Action of 5 October 1804

Also known as La Batalla del Cabo de Santa María or The 3rd Battle of Cape St Vincent

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From "Naval history of Great Britain 1793 - 1827" by William James

On the 3d of October the British squadron sent upon this important service, and which consisted of the 44-gun frigate Indefatigable, Captain Graham Moore, 18-pounder 32-gun frigates Medusa, Captain John Gore, and Amphion, Captain Samuel Sutton, and 38-gun frigate Lively, Captain Graham Eden Hamond, assembled off Cape Santa-Maria. On the 5th, at 6 a.m., that cape bearing north-east distant nine leagues, the Medusa made a signal for four large sail bearing west by south, the wind at this time being about east-north-east. The squadron immediately wore, and made sail in chase. At 8 a.m. the strangers, which were the Spanish 40-gun frigate Medea, Rear-admiral Don Joseph Bustamente, and 34-gun frigates Fama (with a broad pendant), Clara, and Mercedes, formed the line of battle ahead, in the following order: Fama, Medea, Mercedes, Clara. At 9 h. 5 m. a.m. the Medusa placed herself within half pistol-shot, on the weather beam of the Fama. Presently the Indefatigable took a similar station by the side of the Medea; and the Amphion and Lively, as they came up, ranged alongside the Mercedes and Clara, the Amphion judiciously running to leeward of her opponent.

After ineffectually hailing the Medea to shorten sail, the Indefatigable fired a shot across her forefoot: on which the Spanish frigate did as she had been requested. Captain Moore then sent Lieutenant Thomas Arscott to inform the Spanish commanding officer, that his orders were to detain the squadron, and that it was his wish to execute those orders without bloodshed, but that the Spanish admiral's determination must be instantly made. The boat not returning so soon as expected, the Indefatigable made a signal for her, and, to enforce it, fired a shot ahead of the Medea. The officer having at length returned with an unsatisfactory answer, the Indefatigable, at about 9 h. 30 m. a.m., fired a second shot ahead of the Medea, and bore down close upon her weather bow. Immediately the Mercedes fired into the Amphion, and in a few seconds afterwards the Medea opened her fire upon the Indefatigable. The latter then made the signal for close battle; and it instantly commenced with all the animation, on one side at least, which the prospect of such trophies could inspire.

At the end of about nine minutes the Mercedes blew up alongside of the Amphion with a tremendous explosion. In a minute or two afterwards the Fama struck her colours; but, on the Medusa's ceasing her fire, rehoisted them, and attempted to make off. The Medusa immediately bore up under the Spanish frigate's stern, and poured in a heavy fire, but the Fama continued her course to leeward. Having sustained, during 17 minutes, the Indefatigable's heavy broadsides, and finding a new opponent in the Amphion, who had advanced on her starboard quarter, the Medea surrendered. In another five minutes the Clara did the same, and the Lively was left at liberty to aid the Medusa in the pursuit of the Fama. At about 45 m. past noon the Lively, being an admirable sailer, got near enough to fire her bow-guns at the Fama; and at 1 h. 15 m. p.m. this, the only remaining Spanish frigate, struck to the two British frigates in chase of her.

The force of the Indefatigable has already more than once appeared; that of the Lively was the full establishment of a 38, numbering 46 guns, and the Amphion and Medusa each mounted 40 guns. The Lively had two men killed and four wounded; the Amphion, three men wounded, one or two of them by the splinters which fell upon her decks when her unfortunate antagonist blew up. No other loss, and but a very trifling damage, was sustained by the British ships.

The Medea was a fine frigate of 1046 tons, and mounted 42 guns, 18-pounders on the main deck, and eights on the quarterdeck and forecastle, with a complement of 300 men; of whom two were killed and 10 wounded. The three remaining frigates were each armed similar to the Mahonesa, except perhaps in having an additional pair of 6-pounders. * The Fama, out of her 280 men and boys, had 11 killed and 50 wounded; the Clara, out of her 300, seven killed and 20 wounded; and the Mercedes lost, by the fatal explosion, the whole of her 280 in crew and passengers, except the second captain and about 40 men, who were taken off the ship's forecastle after it had separated from the remainder of the hull, and except two passengers, who happened to be on board the Medea.

It is therefore quite clear, that the Indefatigable and any two of her three consorts would have been a match, even in a time of notorious war, for these four Spanish frigates. As it was, the latter defended themselves with the characteristic bravery of Spaniards, notwithstanding that they could have been in no state of preparation, and that the melancholy loss of one of their number so early in the action increased the odds against them.

