Naval battle at Vigo

Naval battle at Vigo

Part of: War of the Spanish Succession

The Battle of Vigo Bay ,
by Ludolf Bakhuizen , painted around 1702

date	October 23, 1702
place	Bay of Rande, Vigo , Spain
output	Anglo-Dutch victory

Parties to the conflict
England United Netherlands	Spain France
Commander
Sir George Rooke Philipp van Almonde	François Louis Rousselet de Chateau-Renault Manuel de Velasco
Troop strength
32 English ships of the line 13 Dutch ships of the line (10,012 seamen, 13,587 landing troops)	15 ships of the line 3 war galleons 3 frigates 5 smaller ships (10,790 sailors and soldiers)
losses
800 dead	2,000 dead

The sea ​​battle at Vigo (also sea battle at Rande) took place on October 12th ^July. / 23 October  1702 ^greg. in the War of the Spanish Succession in the Bay of Vigo (the innermost end of which is called the Bay of Rande) on the Galician coast. An Anglo-Dutch fleet under Admiral Sir George Rooke and Philipp van Almonde defeated a Spanish-French fleet under the command of François Louis Rousselet de Château-Renault and Manuel de Velasco .

Rooke originally sailed with the mission to conquer Cadiz , but had to retire after a defeat on September 29, 1702. In Lagos , Portugal , Rooke learned that the Spanish silver fleet of 1702, one of the richest of all time, left Havana in Cuba on June 24th and, because of its attack, was diverted to Vigo (instead of Cádiz as required) and there on September 23rd had arrived.

Course of the battle

In an effort to make up for his failure in front of Cádiz , Rooke sailed for Vigo. He found the treasure galleons there in the protection of a Franco-Spanish fleet of 30 warships. Chateau-Renault had fortified the innermost part of Vigo Bay, called the Bay of Rande, by a barrier of masts and cannons on land, near the town of Redondela , and on the island of San Simón. Rooke attacked on October 23, with Admiral Thomas Hobson on board the Torbay should break the barrier in the water, while soldiers of the Duke of Ormonde should attack the batteries.

The battle was a complete success for Rooke: the land batteries were stormed, the Torbay broke through the barrier in the water and all the Spanish and French ships were burned, sunk or captured. On the Spanish-French side there were about 2000 deaths, on the Anglo-Dutch side about 800. The winners captured silver worth 14,000 pounds, but a much larger sum - up to 3 million pounds - had been unloaded before the fight and headed inland been made.

The prey

English sixpence from 1703 with portrait of Anne and inscription Vigo

Officially, the British captured 1,500,000 pounds sterling from the galleons that were captured or sunk in shallow water.

In addition, a large amount of misappropriated money can be expected. In 1703 English gold (5, 1, 1/2 guineas ) and silver coins ( crown , half crown , shilling , sixpence ) were minted with the inscription Vigo .

Treasure hunters believe that part of the treasure lies at the bottom of the bay to this day. This notion became part of the story 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea of Jules Verne , in which Captain Nemo draws his fortune from these wrecks.

Fleets involved

England + Netherlands

Admiral Rooke's Division Surname captain Cannons Royal Sovereign Flagship Admiral Rooke 110 Association W. Bockenham 90 Prince George Hopson ? Yarmouth ? ? Cumberland ? ? Lennox ? ? triumph Rear Admiral Graydon ? Barfleur F. Weywell 90 Sterling Castle ? ? Burford ? ? Saint George Rear Admiral Fairborne 96 expedition ? ? Chichester ? ? Shrewsbury ? ? Boyne ? ? Plymouth ? ? eagle ? ?

Vice Admiral Hopson's Division Surname captain Cannons Mary Edward Hopsonn 60 Grafton Thomas Harlowe 70 Torbay Flagship Vice Admiral Hopson Captain Andrew Leake 80 Kent J. Jennings 70 Monmouth J. Baker 70 Berwick Edwards Rd 70 Essex J. Hubbard 70 Swiftsure R. Wynn 70 Ranelagh R. Fitzpatrick 80 Somerset T.Dilkes 80 Bedford H. Haughton 70 Cambridge R. Leestock 70? / 80? Northumberland J. Greeanway 70 Oxford J. Norris 70 Pembroke T. Hardy 60

States General Surname captain Cannons Vrijheid Admiral Lieutenant Philips van Almonde 96 Troublemaker Admiral Lieutenant Gerard Callenburgh 90 Zeven Provinciën Vice Admiral Philips van der Goes 92 Unie Rear Admiral Jan Gerrit van Wassenaer-Culemborg 94 Dordrecht Barend van der Pot 72 Veluwe Willem van Wassenaer Starrenburg 64 Slot Muyden Philips Schrijver 72 Holland ? 72 Gouda cheese Sommelsdijk 64 Amelia Lucas de Veth 64 Wapen van Alkmaar Vice Admiral Anthonij Pietersen 72 Katwijk Cornelis Beekman 72 Reygersbergen Herman Lijnslager 74

Smaller ships

Surname

some frigates

some bombarde ketches

7? / 10? Fire

France + Spain

Château-Renault Surname Cannons fate Le Fort 76 (flagship Admiral Château-Renault) Burned Le Prompt 76 Conquered Le Ferme 74 Conquered L'Espérance 70 Stranded Le Superbe 70 Stranded Le Bourbon 68 Conquered L'Assuré 66 Conquered L'Oriflamme 64 Burned Le Prudent 64 Burned La Sirène 62 Stranded Le solid 56 Burned Le Modéré 54 Conquered Le Dauphin 46 Burned Le Volontaire 46 Stranded Le Triton 42 Conquered L'Entreprenante 24 ( frigate ) Burned Le Choquante 8 ( frigate ) Burned L'Emeraude 8 ( frigate ) Burned Le Favori 11 ( fire ) burned an advice

Velasco y Tejada Surname captain Cannons Jesús-María-y-José (flagship) Manuel Velasco de Tejada 44 La Bufona (Admiral Ship) José Chacón 54 Almirante de Azoguez (Admiral Ship) Fernando Chacón 54 14 galleons Spanish corvettes Surname captain Cannons Felipe V Martin 8th La Trinidad ? 8th San Juan ? ?

literature

• Robert Sténuit : Les Épaves de l'Or. German edition: The treasure hunters of Vigo. Ullstein, Berlin 1959 (description of the search for the wrecks, with an introduction to the battle.)
• O. Browning (Ed.): The Journal of Sir George Rooke, Admiral of the Fleet, 1700-1702. London 1897, pp. 228-234.

Web links

Commons : Battle of Vigo Bay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Source collection. In: Website of Rafael Rojea. Archived from the original on July 13, 2009 ; Retrieved February 19, 2014 (English, Spanish). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Philip Skingley (ed.): Coins of England and the United Kingdom . Standard Catalog of British Coins. 47th edition. Spink, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-907427-19-0 , pp. 373-378 (English).
2. ↑ On the French fleet under Château-Renault cf. Léonce Léonard de Lapeyrouse Bonfils: Histoire de la Marine française. Vol. 2. Dentu, Paris 1845, p. 23 note 1 ( online at Google Books).