Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 October 1796 - HMS Terpsichore (32), Cptn. Richard Bowen, captured Spanish frigate Mahonesa (34), Cptn. Don Tomas Ayaldi, off Carthagena.
The
Action of 13 October 1796 was a minor naval engagement of the
French Revolutionary Wars, fought off the
Mediterranean coast of
Spain near
Cartagena between the British
Royal Navy 32-gun
frigate HMS Terpsichore under Captain
Richard Bowen and the
Spanish Navy 34-gun frigate
Mahonesa under Captain
Tomás de Ayalde. The action was the first battle of the
Anglo-Spanish War, coming just eight days after the Spanish declaration of war. In a battle lasting an hour and forty minutes,
Mahonesa was captured.
Capture of the Mahonesa Octr. 13th 1796
Read more at
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/109662.html#0cOCHomxZmlwMWdX.99
Spain had been an ally of Britain in the first years of the
War of the First Coalition against the newly formed
French Republic. Relations between the allies had often been strained, and following a series of defeats in the
War of the Pyrenees the Spanish signed a peace treaty in August 1795. A year later the
Treaty of San Ildefonso brought Spain back into the war, now as an ally of France. The war in the Mediterranean had reached a stalemate after two inconclusive battles in the spring of 1795, with a British
blockade of the French naval base at
Toulon maintained from
San Fiorenzo and
Leghorn under Vice-Admiral
Sir John Jervis. The French dominance in the
Italian campaign of 1796 made the British position tenuous, and with Spain's entry into the war Jervis was forced to disperse his limited forces further still, with forces watching Spanish shipping at
Cádiz.
Off Cartagena Bowen commanded the small frigate
Terpsichore, which had been shadowing a large Spanish fleet which had left Cádiz a few days earlier. As he returned to
Gibraltar Bowen encountered
Mahonesa, and the Spanish captain Ayalde offered battle. Bowen accepted and the ships fought an extended engagement at close quarters. The Spanish ship took much more serious damage and casualties than the British, and gradually the crew began to slip away from their guns. Ayalde made an attempt to escape, but his ship was too crippled and after a chase of 20 minutes he surrendered. Bowen brought the
prize to
Lisbon, where the damage was revealed to be too severe to repair. Bowen served in a number of engagements off Cádiz in the following months, until he was killed in July 1797 at the
Battle of Santa Cruz.
Background
In early 1793
Great Britain and
Spain, historic antagonists in the Mediterranean, found themselves allies against the newly-formed
French Republic in the
War of the First Coalition. The alliance was uneasy, the Spanish refusing to allow British officers to command Spanish forces, and suspicious of British motives in the aftermath of the
Nootka Crisis of 1790. During the
Siege of Toulon, Spanish Admiral
Juan de Lángara threatened to open fire on
HMS Victory, the flagship of British Vice-Admiral
Lord Hood during a dispute over strategy, and at the culmination of the siege Spanish forces were accused of deliberately sabotaging a British attempt to destroy the French Mediterranean Fleet at anchor in harbour.
As the war progressed the Spanish suffered a series of defeats on land in the
War of the Pyrenees, and in the summer of 1795 Spain was forced to sign a peace treaty with the French, withdrawing their forces from the Mediterranean campaign. Britain and France fought inconclusive sea battles at
Genoa and the
Hyères Islands that year, the campaign settling into a stalemate, with the French
blockaded in Toulon but sending successful raiding squadrons against British trade. One such squadron destroyed a large British convoy at the
Battle of the Levant Convoy off
Cape St. Vincent in October 1795 and took shelter in the main Spanish naval base of
Cádiz. During 1796 the
Italian campaigns of
Napoleon Bonaparte systematically eliminated Britain's Italian allies, while diplomatic negotiations brought Spain into an alliance with France, signing the
Treaty of San Ildefonso in August. On 5 October Spain declared war on Britain and a large Spanish fleet sailed from Cádiz under Lángara to unite with the French at Toulon.
British forces in the Mediterranean were commanded by Vice-Admiral
Sir John Jervis, who had stationed forces off Cádiz to watch for Spanish movement in the advent of war. The squadron at Cádiz, commanded by Rear-Admiral
Robert Mann, was chased by Lángara's fleet, abandoning two storeships in its precipitate withdrawal. Initially anchoring at
Gibraltar, Mann then deserted his post and returned to Britain against orders. One of the independent commands in the region was a small force led by the small 32-gun
frigate HMS Terpsichore under Captain
Richard Bowen, recently transferred from the
North Sea command at Jervis' request. Bowen recognised the danger in Mann's desertion, and set sail for the
Ligurian Sea to warn Jervis of Lángara's approach.
