San Francisco de Asis v Lord Garlies Frigate Squadron – 26 January 1797
With control of the approaches to the Mediterranean Sea in a state of flux following the announcement of the Franco / Spanish alliance and the subsequent withdrawal of Admiral Sir John Jervis’s Fleet from Gibraltar, an incident involving a Spanish 74-gun ship and a British frigate squadron occurred in January 1797 which caused a great deal of celebration in Spain but went unreported in Britain. In lieu of further evidence, the following account has been compiled from Spanish sources and logs from the leading British frigate, the Lively.
In late January a small British frigate squadron under the command of 26-year-old Captain Lord Garlies of the Lively 32 was cruising in the Gulf of Cadiz. The vessels in company with the Lively were the frigates Niger 32, Captain Edward James Foote, the Andromache 32, Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield, and the sixth rate Bonne Citoyenne 20, Commander Charles Lindsay. The squadron was part of Jervis’s Mediterranean Fleet which had based itself in the Tagus following the withdrawal from the Mediterranean. Garlies’ orders were to blockade Cadiz and warn Jervis if the Spanish fleet appeared off the port.
The action between the San Francisco de Asis and Lord Garlies’ squadron
On the evening of Wednesday 25 January, and in light airs and clear conditions about 20 miles to the southeast off Cape Santa Maria, three strange men-of-war were sighted. Supposing them to be Spanish, the Lively wore ship, set topsails, jib and spanker, and after signalling to the Niger and Andromache to join her, gave chase to the larger of the vessels which, despite the conditions becoming hazier and with night coming on, was identified as a ship of the line. Several other sail were also in sight at this time.
The stranger would prove to be a Spanish sail of the line belonging to the Cartagena fleet, the San Francisco de Asis 74, Captain Alonso de Torres y Guerra, which had been posted between Cape Santa Maria and Cape St. Vincent to escort into Cadiz any merchant ships returning from the Americas. During the violent storm that had blasted through the Mediterranean on 10 December, and which had brought about the wreck of the British ship of the line Courageux 74, the San Francisco de Asis had been unable to hold her anchor and had been forced out to sea.
In normal circumstances a frigate would not have expected to take on a 74-gun ship, but with a collective superiority in firepower, not to mention manoeuvrability, Lord Garlies did not hesitate to chase the enemy, which he did through the night.
By dawn on Thursday 26 January the gentle wind had turned more easterly, and the chasing frigates were some thirty miles to the north-west of Cadiz with the conditions still somewhat hazy. Now the Lively set her royals in pursuit. Aboard the Spanish ship, her lookouts reported that four vessels had altered course towards her. Signals of recognition were hoisted and signal guns fired, to which an appropriate response was not forthcoming.
Accounts vary as to the timing of the events that unfolded, but when one of the frigates came in range, the Spanish colours were hoisted together with what the officers on the Lively perceived to be a commodore’s broad pennant. The Spanish ship then commenced firing on the squadron, to which the British responded as they came up with her.
According to Spanish accounts a running fight then developed, the frigates, together with the Bonne Citoyenne, attacking in pairs whilst the San Francisco de Asis mainly responded with her stern chasers, before occasionally luffing up to unleash full broadsides. When the frigates did draw alongside her, the Spanish gave them broadsides so that they sheared off, being badly damaged aloft and in the hull. In return, it has been stated that the British ships made poor practice and inflicted little damage on their opponent, although the claim is somewhat negated by the fact that she suffered casualties and later had to undergo repairs at Cadiz,
At 4 p.m., according to the Spanish accounts, the British frigates withdrew to effect repairs and speak one another, and this is partially confirmed by the Lively’s log in which it is stated that she wore ship to speak with her consorts, prior to Garlies calling off the chase. The Spanish accounts then state that a half an hour later, having regrouped, the frigates attacked once more, but two broadsides at 5 p.m. sent them scuttling away once more.
As darkness closed, in the Spanish ship swung away to the east to avoid going aground between Huelva and Ayamonte, intending to pass between the British ships and give them both broadsides. It is claimed that the British recognised the threat and retreated (apparently under Spanish pursuit) into the night before the San Francisco de Asis headed for Cadiz. The Lively’s log meanwhile does not mention any other contact with the enemy after she spoke her consorts, other than to state that the Spanish sail of the line remained in sight. A single British source states that the San Francisco de Asis was subsequently blockaded in Cadiz after an ‘eight-hour action’ with the frigates.
The San Francisco de Asis suffered two men killed and twelve wounded in the engagement whilst sustaining superficial damage to her hull and masts. She was repaired at Cadiz, and by the middle of February she was fit for service, by which time the remainder of the Spanish fleet had been defeated at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent by Admiral Jervis. Captain de Torres was honoured for his conduct in the engagement with the frigate squadron and was later promoted brigadier, whilst his second-in-command, Capitàn de Fragata Juan Topete, was commended.
A report of the action appeared in the Gaceta de Madrid on 7 February 1797. Spanish sources have claimed that there would have been about fifty casualties on the British side, with one frigate being very badly damaged and another moderately damaged. However, neither British newspapers nor historians ever mentioned the incident, notwithstanding the fact that other British defeats in the Georgian wars were widely reported and criticised, most notably by the eminent historian, William James. That the Niger was able to keep company with Spanish fleet as it made its way to Cape St. Vincent on the morning of 14 February, and both the Lively and Bonne Citoyenne were with the fleet on that day, would suggest that they were not materially damaged in the action with the San Franciso de Asis, whilst the Andromache was in a fit enough condition to defeat an Algerine pirate on 31 January, inflicting a heavy casualty toll in the process.
Clearly the San Francisco de Asis did gallantly beat off an attempt by the frigate squadron to capture her in a long chase, as evidenced by the casualties she reported in so doing, but the scale of the damage reportedly inflicted on Lord Garlies’ ships appears to be improbable for the reasons given above.