Battles of the War of the Spanish Succession

23 October 1702 · Rande, Vigo Bay, Galicia

Anglo-Dutch victory; the Franco-Spanish fleet destroyed

After failing to take Cádiz, Rooke's Anglo-Dutch fleet learned that the Spanish treasure fleet from the Americas, escorted by a French squadron under the Comte de Châteaurenault, had put into Vigo Bay. The ships lay in the narrow inner bay at Rande, behind a boom of masts and chains guarded by forts. Troops landed and stormed the forts, while Vice-Admiral Hopsonn in Torbay sailed straight at the boom and broke it, and the fleet poured through. Every French ship of the line was taken or burned, and all three Spanish galleons destroyed or captured. Most of the silver, however, had already been landed; the allies took far less than they hoped. The victory helped bring Portugal into the alliance.

1–4 August 1704 · Gibraltar

Anglo-Dutch victory; Gibraltar taken

Looking for something to show for a summer in the Mediterranean, Rooke and Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt decided to take Gibraltar, which had only a small garrison. Marines landed on the isthmus to cut it off from the mainland, and on 3 August the fleet bombarded the town and its defences. Sailors in boats stormed the New Mole, and the next day the governor surrendered. Gibraltar has been British ever since.

24 August 1704 · Off Vélez-Málaga, Spain

Indecisive; the French fleet withdrew to Toulon

The main French fleet under the Comte de Toulouse, Louis XIV's son, came out of Toulon to retake Gibraltar and met Rooke's Anglo-Dutch fleet off Málaga. It was the only great fleet battle of the war: some fifty ships of the line on each side fought in parallel lines all day, at close range, without a ship being lost on either side. Many allied ships, short of shot after the bombardment of Gibraltar, were badly damaged aloft, and the allies drew off. But the French went back to Toulon, Gibraltar was saved, and the French battle fleet never again put to sea in strength in the war.

21 October 1707 · Off the Lizard, Cornwall

French victory; three escorts captured and one blown up

Commodore Richard Edwards was escorting a large convoy carrying troops and supplies from Plymouth to Portugal with five ships when two French squadrons, under the privateer captains René Duguay-Trouin from Brest and Claude de Forbin from Dunkirk, came on it off the Lizard. Edwards formed his escorts to cover the convoy's escape and the French attacked them. Cumberland was boarded and taken, Chester and Ruby were captured, and Devonshire, after fighting off several French ships for hours, caught fire and blew up with almost all her crew. Only Royal Oak got away. Most of the convoy escaped.