Remember Valentine’s Day! Naval edition

On this day in 1797, a British fleet led by Admiral Sir John Jervis on the HMS Victory defeated a Spanish fleet of Portugal at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. This battle was one of the opening salvos of the Anglo-Spanish war, which would continue for over a decade.

Battle of Cape St. Vincent, 1797 by Robert Cleveley

The RN had 22 warships under their flag while the Spanish had a massive fleet numbering 36 including no less than 24 ships-of-the-line. After the day’s combat was over, ADM Don José de Córdoba y Ramos had lost four ships– including the massive 112-gun first rate San José— and some 3,250 men killed, missing or captured. The British still had all of theirs, as well as some captured from de Córdoba, at the cost of 73 dead.

From the U.S. Naval Academy Museum:

The Naval Academy Museum has a number…