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The naval Battle of Vigo Bay (or Battle of Rande)
was fought on 23 October 1702 (12 October in the Julian
calendar then in use in England) during the War of the
Spanish Succession at Vigo Bay in Galicia (Spain) between an
Anglo-Dutch fleet commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke, and
a combined French and Spanish fleet commanded by Admirals
François Louis Rousselet de Chateau-Renault and Manuel de
Velasco.
Rooke had been sent with a large Anglo-Dutch
force to capture Cádiz in Spain but retreated in defeat on
29 September 1702. When the returning fleet put in to water
at Lagos, Portugal, Rooke learned that the 1702 Spanish
treasure fleet, one of the richest ever assembled, had
sailed on 24 July from Havana, Cuba, and had been diverted
from Cadiz to Vigo, where it had arrived on 23 September.
Determined to salvage something from the disaster at
Cádiz, Rooke set out for Vigo, where he found that the
treasure fleet was protected by a Franco-Spanish fleet of
about 30 ships. Chateau-Renault had fortified the harbour by
laying a boom of masts, covered by guns from forts in the
town and on the island of San Simón, near the town of
Redondela. On October 23 Rooke attacked, sending Admiral
Thomas Hopsonn on the Torbay to break the boom, and
landing the soldiers of the Duke of Ormonde to capture the
forts.
The battle was a complete victory for Rooke: the forts
were captured, Torbay broke through the boom, and all
the Spanish and French ships were burned by their own side,
run aground or captured. The French and Spanish suffered
about 2,000 killed; the English and Dutch about 800. The
victors recovered silver to the value of about £14,000, but
a far larger sum - perhaps three million pounds - had been
unloaded and taken away before the battle.
British guinea coins of 1703 bear the word VIGO to
commemorate the battle.
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| The Battle of the Bay
of Vigo, as pictured in Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea (Hetzel
edition) |
Captain Nemo and his companions
gather the treasure of Vigo |
Treasure hunters believe that some of the treasure may
still lie at the bottom of the bay. This belief was
incorporated into the plot of Jules Verne's novel Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, with Captain Nemo and
his crew obtaining money by salvaging amongst the wrecks.
Ships involved
England (George Rooke)
Torbay 80 (flag of VA Hopson, captain Andrew Leake)
Mary 60/70
Grafton 70
Kent 70
Monmouth 70
Berwick 70
Essex 70
Swiftsure 70
Ranelagh 80
Somerset 80
Bedford 70
Cambridge 80
Northumberland 70
Orford 70
Pembroke 60
some frigates
some bomb ketches
10 fire ships
Netherlands
Dordrecht
Zeven Provincien
Velue
Muyde
Holland
Unie
Reygersburgh
Gouda
Alkmaar
Catwyck
France (Château-Renault)
Fort(e) 76 (flag) - Burnt
Solide 56 - Burnt
Prudent 62/64 - Burnt
Oriflamme 64 - Burnt
Dauphin(e) 44/46 - Burnt
Espérance 70 - Aground
Sirène 60/62 - Aground
Superbe 70 - Aground
Volontaire 46 - Aground
Prompt(e) 76 - Captured
Assuré 66 - Captured
Bourbon 68 - Captured
Ferme 72/74 - Captured
Modéré 54/56 - Captured
Triton 42 - Captured
Entreprenant 24 (frigate) - Burnt
Choquante 8 (frigate) - Burnt
Favori (fireship/frigate?) - Burnt
some fire ships
Spain (Velasco y Tejada)
Jesús-María-José 70 - Captured, sunk/aground
Bufona 54 - Captured, sunk/aground
17 galleons and 3 corvettes - 9 captured, 2 destroyed |
