Battle of Cape Santa Maria

[Bligh]

5th October, 1804.

(Also known as the "Battle of Cape St Mary"; in Spanish Batalla del Cabo de Santa María) was a naval action that took place off the southern Portuguese coast, in which a British squadron under the command of Commodore Graham Moore attacked a Spanish squadron commanded by Brigadier Don José de Bustamante y Guerra, in time of peace, without declaration of war between the UK and Spain.

Background.

Under the terms of a secret convention Spain had to pay 72 million francs annually to France, until it declared war on Britain. The British had learned of the treaty, and knew it was likely that Spain would declare war soon after the arrival of the treasure ships. Since the British also knew that by law the fleet could only land at Cádiz, as well as its place and approximate time of departure from South America, it was not difficult to position a squadron to intercept it.
Bustamante had set sail from Montevideo on 9 August 1804 with four frigates loaded with gold and silver, as well as much other valuable cargo. On 22 September Vice Admiral Lord Collingwood ordered Captain Graham Moore, commanding the 44-gun frigate HMS Indefatigable, to intercept and detain the Spanish ships, peacefully, if possible.
Moore's ship arrived off Cadiz on 29 September and was joined on 2 October by HMS Lively, and by HMS Medusa and HMS Amphion the day after. In line abreast they patrolled the approaches to Cádiz.

The battle.




At dawn on 5 October, the Spanish frigates sighted the coast of Portugal. At 7 a.m. they sighted the four British frigates. Bustamante ordered his ships into line of battle, and within an hour the British came up in line, to windward of the Spaniards and "within pistol-shot".
Moore, the British Commodore, sent Lieutenant Ascott to the Spanish flagship Medea, to explain his orders. Bustamante naturally refused to surrender, and impatient of delays, at 10 a.m. Moore ordered a shot be fired ahead over the bows of Medea. Almost immediately a general exchange of fire broke out. Within ten minutes the magazine of the Mercedes exploded destroying the ship, and killing all but 40 of her 240 crew. Within half an hour the Santa Clara and the Medea had surrendered, and the Fama broke away and trying to flee, the Medusa quickly followed. However, Moore ordered the faster Lively to pursue, capturing the Fama a few hours later. The three frigates were taken to Gibraltar, and then to Gosport, England.

The results.

Spain declared war on Great Britain on 14 December 1804, only to suffer a catastrophic defeat less than a year later at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805. Napoleon, having crowned himself Emperor on 2 December, gained Spain as an ally in his war against Britain.
In practical terms, the British interception of the four Real Armada frigates represented the end of an era for Bourbon Spain and regular specie shipments from the Spanish Empire's New World mines and mints. The squadron to which Mercedes belonged was the last of its kind that the world would see: a Spanish treasure fleet moving bullion from the New World Viceroyalties to the Iberian kingdoms.
Under the terms of the Cruizers and Convoys Act of 1708 ships captured at sea were "Droits of the Crown" and became the property of their captors, who received the full value of the ships and cargo in prize money. However, since technically Britain and Spain were not at war at the time of the action, the Admiralty Court ruled that the three ships were "Droits of the Admiralty", and all revenues would revert to them. The four Spanish ships carried a total of 4,286,508 Spanish dollars in silver and gold coin, as well as 150,000 gold ingots, 75 sacks of wool, 1,666 bars of tin, 571 pigs of copper, seal skins and oil, although 1.2 million in silver, half the copper and a quarter of the tin went down with the Mercedes. Still, the remaining ships and cargo were assessed at a value of £900,000 (equivalent to £69,103,000 in 2016). After much legal argument an ex gratia payment was made amounting to £160,000, of which the four Captains would have received £15,000 each (equivalent to £1,152,000 in 2016).
The Medea was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Iphigenia (later renamed HMS Imperieuse), Santa Clara as HMS Leocadia and the Fama as HMS Fama.

Aftermath.

In March 2007 the Florida-based company Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered 17 tons of gold and silver from the Mercedes, insisting that it had been found in international waters and therefore beyond the legal jurisdiction of any one country. The Spanish government branded the Odyssey team "21st century pirates" and in May 2007 launched legal proceedings arguing that the wreck was protected by "sovereign immunity" which prohibits the unauthorized disturbance or commercial exploitation of state-owned naval vessels. In June 2009 the Federal Court in Tampa found against Odyssey and ordered the treasure to be returned to Spain as has been done on 25 February 2012.

