward voted to General Thomas Fairfax
for his victory at the Battle of Naseby
in 1645. Richard Stayner was knighted by Oliver Cromwell
. Blake received orders to return home in June. He made one further voyage to Salé
in Morocco
, where he succeeded in concluding a treaty to secure the release of English slaves. He returned to Cadiz in mid-July and handed command of the fleet to his flag captain
, John Stoakes. Leaving nineteen ships to maintain the blockade, Blake sailed for England with eleven ships most in need of repair. However, Blake's health was in terminal decline. Worn out by his years of campaigning, he died aboard his flagship the George on 7 August 1657 as his fleet approached Plymouth Sound.
Anglo-Spanish War (1654)
The Anglo-Spanish War was a conflict between the English Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell and Spain, between 1654 and 1660. It was caused by commercial rivalry. Each side attacked the other's commercial and colonial interests in various ways such as privateering and naval expeditions. In 1655, an...
(1654–1660) in which an English fleet
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
under Admiral Robert Blake
Robert Blake (admiral)
Robert Blake was one of the most important military commanders of the Commonwealth of England and one of the most famous English admirals of the 17th century. Blake is recognised as the chief founder of England's naval supremacy, a dominance subsequently inherited by the British Royal Navy into...
attacked a Spanish treasure fleet
Spanish treasure fleet
The Spanish treasure fleets was a convoy system adopted by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790...
that had already landed the treasure at Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital , second-most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the 21st largest city in Spain, with a population of 222,417 in 2009...
in the Spanish Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
. Most of the spanish merchantmen were scuttled and the remainder were burnt by the English.
Background
England had decided to support France in her war in the Low Countries with the Spanish. War was openly declared in October 1655 and endorsed when the Second Protectorate ParliamentSecond Protectorate Parliament
The Second Protectorate Parliament in England sat for two sessions from 17 September 1656 until 4 February 1658, with Thomas Widdrington as the Speaker of the House of Commons...
assembled the following year. One of the prime enterprises was the blockade of Cadiz, which had not previously been attempted on such a scale. Robert Blake was to be in charge and also to come up with methods that he had used in his previous encounters with the Dutch and Barbary pirates.
Blake kept the fleet at sea throughout an entire winter in order to maintain the blockade. A further six ships were sent from England as reinforcements towards the end of 1656, including the George
HMS St George (1622)
HMS St George, sometimes written as HMS George, was a 42-gun great ship of the English Royal Navy, built by Andrew Burrell at Deptford and launched in 1622. By 1660 her armament had been increased to 56 guns....
, which became Blake's flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
. In February 1657, Blake received intelligence that the convoy from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
was on its way across the Atlantic. Although his captains wanted to search for the Spanish galleon
Galleon
A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. Whether used for war or commerce, they were generally armed with the demi-culverin type of cannon.-Etymology:...
s immediately, Blake refused to divide his forces and waited until victualling ships from England arrived to re-provision his fleet at the end of March. In the meantime a Spanish convoy was destroyed
Battle of Cádiz (1656)
The Battle of Cádiz was an operation in the Anglo–Spanish War in which an English fleet destroyed and captured a Spanish treasure fleet off Cádiz....
by one of Blake's captains; Richard Stayner. After this Blake (with only two ships to watch Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
), sailed from Cadiz Bay on 13 April 1657 to attack the plate fleet, which had docked at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands to await an escort to Spain.
Blake's fleet arrived off Santa Cruz on 19 April. Santa Cruz lies in a deeply-indented bay and the harbour was defended by a castle armed with forty guns and a number of smaller forts connected by a triple line of breastworks to shelter musketeers. Seventeen Spanish ships were moored in a semicircle in the harbour under cover of the shore batteries, including seven great galleons of the plate fleet.
In an operation similar to the raid on the Barbary pirates
Action of 14 April 1655
The Action of 14 April 1655 took place at Porto Farina , northern Tunisia, when an English fleet under Robert Blake destroyed several Barbary vessels. It achieved little direct effect....
of Porto Farina in Tunisia in 1655, Blake planned to send twelve frigates under the command of (now) Rear-Admiral Stayner in the Speaker
HMS Mary (1650)
Speaker was a 50-gun third-rate frigate and the name ship of the , built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Christopher Pett at Woolwich Dockyard and launched in 1650. At the Restoration she was renamed HMS Mary...
into the harbour to attack the galleons while he followed in the George with the rest of the fleet to bombard the shore batteries.
