Sea battle at Cape St. Vincent (1681)

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Sea battle at Cape St. Vincent
The Brandenburg fleet, Lieve Pietersz Verschuir (1684)
The Brandenburg fleet, Lieve Pietersz Verschuir (1684)
date September 30, 1681
place At Cabo de São Vicente , Portugal
output Spanish tactical victory
Parties to the conflict

Spanish colonial empire

Brandenburg-Prussia

Commander

Marqués of Villafiel

Thomas Alders

Troop strength
12 galleons, 3 fires 6 ships
losses

unknown

10 dead, approx. 30 wounded

The naval battle at Cape St. Vincent on September 30, 1681 was a two-hour battle off the Portuguese coast near Cape St. Vincent . It ended with the tactical victory of a Spanish squadron over an outnumbered Brandenburg flotilla . It was the first naval battle of a German squadron on the high seas.

prehistory

see main article: Brandenburg caper war

From the time of the Dutch War (1672–1679), Spain owed the Brandenburg Elector Friedrich Wilhelm a subsidy payment of around 1.8 million thalers, which, despite diplomatic efforts, had not yet been paid out in 1680. Already in September 1680 surprised one of the electors for this purpose in the English Channel beordertes small brandenburg squadron under Claus von Bevern before Ostend that there at anchor and Brabant lace and linen loaded and armed with 52 cannons Spanish vessel Carolus Secundus , and took it by surprise . The ship was brought to Pillau and then included in the Brandenburg fleet under the name of Margrave of Brandenburg .

The battle

Encouraged by the first successes of his privateers , the elector had a second squadron formed for the privateer war against Spain. The command was Thomas Alders , whose flagship was the recently captured Margrave of Brandenburg . But Spain, too, had meanwhile put together a squadron that was supposed to eliminate the Brandenburg threat to its shipping. When Alders sailed south along the Portuguese coast with his six ships, some of them quite small, to intercept convoys coming from the Spanish American colonies , he sighted a large number of sails at Cape St. Vincent. Assuming that it was the hoped-for convoy of the silver fleet, Alders attacked. Instead of clumsy and heavily loaded cargo ships, however, he encountered a combat squadron of 12 galleons and three fires under the command of the Marquis of Villafiel, the captain general of Galicia . He and his squadron, which had left Ferrol and Vigo , were looking for the Brandenburgers in order to eliminate this threat to Spanish shipping.

There was a two-hour battle, which Alders finally broke off in view of the superior strength of the enemy. He sought refuge in the Portuguese port of Lagos , where his ships repaired the damage they had suffered, while the Spanish silver fleet entered Cádiz unmolested. The Brandenburg squadron had ten dead and thirty wounded. The losses on the Spanish side are unknown.

It was the first naval battle of a German squadron on the high seas.

Ships involved

Spain

Kurbrandenburg

  • Margrave of Brandenburg (ex Carolus Secundus , captured in 1680), 50 cannons
  • Fuchs , 20 cannons
  • Rother lion , 20 cannons
  • Eichhorn , 12 cannons
  • Princess Maria , 12 cannons
  • Water dog , 10 cannons

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ History of the naval battalions
  2. ↑ Marqués von Villafiel was a Spanish nobility title donated on August 7, 1665 by King Philip IV in favor of Fernando Carrillo Muñiz de Godoy, 1st Viscount de Alba de Tajo (1629-1683), governor of Málaga . The Marqués was from 1679 to 1681 Captain General of Galicia (Capitan General del Reino y Ejército de Galicia).

literature