In popular fiction.

The action is portrayed in C. S. Forester's Hornblower and the Hotspur in which his hero Horatio Hornblower is attached to the squadron, but misses out on the captures while fending off a French ship.

• In Patrick O'Brian's novel Post Captain, Stephen Maturin provides the intelligence permitting the interception, and Captain Aubrey, in temporary command of the Lively, captures the Santa Clara and the Fama.
• In Showell Styles's Midshipman Quinn and Denise the Spy the hero, Septimus Quinn, participates in the battle (which is brought about when Denise de St-Aulaye brings documents to William Pitt and Admiral John Jervis, who organize the battle fleet) concerning the aid given France by Spain .

[Bligh]

Order of battle.


Spain.


Medea 40 gun frigate, Flagship carrying Admiral Bustamante, commanded by Capitán Francisco de Piedrola y Verdugo.

• Fama 34 gun frigate, Capitán Miguel Zapiain y Valladares
• Mercedes 36 gun frigate, Capitán Jose Manuel De Goicoa y Labart
• Santa Clara 34 gun frigate, Capitán Aleson y Bueno

Britain.


HMS Indefatigable 44 gun frigate, Flagship, Commodore Graham Moore

• HMS Lively 38 gun frigate, Captain Graham Eden Hamond
• HMS Amphion 32 gun frigate, Captain Samuel Sutton
• HMS Medusa 38 gun frigate, Captain John Gore

[Bligh]

Admiral Bustamante.




He descended from the Bustamante de Toranzo and the Guerra de Ibio; his father was Joaquín Antonio de Bustamante y Rueda, a native of Alceda, and his mother Clara Guerra de la Vega, a native of Santander.

He applied for a Cadiz Marine Guard post in 1770, at the age of 11; He was already second lieutenant of frigate in June of 1771. He served in several sea campaigns in the squadron under Pedro de Castejón. He undertook his first trip to America a few years later when he was in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Bahamas.

In 1784, with a brilliant service record, he became employed as a frigate captain. First they are seen with the pirates; he was captured by the English on the Santa Ines ship after a skirmish in which they stopped their way to the Philippines and was held captive for a year in Ireland, after which they let him return.

On October 20, 1782, he took part in the naval battle of Gibraltar, against the squadron of Lord Richard Howe, first Earl of Howe, although he was wounded. His ship was badly damaged in a battle fought near Cádiz. Bustamante then prepared a projected conquest of Jamaica, which was not carried out by the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
He entered as knight of the Order of Santiago on October 21, 1784.


Malaspina-Bustamante Expedition (1789-1794)

In the summer of 1788 with his comrade and also frigate captain Alessandro Malaspina (one of the most unique characters of his time), he suggested a visit of a political-scientific nature to the Spanish Royal Navy in the overseas territories of the Spanish empire. On August 10, 1788, they sent a letter requesting it to the Minister of the Navy, Antonio Valdes, and on September 10, 1788, he replied that King Carlos III had authorized the trip. The name that both proposed in his request was the one of "Scientific and political trip around the world", but during the development of the trip it was officially known as "Expedition around the world" After entering Spain into the war against France they received the order to return.

The crew was composed of volunteers from a select and better officer of the Royal Navy at the time, which was added botanists, painters, doctors and other enlightened humanists, and sailed between 1789 and 1794 on board the corvettes Discovered and Daring, this last directed by himself, built especially for the trip. He is rewarded with the rank of captain (1791). From Cádiz, where they started the voyage in 1789, they crossed the Atlantic to reach Buenos Aires and Montevideo and, after touring Patagonia, they saved Cape Horn and, skirting the west coast of the vice-royalties of Peru and New Granada, they traveled through New Spain, California and Alaska. They left America behind and headed for the Pacific, sailing through Polynesia, the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, Macao, Mindanao, New Guinea, the New Hebrides, New Zealand, Australia and the Archipelago of Friends to the port of Callao, José de Bustamante with the Corvette Atrevida then sailed to the Malvinas Islands and from there to the Aurora Islands, discovering what they called New Island, through the Antarctic ocean being a very risky navigation having to avoid hundreds of ice floes, then back to Montevideo where was the Discovery corvette returned to Cádiz giving military escort to a large and valuable convoy, which was essential to the Crown, since Spain was at war with France. They fully met all the scientific expectations. Modern navigational charts and current geographical maps were drawn, magnificent mineral and botanical collections were made containing hitherto unknown species and a great deal of visual documentation was provided with precise reports referring to the social, political and military status of the colonies.