Action
On 11 October, Lángara reached the Spanish Mediterranean port of
Cartagena, uniting with the squadron there and sailing in search of Jervis. The previous day Bowen, having passed Lángara's slower fleet, encountered
HMS Pallas and passed the warning along, turning back to his station off Gibraltar. As Lángara passed by, a Spanish frigate stationed in Cartagena, the 34-gun
Mahonesa under Captain
Tomás de Ayalde, sailed independently on a patrol and in the early morning of 13 October sighted a strange sail to the northeast. Ayalde brought his frigate towards the stranger to investigate and found that he faced Bowen's frigate, manoeuvering to position
Mahonesa in an advantageous station to
windward.
Bowen's ship was undermanned, having landed 30 men for medical treatment at Gibraltar and with another 30 on board unfit for action, and he was concerned that the Spanish fleet he was shadowing might appear at any moment; a Spanish
tender was seen sailing for Cartagena with news of Bowen's arrival. Bowen however determined to fight, and stood towards Ayalde's ship. At 09:30, Bowen pulled close alongside the Spanish frigate and fired a single shot to see how the Spanish vessel would react. Ayalde responded with a full
broadside, and the frigates traded heavy fire for the next hour and twenty minutes as they
wore around one another.
Terpsichore's masts were badly damaged and the rigging, sails, boats and anchors badly torn up by Spanish fire, but casualties among the crew were relatively light.
Mahonesa however was badly battered, suffering heavy casualties; the
booms were shattered and the guns in the centre of the ship disabled.
As the action continued, Ayalde found that his men were slipping away from their guns and that fewer and fewer could be persuaded to return. Recognising that defeat was now inevitable, he ordered sails set and attempted to retreat to Cartagena. On
Terpsichore, Bowen had his men effect rapid repairs and within 20 minutes the British frigate was under sail and soon overhauled the shattered Spanish ship. As
Terpischore pulled alongside
Mahonesa, gun batteries ready to fire, Ayalde
struck his colours and surrendered.
Aftermath
Bowen effected repairs on board
Terpsichore and his
prize and turned to the westward. His losses were minimal, with only four men wounded in the engagement. Casualties on board
Mahonesa were much heavier; Bowen estimated 30 killed and 30 wounded, Bowen successfully brought both frigates to
Lisbon, where Jervis was establishing a new fleet anchorage. There
Mahonesa was bought into the Royal Navy under the same name. Bowen was commended for his victory, and awarded a
piece of plate valued at 100
guineas. Naval historian
William James considered that
Mahonesa and
Terpsichore, both
12-pounder frigates, were "as fair a match as an English officer would wish to fight." Bowen himself paid tribute to Ayalde's bravery in the action, considering that the Spanish captain had fought on long past the point where defeat was inevitable.
With Mann's desertion and the Spanish declaration of war, Jervis found his fleet isolated and outnumbered. Acting on orders from the
Admiralty, he withdrew his forces from the Mediterranean entirely, retreating to Gibraltar and then Lisbon. There he received reinforcements from Britain and, in February 1797, launched a successful attack on the Spanish fleet at the
Battle of Cape St Vincent, inflicting such a serious defeat that the Spanish fleet would not emerge again from Cádiz until the
Croisière de Bruix campaign in 1799. Bowen was attached to the
Cádiz blockade, capturing several merchant vessels in November 1796, defeating the French frigate
Vestale off Cádiz at the
Action of 13 December 1796, and attacking the damaged Spanish 130-gun
Santísima Trinidad in the aftermath of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. In July 1797
Terpsichore was with the squadron under Rear-Admiral
Sir Horatio Nelson which attacked the port of
Santa Cruz on
Tenerife. The operation was a failure, Nelson's force driven off with heavy casualties; Nelson lost an arm and Bowen was struck and killed by
grape shot while storming the town. More than five decades after the battle the
Admiralty recognised the action with a clasp attached to the
Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.
HMS Terpsichore was a 32-gun
Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the
Royal Navy. She was built during the last years of the
American War of Independence, but did not see action until the
French Revolutionary Wars. She served during the French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars, in a career that spanned forty-five years.
Terpsichore was launched in 1785, but was not prepared for active service until the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793. She was initially sent to serve in the
West Indies where in 1794 Captain
Richard Bowen took command. Bowen commanded
Terpsichore until his death in 1797, and several of her most memorable exploits occurred during his captaincy.
Terpsichore served mostly in the Mediterranean, capturing three frigates, and in 1797 went as far as to attack the damaged Spanish
first rate Santísima Trinidad, as she limped away from the
Battle of Cape St Vincent. The
Santísima Trinidad mounted 136 guns to
Terpsichore's 32, and was the largest warship in the world at time.
Terpsichore inflicted several casualties, before abandoning the attack.
Terpsichore passed through several commanders after Bowen's death at Tenerife, and went out to the
East Indies, where her last commander was Captain
William Augustus Montagu. Montagu fought an action with a large French frigate in 1808, and though he was able to outfight her, he was not able to capture her.
Terpsichore returned to Britain the following year, and spent the last years of the war laid up
in ordinary. She survived in this state until 1830, when she was broken up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_13_October_1796
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Terpsichore_(1785)
age
reported the storm on Saturday 15th October:
