The Battle
Van Heemskerk left some of his ships at the bay entrance to prevent the escape of any Spanish ship.Twenty of the Dutch attacking ships were ordered to focus on the Spanish galleons while the rest attacked the smaller vessels. Van Heemskerk was killed during the first approach on the Spanish flagship as a cannon ball severed his leg. The Dutch effectively then doubled up the galleons (in a move that almost two centuries later was copied by Admiral Nelson during the Battle of the Nile of 1798) and a few of the galleons caught fire. One Spanish ship exploded due to a shot into the powder magazine. The Dutch captured the Spanish flagship, but let it go adrift.
Following the destruction of the Spanish ships, the Dutch deployed boats and killed hundreds of swimming Spanish sailors. The Dutch lost 100 men including admiral Van Heemskerk. 60 Dutch were wounded. The Spanish lost most or their entire fleet and between 350 and 4.000 men killed or captured. Álvarez de Ávila was amongst the dead.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Gibraltar
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“Napoleon said of Massena, that he was not himself until the battle began to go against him; then, when the dead began to fall in ranks around him, awoke his powers of combination, and he put on terror and victory as a robe.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In a time of war the nation is always of one mind, eager to hear something good of themselves and ill of the enemy. At this time the task of news-writers is easy, they have nothing to do but to tell that a battle is expected, and afterwards that a battle has been fought, in which we and our friends, whether conquering or conquered, did all, and our enemies did nothing.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)