Return to Spain.

On his return to Spain in September 1794 he presented the diary of his trip. Together with Alejandro Malaspina he was received by the king, and with these merits he was promoted to brigadier; but Malaspina criticized the bad situation and administration of the colonies and Godoy confiscated and searched the entire file of the expedition, which remained hidden and forgotten until in 1885 when another military officer, Lieutenant Pedro Novo y Colson, retrieved and published it, thanks to which many details of the expedition were made known. Bustamante was appointed Governor of Montevideo in 1796 and settled in that city on February 11, 1797. During his rule the city was a point of supply for corsairs that roamed the Rio de la Plata area: documentation exists, for example, of the presence of the French privateer Pierre-Marie Le Bozec (1769-1830), captain of the frigate La Republicana.

In addition, he was named Commander-in-Chief of the vessels of the Río de la Plata with the mission of launching his plan for the defense of southern America, proposed after the aforementioned political-scientific trip. Returning to Spain in the year 1804 in command of a flotilla of four frigates, Our Lady of Mercedes, La Clara, La Medea and La Fama, he was intercepted, when arriving at the coast of the Algarve (Portugal),on the 5 October 1804, by an English Squadron commanded by Commodore Graham Moore and the inexplicably, since Spain was at peace with Great Britain, a naval battle known as the Battle of Cape Santa Maria took place. Two frigates, including La Mercedes, were carrying a cargo of four million pesos for merchants from Lima and Buenos Aires. In the battle twenty-four crew members and merchants with their families perished. In consideration for the inferiority of his flotilla and the wounded, Brigadier Bustamante surrendered the frigates that resisted, which were captured and transported to the port of Gosport in England. Once released, he submitted to a council of war in Spain, which acquitted him in time to fight in the Battle of Trafalgar.

In 1807 he was appointed member of the Board of Fortifications and Defense of the Indies. In 1808 he left Madrid for not wanting to take an oath to the intruder King José Bonaparte and fled disguised as a friar to Seville, where he was put to the order of the Central Supreme Board that promoted him to Lieutenant General. The Council of Regency appointed him President of the Audiencia de Charcas, after Cuzco, an office which he declined for unknown reasons.

In 1810 he was assigned to the General Captaincy of Guatemala.At a time of great independence activity; he developed a reformist policy, but before the revolution of Hidalgo and Morelos in New Spain he prepared troops in Guatemala and created the "Fernando VII volunteer corps" and from his position of strength he confronted the local constitutionalists. Harshly repressing the insurgents, he opposed the liberal constitution of 1812, denounced his successor named Juan Antonio de Tornos, Intendant of Honduras, for alleged liberal tendencies and thus achieved his confirmation in his post by Fernando VII in 1814. He proved to be the most drastic and intransigent of all General Captains of the Kingdom of Guatemala, sent especially to repress the independence movement and sadly remembered for the cruelty that engendered in the fulfillment of its function. Reluctantly but rationally he came to the conclusion that in the kingdom of Guatemala a wide distribution of land among the poor people was necessary.

In a document of 1813, addressed to the peninsular government and " in a very reserved manner he advised: "... Open sources of public wealth to banish the misery that has to those who suffer to revolutions that hope to vary their lot, multiply the number of owners to increase that of true citizens (...) Liberally protect the Indians, class the most numerous and recommendable, at the same time that for its simplicity is the most exposed to be seduced ". When recommending the most urgent concrete measures to prevent the plans of subversion against the Crown from being developed in Guatemala, Bustamante recommended a lot of drastic measures to reinforce the militias, but also: "... to distribute in small lots to the mulattos and honest Indians who were not proprietors, the lands that could be granted without prejudice to third parties, providing them with funds of the fund of communities for the first expenses of cultivation ". It was a demagogic measure, but the effectiveness that the President assumed was that the lack of land was a powerful factor of discontent between Indians and mestizos (whom he calls "mulattos" according to the use of the time) and he hoped that those deals were, for that very reason, a blow against the opinion favorable to Independence.

