Execution
On 14 July Nelson sailed for the Canaries aboard his flagship HMS Theseus, (Captain Miller), leading a squadron composed of HMS Culloden (Captain Troubridge), HMS Zealous (Captain Hood), all 74-gun ships; and the frigates HMS Seahorse (38 guns), commanded by Captain Fremantle, HMS Emerald (36 guns) led by Captain Waller, and HMSTerpsichore (32 guns) under Captain Bowen; as well as a cutter, HMS Fox, under Lieutenant Gibson and a gunboat, HMS Ray, under Lieutenant Crompton. HMS Leander (50 guns), under Captain Thompson, joined the flotilla once the attack had started. The expedition counted 400 guns and nearly 4,000 men. They arrived in the vicinity of Santa Cruz on 17 July.
At Santa Cruz, Lieutenant General Antonio Gutiérrez de Otero y Santayana, a two-time victor over the British, had hastened to prepare a defence following the British raid in April. Forts were rebuilt, field works expanded, and the batteries enlarged by doubling their gun rows to 91, with earth sacks piled around. From the city's soldiers, partisans, local hunters, militia, artillery, and sailors from the captured French frigate, General Gutiérrez scraped together a force of 1,700 men.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Santa Cruz De Tenerife (1797)
Famous quotes containing the word execution:
“I will soon be going out to shape all the singing tomorrows.”
—Gabriel Péri, French Communist leader. Letter, July 1942, written shortly before his execution by the Germans. Quoted in New York Times (April 11, 1943)
“Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
“It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is less need of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)