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The Battle of Cape St. Vincent was a major naval battle of the French Revolutionary Wars fought on 14 February 1797 off Cape St. Vincent, the southeastern point of Portugal, between a British Royal Navy fleet and a larger Spanish Navy fleet. The battle was a decisive victory for the British, whose sailors were more experienced and better trained, allowing for more effective ship-handling during the battle. This enabled the British commander, Admiral Sir John Jervis, to outmanoeuvere the Spanish under Teniente-General Don José de Córdoba and inflict severe damage on the vanguard of the Spanish fleet. The damage to Spanish ships and morale was so significant that the Spanish fleet did not leave port again until 1799.

The battle came early in the Anglo-Spanish War, a conflict which had developed in 1796 from the Mediterranean campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars. Formerly allies, Spain had declared war on Britain in October 1796 and sent a large fleet into the Mediterranean, forcing the weakened British Mediterranean Fleet under Jervis to withdraw to an anchorage at the mouth of the Tagus at Lisbon. From this position Jervis intended to blockade the main Spanish naval base of Cádiz. In early February 1797, Jervis met with reinforcements off Cape St. Vincent and was notified that the Spanish fleet had passed through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic. Jervis sailed in search of the Spanish and discovered Córdoba's fleet on the morning of 14 February. The Spanish, escorting a valuable convoy, had split into two groups, which when combined substantially outnumbered the British.

Jervis took his fleet in a line of battle between the two Spanish groups, causing the smaller group to withdraw as he focused his principal attention on the main battlefleet. Despite inept seamanship from much of the Spanish fleet which prevented Córdoba bringing his main force to bear, the Spanish fleet turned away from the British and seemed likely to escape with limited damage. However, an audacious manoeuvre against orders by the commander of the British rear division, Commodore Horatio Nelson, trapped the Spanish van division between Nelson and Jervis. With his ships pounded by the British cross-fire, the Spanish fleet retreated, leaving five damaged ships behind. Two of these ships were forced to surrender by Nelson, who led his men in a boarding action in which they charged across the deck of one Spanish ship and leapt onto the deck of another close alongside. Two others surrendered to the remainder of the British fleet, while the flagship Santísima Trinidad, the largest ship in the world, was badly damaged but able to escape British pursuit.

In the aftermath of the battle Córdoba fell back to Cádiz, where Jervis, now Earl of St Vincent, instituted a close blockade. Badly damaged and with morale shattered, the Spanish fleet did not sail again until the fruitless Croisière de Bruix campaign of 1799. In the meantime, St. Vincent was able to inflict severe damage on Spanish trade and send a fleet under Nelson back into the Mediterranean the following year. During the Mediterranean campaign of 1798 the Spanish remained inactive as the French Mediterranean fleet was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile and the Royal Navy seized control of the Mediterranean. This granted Britain a dominant position in the region which they retained for the rest of the war and throughout the Napoleonic Wars which followed.

Background
Great Britain and Spain had been allies during the Mediterranean campaign of 1793-1796, united in opposition to the newly-formed French Republic as part of the War of the First Coalition. The alliance was tense; Spain refused to allow British officers to exercise command over Spanish units, and in 1793 during a dispute over strategy at the Siege of Toulon, the Spanish admiral Juan de Lángara threatened to open fire on his British counterpart Lord Hood on HMS Victory. At the culmination of the siege British officers accused the Spanish of deliberately sabotaging an operation to burn the French Mediterranean Fleet in Toulon harbour.

In 1795 Spain agreed the Peace of Basel with France, dropping out of the Coalition following a series of defeats on land during the War of the Pyrenees. Spain and Britain had long been rivals in the Mediterranean, and intense French diplomacy during 1795 and 1796 culminated in the Treaty of San Ildefonso in August 1796 at which France and Spain agreed a formal alliance. This required Spain to pay France substantial subsidies, and to declare war on Britain, a commitment which was fulfilled on 5 October 1796. A British squadron was already stationed off the main Spanish naval port of Cádiz to observe a French squadron in the harbour, and when the Spanish fleet emerged from the port under Lángara, the commander of the British force Robert Mann suffered a nervous breakdown and retreated first to Gibraltar and then back to Britain, against direct orders to reinforce the British Mediterranean Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis, which was then anchored at San Fiorenzo.