He was dismissed in August 1817 and returned to Spain in 1819. That same year he again joined the Junta de Indias. In 1820 he was rewarded with the Grand Cross of the American Order of Isabella the Catholic, and was appointed director general of the Navy until 1822. In 1823 he was a member of the Board of Expeditions to America, and a year later, he returned again to the General Directorate of the Navy and worked in the Navy Ministry of Madrid until his death in 1825, being at the time of his death, "General Lieutenant of the National Navy".

He was Knight of the Order of Santiago from 1784, and the king named him knight great cross of the Order of San Hermenegildo and knight great cross of the Order of Isabel the Catholic.

[Bligh]

Capitán Jose Manuel De Goicoa y Labart.






José Manuel de Goicoa y Labart was a Spanish sailor, born in San Sebastián in 1757 and died on October 5, 1804 during the battle of Cabo de Santa María, on the Portuguese coast of the Algarve.

Biography.

Speaking of this sailor says Pirala: "Four Spanish frigates who came from America driving eighty million reales, were surprised and assaulted by the English at Cape Santa Maria (October 1804), our sailors defended heroically, but seeing the frigate lost Mercedes, his captain, Don José Manuel Goicoa, a native of San Sebastian, where he was going to marry, having done it by proxy, with Mrs. Josefa Birmingham, before being imprisoned, he preferred to die, he ordered the Santa Bárbara to set fire and flew with the numerous. The other three frigates surrendered and with the money they carried were taken to the ports of Great Britain. "

In the municipal museum of San Sebastian there is an oil painting of this acclaimed sailor, painted at the same time he lived.

[Bligh]

Commodore Graham Moore.



Moore was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Jean Simson and John Moore, doctor and author. He entered the Navy in 1777 at the age of 13. He was promoted to lieutenant on 8 March 1782 to serve aboard Crown, taking part in the relief of Gibraltar under Lord Howe, and the subsequent battle of Cape Spartel in October. During the peace he travelled through France, but was recalled to serve aboard Perseus, Dido, and then Adamant, the flagship of Sir Richard Hughes on the North American Station. On 22 November 1790 he was promoted to commander in the sloop Bonetta, before finally returning to England in 1793.
Moore was promoted to post-captain on 2 April 1794, soon after the start of the Revolutionary War, with command of the 32-gun frigate Syren, in the North Sea and the coast of France. He then commanded the 36-gun frigate Melampus from September 1795. In her he took part in the Battle of Tory Island on 12 October 1798, capturing the French frigate Résolue two days later. In February 1800 he went out to the West Indies, but was invalided home after eighteen months.
On the renewal of the war in 1803 he was appointed to Indefatigable (44), and with three other frigates — Medusa (32), Lively (38) and Amphion (32) — under his command, captured a Spanish treasure fleet of four frigates — Medea (40), Clara (34), Fama (34) and Mercedes (36) — carrying bullion from the Caribbean back to Spain off Cadiz in the Action of 5 October 1804.

Moore was then attached to Sir Robert Calder's squadron blockading Ferrol. In 1808, he served as commodore, flying his broad pennant in the new ship Marlborough assisting Admiral Sir Sidney Smith with the Portuguese royal family's escape to Brazil, and was subsequently made a Knight of the Order of the Tower and Sword.

He later served as part of the North Sea fleet for several years. At the close of the Walcheren campaign in December 1809, he was entrusted with destroying the basin, arsenal, and sea defences of Flushing (Vlissingen).
Moore commanded Chatham from March 1812, until promoted to rear-admiral on 12 August 1812, and served as Commander-in-Chief in the Baltic for a short time, flying his flag in HMS Fame. In 1814 he served as captain of the fleet to Lord Keith in the Channel, and, having been appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 2 January 1815, he became second-in-command, Mediterranean Fleet in 1815. He joined the Board of Admiralty as First Naval Lord^] in the Liverpool ministry in May 1816.

Promoted to vice-admiral on 12 August 1819, he left the Board of the Admiralty in March 1820 He was Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet between 1820 and 1823^] and was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 11 March 1836. Promoted to full admiral on 10 January 1837,^] he served as Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth from 1839 to 1842flying his flag in Impregnable.
Moore died at his home, Brook Farm, Cobham, Surrey, on 25 November 1843, and was buried at St. Andrew's Church.

