Battle of Cape Cherchell

7 September 1937, Off Cherchell, French Algeria

Inconclusive; Republican convoy scattered

Baleares, patrolling alone, ran into a Republican force of two light cruisers and seven destroyers covering two merchant ships coming from the Soviet Union. The destroyers stayed with the convoy while Libertad and Méndez Núñez fought Baleares. Two hits from Libertad started a fire in a magazine and knocked out her forward guns. The merchant ships ran for the Algerian coast, where one was wrecked and the other interned by the French. The Republican commander, Miguel Buiza, was dismissed after the battle.