Battle
The attack began at 9 o'clock in the morning of 20 April. Steyner's division manoeuvred alongside the Spanish ships, which protected the English ships to some extent from the guns of the castle and forts. No shot was fired from the English ships until they had moved into position and dropped anchor. Blake saw what the Spanish had not; that the six galleons masked the fire of the other ten ships. While the frigates attacked the galleons, Blake's heavier warships sailed into the harbour to bombard the shore defences. Blake ordered that no prizes were to be taken; the Spanish fleet was to be utterly destroyed. Most of the Spanish fleet, made up of smaller armed merchantmen, were quickly silenced by the superior gunnery of Stayner's warships. The two great galleons, strongly built and powerfully armed, fought on for several hours. Blake's division cleared the breastworks and smaller forts; smoke from the gunfire and burning ships worked to the advantage of the English by obscuring their ships from the Spanish batteries.Around noon, the flagship of the Spanish admiral Don Diego de Egues caught fire; shortly afterwards it was destroyed when the powder magazine exploded. English sailors took to boats to board Spanish ships and set them on fire. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, all sixteen Spanish ships in the harbour were sunk, surrendered or ablaze. Contrary to orders, the Swiftsure
HMS Swiftsure (1621)
HMS Swiftsure was a 42-gun great ship of the English Royal Navy, built by Andrew Burrell at Deptford and launched in 1621.She was rebuilt in 1654 at Woolwich by Christopher Pett as a 60-gun third rate ship of the line. She was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir William Berkeley at the Four Days'...
and four other frigates each took a surrendered ship as a prize and attempted to tow it out of the harbour. Blake sent peremptory orders that the prizes were to be burnt. He had to repeat his order three times before the reluctant captains obeyed.
Having achieved its objective of destroying the Spanish vessels, the English fleet was faced with the hazardous task of withdrawing from Santa Cruz harbour under continuing fire from the forts. According to accounts the wind miraculously shifted from the north-east to the south-west at exactly the right moment to carry Blake's ships out of the harbour. However, this story is probably based upon a misunderstanding of a report pertaining to general weather conditions on the voyage as a whole. The English fleet worked its way back out to the open sea by warping out, or hauling on anchor ropes, a tactic Blake had introduced during the raid on Porto Farina. The Speaker
HMS Mary (1650)
Speaker was a 50-gun third-rate frigate and the name ship of the , built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Christopher Pett at Woolwich Dockyard and launched in 1650. At the Restoration she was renamed HMS Mary...
, which was the first ship to enter the harbour and last to leave, had been badly damaged, but no English ships were lost in the battle.
Aftermath
The Spanish treasure from Mexico had been unloaded and secured ashore. Blake was unable to seize it but it was also temporarily unavailable to the government in Madrid. Having had no more than forty-eight men killed and 120 wounded, Blake's victory established England's reputation as a leading European naval power.News of the victory reached England the following month. On 28 May, Parliament voted to reward Blake with a jewel worth £500, which was equivalent to the reward voted to General Thomas Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a general and parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War...
for his victory at the Battle of Naseby
Battle of Naseby
The Battle of Naseby was the key battle of the first English Civil War. On 14 June 1645, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.-The Campaign:...
in 1645. Richard Stayner was knighted by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
. Blake received orders to return home in June. He made one further voyage to Salé
Salé
Salé is a city in north-western Morocco, on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, opposite the national capital Rabat, for which it serves as a commuter town...
in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, where he succeeded in concluding a treaty to secure the release of English slaves. He returned to Cadiz in mid-July and handed command of the fleet to his flag captain
Flag captain
In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First Captain", with the "flag captain" as the ship's...
, John Stoakes. Leaving nineteen ships to maintain the blockade, Blake sailed for England with eleven ships most in need of repair. However, Blake's health was in terminal decline. Worn out by his years of campaigning, he died aboard his flagship the George on 7 August 1657 as his fleet approached Plymouth Sound.