Family.

In 1812 he married Dora Eden, daughter of Thomas Eden, and niece of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland; they had one son, Captain John Moore, RN (d. 1866).

Diary.

Moore kept a detailed diary from 1784 until 1806, later published in thirty-seven volumes, which provides a unique account of his service as a lieutenant, commander and captain.

[Bligh]

Captain Graham Eden Hamond.


Hammond can be seen extreme Right with speaking trumpet.

Born the only son of Captain Sir Andrew Hamond and Anne Hamond (née Graeme), Hammond joined the Royal Navy in September 1785. He was recorded, as a captain's servant, on the books of the third-rate HMS Irresistible, his father's flagship in his role as Commander-in-Chief, The Nore and, having been promoted to midshipman in 1790, actually served in the third-rate HMS Vanguard, the third-rate HMS Bedford and then the second-rate HMS Duke.

In January 1793 he transferred to the fifth-rate HMS Phaeton and assisted in the capture of Le Général Dumourier and her prize St. Iago in an action during the French Revolutionary Wars and received his portion of a large amount of prize money.
He then joined the first-rate HMS Queen Charlotte, flagship of Earl Howe in his role as Commander-in-Chief, Channel Squadron, and saw action at the Glorious First of June in June 1794. He served in the fifth-rate HMS Aquilon and the third-rate HMS Zealous before transferring to the first-rate HMS Britannia, flagship of Sir William Hotham in his role as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, in June 1795 and seeing action at the Battle of Toulon in July 1795.

Promoted to lieutenant on 19 October 1796, Hamond served in the fifth-rate HMS Aigle in the Mediterranean Squadron in Autumn 1796 and in the fifth-rate HMS Niger in Spring 1797.

Promoted to commander on 20 October 1798, he became commanding officer of the sloop HMS Echo and was employed in the blockade of Le Havre and on different occasions took charge of convoys.

Promoted to captain on 30 November 1798, he became commanding officer of the sixth-rate HMS Champion and captured the French privateer Anacreon in June 1799. Hamond described Anacreon as "almost a new vessel, sails remarkably fast, is copper-bottomed, and seems fit for His Majesty's Service." He then took part in the Siege of French-held Malta in Spring 1800 before becoming commanding officer of the third-rate HMS Lion later that year. He went on to be commanding officer of the fifth-rate HMS Blanche and took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801.

Hamond became commanding officer of the third-rate HMS Plantagenet in February 1803 and captured the French ships Le Courier de Terre Neuve and L'Atalante in an action later that year during the Napoleonic Wars. He took command of the fifth-rate HMS Lively in July 1804 and took part in the action of 5 October 1804 when three Spanish frigates laden with treasure were captured. HMS Lively captured two other treasure ships, the San Miguel and the Santa Gertruyda off Cape St. Vincent and Cape St Maria respectively in December 1804.

He went on to engage in a duel with the Spanish ship Glorioso in May 1805 and then to transport British troops to Naples in November 1805. He was then given command of the third-rate HMS Victorious on the Home Station in December 1808 and took part in the attack on Flushing during the disastrous Walcheren Campaign in Summer 1809.

He went on to be commanding officer of the third-rate HMS Rivoli in the Mediterranean Squadron in May 1813.
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 4 June 1815 and a Deputy Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight on 27 October 1821.

After a period of leave from the Navy, Hamond became commanding officer of the third-rate HMS Wellesley in March 1824 and then conveyed the diplomat Lord Stuart de Rothesay to Brazil to negotiate a commercial treaty with the Emperor Pedro I.

Senior command.

Promoted to rear admiral on 27 May 1825,Hamond travelled in the third-rate HMS Spartiate on his new mission to deliver the treaty of separation between Brazil and Portugal to King John VI of Portugal. He inherited his father's baronetcy in September 1828. He was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 13 September 1831 and became Commander-in-Chief, South American Station, with his flag in the third-rate HMS Spartiate, in September 1834. Promoted to vice admiral on 10 January 1837 and to full admiral on 22 January 1847. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 5 July 1855. He was appointed Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom on 22 November 1860^] and Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom on 5 June 1862 before being promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 10 November 1862.

Hamond died at his home at Norton Lodge near Yarmouth, Isle of Wight on 20 December 1862.

Family.

