Santa Cruz and Death
Jervis sent Bowen to reconnoitre off Tenerife, and at midnight on 18 June he captured a rich ship from the Manillas bound for Cadiz. Bowen took part in the first bombardment of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 5 July, and worked with Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson to prepare plans for an assault on the town. In the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 24 July Bowen was assigned to lead the landing parties onto the mole. At the head of forty or fifty of his men he gained the mole, took the battery covering the harbour by storm and spiked its guns, and was advancing into the town in pursuit of the fleeing Spanish. As he did so the Spanish fired a large round of grapeshot onto his party, causing heavy casualties. Bowen and his first lieutenant were among those killed, while Nelson and his men, who were just landing, were caught in the fire, Nelson being hit in his right arm. Bowen's body was recovered the next morning and returned to the British ships after the withdrawal. Nelson said of Bowen that '...a more enterprising, able, and gallant officer, does not grace His Majesty's naval service!' Bowen was buried at sea on 27 July.
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