Jervis' fleet was desperately short of supplies, having lost its Italian allies earlier in the year to the land campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte, and when the Spanish fleet appeared in the Ligurian Sea, Jervis recognised that he was outnumbered; united, the French and Spanish fleets mustered 38 ships of the line to Jervis' force of 15. With the French dominant in Italy, an invasion of Corsica underway, and the combined fleet sufficient to overwhelm his own, Jervis determined to withdraw from the Mediterranean, an action which had already been independently decided upon by the Admiralty. On 4 November 1796, laden with troops and stores, Jervis' fleet sailed from San Fiorenzo. His fleet reached Gibraltar on 11 December and on 16 December departed the Mediterranean entirely; Gibraltar was too small a base to support the fleet, and so Jervis withdrew further to the mouth of the Tagus at Lisbon. The operation was hastily conceived and suffered losses: HMS Courageux and HMS Bombay Castle were wrecked, the former with heavy loss of life, and three other ships grounded and were severely damaged. These ships required extensive repairs, leaving Jervis with just nine ships to oppose the French and Spanish forces. He had also temporarily detached one of his most effective officers, Commodore Horatio Nelson; Nelson usually commanded HMS Captain, but Jervis had sent him on a mission in the frigate HMS Minerve to remove the garrison of the island of Elba, the last British-held territory in the Mediterranean.

Prelude
While Jervis pulled his forces out of the Mediterranean, the French and Spanish combined fleet divided. Plans had been agreed for the Spanish fleet under Lángara to sail from the Mediterranean and join with the French Atlantic Fleet at Brest in support of the forthcoming Expédition d'Irlande, a major French operation to land an army in the Kingdom of Ireland and precipitate a full-scale Irish uprising against the British. A French squadron, led by Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was to accompany Lángara. This force sailed on xx December, calling at Cartagena. There the Spanish were delayed and Villeneuve separated, passing Jervis near Gibraltar on 10 December during a fierce storm and sailing out into the Atlantic. At Cartagena Lángara protested his orders on the grounds that his fleet was inadequately manned and experienced for the operation. In response Prime Minister of Spain Manuel Godoy replaced Lángara with José de Mazarredo, but he too refused to join the operation without fresh supplies and reinforcements, and was replaced in turn by José de Córdoba. The Spanish ships were well-built, but chronically undermanned, the lack of trained sailors made up by drafts of soldiers to act as marines and man the gun batteries.

Córdoba sailed from Cartagena on 1 February 1797 with his fleet, which comprised the 136-gun four-decker Santísima Trinidad, the largest ship in the world; six ships of 112-guns; two 84-gun ships and 18 74-gun ships, totaling 27 ships of the line accompanied by a number of frigates and more than 70 merchant ships and troop transports. This fleet was joined at Malaga by four urcas, large armed storeships. These ships were Córdoba's most immediate priority, as they carried a large cargo of quicksilver, mined at Almadén and critical in the refinement of silver ore extracted from mines in Spanish America. This silver, carried in armed convoys across the Atlantic, was critical to the Spanish economy and necessary to pay the subsidies to France. Córdoba passed Gibraltar on 5 February, and detached three ships and a frigate with the transports to land the troops and stores at Algeciras. The remainder of the fleet sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar for Cádiz, caught in a gale and blown to the west, out into the Atlantic, where the intention was to convey the urcas to a safe distance beyond the British blockade so they could safely sail for South America.

Jervis meanwhile had departed from Lisbon on 18 January 1797, with the observation that "inaction in the Tagus will make us all cowards." Ten days earlier he had heard news that a large French fleet was in the Atlantic, and was concerned that they might be sailing in his direction. In fact this was the Irish invasion force, which had left port in December and, caught in a series of winter blizzards, ended in disaster, with a dozen ships and thousands of men lost. Jervis had detached a squadron of frigates under Captain Lord Garlies to watch Cádiz for the return of the Spanish, with instructions to meet with him off Cape St. Vincent, the promontory which marks the southeastern point of Portugal, should they appear. Cape St. Vincent, lying prominently on the main shipping route between Northern and Southern Europe, has historically been the site of significant naval conflict; within living memory of the participants of 1797 British and Spanish fleets had clashed there at the Battle of Lagos of 1759 and the Moonlight Battle of 1780, both major British victories. Two years before the battle, British and French squadrons had fought the Battle of the Levant Convoy off the cape, the French destroying an important British merchant convoy. In 1805, eight years after the battle, the Battle of Trafalgar was fought just 100 nmi to the south, off Cádiz itself.