In December 1806 Hamond married Elizabeth Kimber; they had three daughters and two sons.

[Bligh]

Captain Samuel Sutton.





Sutton was born in 1760 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and entered the navy on 9 April 1777 as an able seaman and later a midshipman aboard the 74-gun HMS Monarch, which was under the command of Captain Joshua Rowley. Sutton and Rowley served in the English Channel until Rowley's promotion to rear-admiral in December 1778 and his shifting his flag to the 74-gun HMS Suffolk, with Hugh Cloberry Christian as his flag captain. Sutton accompanied Rowley to the Suffolk, and moved with him again when Rowley raised his flag aboard Captain Thomas Watson's 74-gun HMS Conqueror in December 1779. During this time Sutton saw action at the Battle of Grenada on 6 July 1779, and the Battle of Martinique on 17 April 1780.

Sutton was with Rowley on his next two flagships, the 74-gun HMS Terrible from June 1780 and the 98-gun HMS Princess Royal from July, both times serving under Captain John Thomas Duckworth. Sutton became an acting-lieutenant while on board Princess Royal, retaining the position after being transferred to the 16-gun sloop HMS Jamaica under Captain Manley Dixon. He was next aboard the 18-gun ex-French HMS Duguay Trouin under commander Benjamin Hulke from December, though in May 1782 he returned to Rowley when he joined him aboard his flagship, the 90-gun HMS London under Captain James Kempthorn. He stayed at Rowley's side when the admiral moved to the 74-gun HMS Ajax under Captain N. Chasington in December, and then the 50-gun HMS Preston under Captain George Martin in March 1783.

He was confirmed as lieutenant on 21 April 1783, despite never having formally been examined, but was in poor health and had to return to Britain aboard the 14-gun brig-sloop HMS Childers. He recovered and received an appointment in March 1785 to the sloop HMS Merlin, under Commander Edward Pakenham, with whom he went out to Newfoundland for the rest of the year. The end of the war left Sutton without a ship, and he spent four and a half years ashore after leaving Merlin.

Return to service.

The Spanish Armament in 1790 led to the Admiralty ordering the manning and storing of a large number of ships in preparation for war. Sutton was posted to the 32-gun frigate HMS Iphigenia on 22 June 1790 as signal officer to Captain Patrick Sinclair, and served for a while with Lord Howe's fleet.
The easing of tensions after the crisis passed led to a draw-down in the navy, and Sutton came ashore again on 7 February 1791. The tensions leading up to the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars provided another opportunity for employment, and Sutton joined the 74-gun HMS Culloden on 3 January, which was serving in the Channel as the flagship of Sir Thomas Rich. Sutton transferred to the 74-gun HMS Mars under Captain Sir Charles Cotton in November 1794, and in June 1795 was involved in Admiral William Cornwallis's successful retreat from a superior French force led by Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse. The Mars as the rear-most ship bore the brunt of the French fire, but suffered only 12 wounded. Cornwallis brought his fleet about to rescue Cotton, causing Villaret de Joyeuse to believe that Cornwallis had reinforcements nearby, and so broke off the pursuit.

Sutton was promoted to commander on 1 September 1795 and was given the 16-gun sloop HMS Martin for service off West Africa and in the North Sea. While in the North Sea in 1797 his duties included transporting the Duc d'Angoulême, the future Charles X of France from Leith to Cuxhaven. His good service brought him a quick promotion to post-captain, on 27 June 1797, but left him without a ship for over a year. He returned to sea on 3 September 1798 as flag captain to Sir Richard Onslow aboard the 74-gun HMS Monarch, the ship he had entered the service on twenty-one years earlier as an able seaman under Rowley. Sutton was transferred to the 90-gun HMS Prince on 13 March 1799, becoming flag captain to his old commander, now rear-admiral, Sir Charles Cotton. He remained with Prince until being transferred to the 32-gun HMS Alcmene on 23 February 1801.

Copenhagen and Nelson.

Alcmene was one of the ships assigned to Admiral Sir Hyde Parker's expeditionary force to the Baltic in 1801. Sutton commanded her as part of Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson's force at the Battle of Copenhagen. The frigates engaged the Trekroner fortress during the battle, before obeying Parker's signal to withdraw, an order Nelson ignored. After the battle Nelson appointed Sutton to command the 38-gun HMS Amazon, whose captain, Edward Riou, had been killed in the battle. Sutton remained serving in the Baltic as Nelson's flag captain, returning him to Britain and continuing to serve under him during Nelson's period in charge of the anti-invasion defences. Nelson went ashore in October 1802, after which Sutton took Rear-Admiral John Borlase Warren to St Petersburg.

