Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805) - Battle

Battle

News of the returning French fleet reached Vice Admiral Robert Calder on 19 July. He was ordered to lift his blockade of the ports of Rochefort and Ferrol and sail for Cape Finisterre to intercept Villeneuve. The fleets sighted each other at about 11:00 on 22 July.

After several hours of manoeuvering to the south-west, the action began at about 17:15 as the British fleet, with Hero (Captain Alan Hyde Gardner) in the van, bore down on the Franco-Spanish line of battle. In poor visibility, the battle became a confused melee. Malta formed the rear-most ship in the British line in the approach to the battle, but as the fleets became confused in the failing light and thick patchy fog, the commander of Malta Sir Edward Buller found that he was surrounded by five Spanish ships. After a fierce engagement in which Malta suffered five killed and forty wounded the British ship battled it out sending out devastating broadsides from both port and starboard. At about 20:00 Buller forced the Spanish 80-gun San Rafael to strike, and afterwards sent the Malta's boats to take possession of the Spanish 74-gun Firme. Calder signalled to break-off the action at 20:25, aiming to continue the battle the next day. In the failing light and general confusion some ships continued to fire for another hour.

Daybreak on 23 July found the fleets 27 km apart. Calder was unwilling to attack a second time against superior odds, he had to protect the damaged Windsor Castle and Malta with her large captured Spanish prizes and he had to consider the possibility that the previously blockaded fleets at Rochefort and Ferrol might put to sea and effect a junction with Villeneuve's combined fleet. Accordingly he declined to attack and headed northeast with his prizes.

Villeneuve's report claims that at first he intended to attack, but in the very light breezes it took all day to come up to the British and he decided not to risk combat late in the day. On 24 July a change in the wind put the Franco-Spanish fleet to the windward of the British — the ideal position for an attack — but instead of attacking, Villeneuve turned away to the south. When he arrived at A Coruña on 1 August he received orders from Napoleon to proceed immediately to Brest and Boulogne, but perhaps believing a false report of a superior British fleet in the Bay of Biscay, he returned to Cádiz, reaching that port on 21 August.