The 25th July 2022 marks the 225th anniversary of the defeat of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson in the Battle of Santa Cruz in Tenerife which took place in 1797, and marks the well known loss of Admiral Nelson’s right arm. It almost also marked the end of his career wit the British Navy.
SOME BACKGROUND
Controlling the seas was key to world domination and power at the of the 18th Century. Spain and France were allies at this time and Great Britain fought with them over any port and at sea. A significant win for Britain occurred in February 1797 when they defeated a Spanish squadron off the coast of Cape St Vincent, thus signalling the beginning of a period of British domination of the sea.
At the time, Cadiz was a strategically important port for Spain as it was it’s main port for the country’s trade with it’s colonies in America and it was also a nerve centre for the Spanish economy.
A few months after the British Victory at Cape St Vincent, it was decided that British Royal Navy would put in place a naval blockade of Cadiz and Admiral Nelson was put in command of this blockade. During this blockade, the British recognised the importance of Tenerife as a trading post for Spain and so it was decided that a successful attack on Tenerife would be a sudden and unexpected blow on the Spanish Treasury hopefully resulting in the end of the conflict between Britain and Spain.
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE
At the time, Santa Cruz de Tenerife had a population of 8000 people. It was the headquarters of the Spanish Treasury, the post office and the place of residence of consular representatives and the only port authorised to trade with America. Protected from the prevailing winds by the Anaga Mountains, it was the an ideal refuge for ships to anchor and because of that it also attracted pirate ships and for this reason, the town was supplied with sufficient defences protect itself and the ships anchored in it’s waters.
The Spanish had put the experienced General Antonio Gutiérrez in charge of their defences in Tenerife. In January 1797, a couple of frigates from the Royal Company of the Philippines took refuge in the bay of Santa Cruz. In mid April one of them was successfully captured under the cover of darkness by two British frigates under the command of Captain Richard Bowen.
Following this success, at the end of May, two British Frigates under the command of Captain’s Benjamin Halliwell and George Cockburn, and under cover of darkness, captured a French ship.
These two successful captures led Nelson to the conclusion that Santa Cruz would be easy to capture and so, on the 14th July 1797, Admiral John Jervis gave the authorisation to go ahead and nine ships of the British squadron set sail for Tenerife.
NELSON’S PLAN OF ATTACK
The plan, to be carried out under the cover of darkness, was to land 1000 mean to the north of Santa Cruz at Valle Seco beach and proceed to take the Paso Alto Fortress, strategically placed to defend the town with it’s 22 cannons. Once the fortress had been captured, the plan was then to go on attack the town itself.
Nelson offered General Antonio Gutiérrez an honourable surrender by letter, demanding he surrender his troops and forts, as well as handing over the ship ‘El Principe d’Asturias’ and all related goods that were on board her or previously landed. Nelson threatened to destroy Santa Cruz and all of the townson Tenerife is his terms were not accepted.
On the 21st July the Santa Cruz was on high alert, with 84 canons and 375 artillery men spread out from north to south throughout 17 points of defence, including the tower of San Andreas, the castle Paso Alto, the fort of San Miguel and the artillery batteries of San Antonio, San Pedro, La Concepcion, San Cristobel and San Juan.
In addition, Santa Cruz had about 1600 men prepared to defend the town of which only about 300 were considered to be professional soldiers, including the infantry battalion of the Canary Islands and a group of French men from a captured corvette.
FAILED ATTEMPT AT AN ATTACK
The first attempt at a landing by the British frigates took place on the night of the 21st July, when unfavourable winds and powerful currents prevented a landing, despite the frigates managing to enter in tot he bay without being observed.
Later on the 22nd July another landing was attempted when Nelson decided to land on a beach beyond the range of the cannons situated at the Paso Alto fortress. Nelson had planned to divide his forces in to three groups, one to climb the hills, which – according to the maps that Nelson was using – overlooked Paso Alto and thus to attack the fortress from the rear. The third set of troops were to remain on the lower part of the mountain.
It took the British until midday to complete their landing, by which time the Spanish had guessed Nelson’s intensions and so they had sent two divisions to block the British advance, which took them by complete surprise. At this point, Nelson realised that the maps he had bee using, were incorrect and their advance to Santa Cruz town and the Fortress at Paso Alto were blocked by the deep ravine, Valle Seco.
The British open fired on the Spanish who returned fire, but having managed to hold their ground for nearly the whole day, the British withdrew and returned to their ships that night,
However, despite his initial plan being unsuccessful, Nelson still decided to continue his attack on Santa Cruz. His next plan was to land 960 fully armed men and a small cannon on to the quay at the San Cristobel Fort in order to capture the castle from where the Spanish commander was directing his defence. This plan was based on information garnered from a Prussian deserter captured by the British when they landed on the 22nd July.
As a diversionary tactic, the British squadron sailed into the bay of Santa Cruz at 5pm on 24th July and sailed up to the Castle Paso Alto and started to bombard it. Later that night, 960 men boarded the launches from the squadron and began to make their way to the shore of Santa Cruz, led personally by Nelson himself. Unfortunately the element of surprise was lost when they were spotted by Spanish sentries. The Spanish open fired. Due to a combination of heavy fire and bad weather, only 5 launches reached the quay. The remainder of the launches headed south. HMS Fox, under the command of Captain John Gibson, however was hit and sunk with a loss of over 90 crew members, including their captain.
Despite the intense gun fire, the British landing continued under intense gun fire, although Captain Bowen, commander of HMS Terpsichore, was hit and killed.
Just as Rear Admiral Nelson stepped on to Tenerife land, with his sword drawn, his right arm was hit by grapeshot and so his battle was over before it started! His arm was shattered and bleeding profusely and so he was taken to HMS Theseus where his arm was amputated.
The remainder of the British launches were divided in to two groups, which had been driven to the south by the strong currents. The first landed at La Caleta beach and made their way to the main square. However they were held back by Spanish troops firing from the San Cristobel castle, and they had to withdraw to the upper part of the town square, where they waited , as planned for Nelson. The second group landed on the beach at the entrance to the Santos Ravine, but were held up by the Canary Islands battalion, and so they had no alternative but to withdraw to the Santo Domingo monastery.
At this point, Captain Troubridge decided to demand General Gutiérrez surrender his troops, but unsurprisingly, Gutiérrez did not accept this saying he had plenty of men and ammunition. And so, Troubridge, along with his men withdrew to the monastery and joined forces with the other British men already there. In total they number around 600 men who were now surrounded by the island’s forces. Fierce fighting continued throughout the night, and the relief the British forces were expecting, never arrived as the British launches were forced away from the island by the island’s defenders.
In the meantime, the men, women and children of Santa Cruz had set about destroying the launches left on the beach by the British, thus cutting off any means of escaping and leaving the British with no options. Captain Hood was sent to offer the British surrender to General Gutiérrez, who, of course accepted it. Gutiérrez gave the British permission to leave with their military arms on one condition. They had to agree not to disturb Santa Cruz or any of the other of the Canary Islands ever again. Troubridge agreed to these demands.
By early morning of the 25th July, the British were defeated and their soldiers were paraded in front of the Spanish victors who provided them with boats to return to their ships! The British troops were treated with extreme generosity – the wounded were tended to in the hospital and everyone was given necessary provisions including bread and wine! Furthermore, Guttiérrez even invited the British offices to dinner! Both parties exchanged gifts of beer, wine and cheeses.
VICTORY
On 28th July 1797 the British squadron set sail for Cadiz. Accompanying them was the report from Gutiérrez in which he informed the Spanish minister of war of the victory over the British!