HMS Victory.
Sutton stepped down from the command of Amazon in November 1802, and by early 1803 had been assigned to take over the command of the 100-gun first rate HMS Victory. Nelson arrived at Portsmouth on 18 May and hoisted his flag aboard her, but Victory had been assigned to Admiral William Cornwallis in the Channel, and was not ready for sea. Nelson struck his flag two days later, and immediately took passage for the Mediterranean aboard Thomas Hardy's HMS Amphion, leaving Sutton to finish preparing Victory and deliver her to Cornwallis. Nelson left orders that if Cornwallis did not want her for his flagship, Sutton was to proceed onwards to join him in the Mediterranean. Sutton joined Cornwallis off Ushant, whereupon Cornwallis ordered him on to Nelson. Sutton and the Victory sailed to rendezvous with Nelson off Cape Sicie, and while doing so, came across the French frigate Embuscade on 28 May as the latter was entering the Bay of Biscay after a journey from the West Indies. Embuscade, a former British ship, attempted to escape, but could not outrun the newly refitted Victory and was forced to surrender without a shot being fired. Sutton took possession of her, and then continued on his way, joining the Mediterranean Fleet in late July, whereupon Nelson hoisted his flag on her. He brought Hardy with him as his flag captain, while Sutton took command of Hardy's former ship, Amphion.

Mediterranean.

Sutton remained in the Mediterranean with Nelson's fleet, initially patrolling off Toulon, before transferring to Cadiz. On 3 October 1804 Amphion was one of four frigates sent to intercept four Spanish frigates approaching Cadiz with a large cargo of specie. The British ships, consisting of Amphion, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Lively and HMS Medusa, sighted the Spanish early on the morning of 5 October, and gave chase. The Spanish were hailed, but refused to surrender to the British, and fighting broke out. After a short but fierce action, one Spanish ship blew up and the other three struck their colours. The Amphion had three wounded in the action. The treasure recovered from the three surviving ships was valued at £1,000,000, but its seizure contributed to the Spanish decision to ally with France and declare war on Britain.

West Indies, retirement, and later life.

Sutton and the Amphion remained with Nelson's fleet into 1805, and took part in the Trafalgar Campaign, chasing Villeneuve's forces to the West Indies and back. Sutton was in poor health by the time the fleet returned to anchor off Lisbon in October, and Nelson sent Sutton ashore to recuperate, replacing him with William Hoste as commander of Amphion. Sutton was rich from the prize money of the captured Spanish ships, and appears to have retired ashore, never serving at sea again. He served as a magistrate and a deputy lieutenant for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and was promoted to rear-admiral on 19 July 1821.
Samuel Sutton died at Ditchingham, Norfolk in June 1832 at the age of 72.

[Bligh]

Captain John Gore.




Gore joined the Royal Navy in August 1781, as a Captain's Servant, and would have served as a Midshipman, before gaining promotion to Lieutenant on 26 November 1789 and Commander on 24 May 1794. The Royal Navy had just captured the French corvette Fleche at the capture of Bastia, in which Gore had played a significant role and had been injured. The Navy took the corvette into service as HMS Fleche and commissioned her under Gore. He fitted her out and sailed her to Malta where he negotiated with the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc for seamen, supplies, and the like.

On 13 September Gore was a witness at the trial of Lieutenant William Walker, commander of the hired armed cutter Rose, on charges that Walker had accepted money from merchants at Bastia to convoy their vessels to Leghorn, where the court martial took place. Walker was acquitted.

Gore received promotion to post captain on 14 November 1794. When in command of HMS Triton he took part in the successful Action of 16 October 1799 in which two Spanish frigates were captured and more than 2 million silver dollars taken.

While commanding the 32-gun frigate HMS Medusa, he took part in the Action of 5 October 1804.
Promoted to rear-admiral on 4 December 1813, he became Commander-in-Chief, The Nore from 1818 to 1821. Promoted to vice-admiral on 27 May 1825, he served as Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station from 1831 to 1834.