Two more circumstances conspired to invest this transaction with more odium than perhaps would otherwise have attached to it. One of those circumstances was the miserable fate of so many poor souls at the explosion of the frigate, and the heartrending misfortune it entailed upon one, in particular, who had been a passenger on board. This gentleman, a Captain Alvear, of the Spanish navy, with his wife, four amiable daughters, and five sons grown up to manhood, had embarked in the Mercedes, carrying with him a fortune, estimated at about 30,000l. sterling, the gradual savings of 30 years' industry as a merchant in South America. Not many minutes before the engagement began, the captain and his eldest son had gone on board the Medea; and there, in a very little while, did he witness the catastrophe that hurled his wife, his daughters, and his remaining sons to destruction, and sent that treasure, which was mere dross in the comparison, to the bottomless deep.

The second circumstance alluded to was the tempting nature of the lading on board these vessels. The cargoes of the three captured frigates, consisted of Vidona wool, cascarilla, ratinia, seal-skins, seal-oil, bars of tin, pigs of copper, dollars, and ingots of gold, and netted very little short of a million sterling. Therefore, as the Mercedes was similarly freighted, the total value of what had been shipped on board the squadron probably amounted to nearly a third of a million more. We must not omit to state, that the British government restored to Captain Alvear, out of the proceeds of the three cargoes, the 30,000l. sterling, which he had lost in the Mercedes.

Many persons, who concurred in the expediency, doubted the right, of detaining these ships; and many, again, to whom the legality of the act appeared clear, were of opinion, that a more formidable force should have been sent to execute the service, in order to have justified the Spanish admiral in surrendering without an appeal to arms.

The affair naturally created a great stir at Madrid, and on the 27th of November an order issued to make reprisals on English property; but it was not until the 12th of the following month that the King of Spain issued his formal declaration of war, nor until the 11th of January, 1805, that Great Britain directed letters of marque to be granted against Spanish vessels and property.

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From William Laird Clowes history of the Royal Navy Vol V

On October 3rd, the British frigates Indefatigable, 44, Captain Graham Moore, Lively, 38, Captain Graham Eden Hamond, Medusa, 32, Captain John Gore, and Amphion, 32, Captain Samuel Sutton, assembled off Cadiz, whither they had been ordered to intercept four Spanish frigates laden with treasure, which were due to arrive from Montevideo. Of the British frigates, the first two were from Cornwallis's fleet, and the last two from Nelson's. The latter Admiral, with his usual judgment, had despatched also the line of battleship Donegal, 74, wishing to make the British force so strong that resistance to it would be hopeless. Unhappily she failed to arrive in time, and there was much unnecessary waste of life. Spain was nominally at peace with Great Britain, though she was at that very moment paying to France a large subsidy, which was, of course, used against England. The treasure expected in the Spanish frigates was therefore destined to be employed by an enemy. But no notice of our intention was given to the Spanish Government and a British officer, Captain Sir Robert Barlow, Kt., was actually on his way in the Triumph, 74, to Cadiz, to pick up and convoy home the British traders who had gathered there. These circumstances led what followed to be severely denounced both at home and abroad.

On the 5th, the Spanish vessels came into sight. They were four in number, the Fama, 34, Medea, 40, Rear-Admiral Don Jose Bustamente, Mercedes, 34, and Clara, 34, a squadron much weaker in force than the British quartet, and suffering the great disadvantage of being taken unprepared. They formed line of battle in the order given above, whereupon the Medusa, the leading British ship, placed herself upon the Fama's weather beam, and the Indefatigable, Amphion, and Lively also paired off with their antagonists in order, the Lively taking her position to leeward, abeam of the last Spanish ship. Captain Moore, the senior British officer, then hailed the Spanish admiral to shorten sail, and, as no reply was made, fired across his ship. The Medea shortened sail, and a boat was sent from the Indefatigable urging Bustamente to allow his squadron to be detained without bloodshed. Honour compelled him to refuse, whereupon the Indefatigable fired a shot across his bows and closed. The Mercedes promptly fired into the Amphion; the Medea fired into the Indefatigable; and the British senior officer made the signal for close action. In ten minutes the Mercedes blew up; in half an hour the Medea and Clara struck their flags. The Fama attempted to escape, and gained on the Medusa, but the Lively was despatched to join in the chase, which was overhauled and captured, with the help of the Medusa, early in the afternoon. The boats of the other British ships, having secured the Medea, turned their attention to the unhappy survivors of the Mercedes. One officer and 45 men were saved, but with that exception, all on board, including several women and children, perished. The prizes had cargoes of great value, in addition to specie, on board, and their total worth was placed at about 1,000,000. In the Mercedes, one-third as much more was lost. The British casualties were only 2 killed and 7 wounded. The Spaniards lost 20 killed and 80 wounded, besides those who perished in the Mercedes.

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