The British passage southwards was slow, and they were sighted during the voyage by an American merchant ship, which later encountered Córdoba's fleet and told the Spanish admiral that the British had only nine ships of the line. Córdoba was not anxious for an action given the lack of experience among his crews, but considered that his three-fold advantage might allow him to overwhelm the British. When Jervis arrived off Cape St. Vincent on 6 February, he found both Garlies' squadron and a battle squadron sent from Britain under Rear-Admiral William Parker. News now reached Jervis' reinforced fleet of 14 ships of the line that the Spanish had passed Gibraltar, brought by a cutter from the port. Shortly afterwards the frigate HMS Emerald arrived with a report that the Spanish were returning towards Cádiz. Jervis sent word back to Britain, noting his intention to engage the Spanish, stating that "I flatter myself we shall be able to deal with them." He sent his frigates out again to scout for Córdoba as his main squadron cruised off the Cape in anticipation; that night HMS Colossus collided with HMS Culloden, causing severe damage. It appeared that Culloden might have to return to port, but Captain Thomas Troubridge, anticipating the impending battle, refused. His crew worked through the night and the following day, eventually reporting their ship ready for action on 13 February.

Nelson had been delayed in the Mediterranean, fighting the Action of 19 December 1796 against Córdoba's scouts, arguing with the intransigent British commander on Elba, and then diverting to Naples to collect diplomat Sir Gilbert Elliott and his entourage, which included Lieutenant-Colonel John Drinkwater. On his return he reconnoitered Toulon, Barcelona and Cartagena, but found them all empty of enemy fleets. As he passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on 10 February he was chased by the ships Córdoba had diverted to Algeciras, and during the night of 12 February found himself accidentally passing though the Spanish fleet in thick fog, the Spanish unaware. On reaching Jervis' fleet on 13 February he immediately made a report and resumed command of Captain. Later that day the small corvette HMS 'Bonne Citoyenne'' arrived with a more detailed account of the Spanish whereabouts, although no report had so far revealed the fleets true size. That evening Jervis hosted Elliott, Drinkwater and a number of his captains to a dinner on the flagship Victory, toasting "Victory over the Dons in the battle from which they cannot escape tomorrow". He then transferred Elliott and Drinkwater to the frigate HMS Lively, from which they could safely watch the impending combat.

Jervis' line
Through a long sleepless night Jervis led his fleet south in search of the Spanish. At 02:30, 24 nmi southwest of Cape St. Vincent, a Portuguese frigate commanded by a Scottish officer passed the British fleet, notifying Jervis that the Spanish were just 15 nmi to the southeast, to windward. At 05:30 another scouting frigate, HMS Niger under Lieutenant Edward Foote, reported that Jervis was almost upon the Spanish fleet. An hour later lookouts on Victory, peering through a thick sea fog, reported sails to windward. The British fleet was sailing in two lines in close order, ships cleared for action; Jervis signaled to his captains "A victory is very essential to England at this moment." Córdoba's fleet by contrast was in poor order, hardly moving in the slight wind and divided into two loose divisions; the main fleet of 20 ships with Córdoba to the west and a smaller division including the urcas to the east. Although it was not clear at this stage to any of the participants, Jervis' fleet was sailing directly between the Spanish divisions. Córdoba issued orders for his fleet to form up into a line of battle, but the orders were only loosely followed and three large ships, Principe de Asturias, Conde de Regla and under Teniente-General, fell out of the main fleet and drifted towards the eastern detachment. The Spanish fleet was disordered, with the effect that most of its senior officers were concentrated in the rear, leaving the van and centre divisions leaderless and disorganised.

Jervis found the smaller leeward group first, and gave orders for Parker to take five ships in pursuit. Shortly afterwards however, as the morning fog receded, the windward fleet was revealed and Parker's orders were rescinded so that Jervis could concentrate his fleet against the main strength of the Spanish. Observations from Minerve, the leading British scout, were relayed to the flagship where Fleet Captain Robert Calder called out the signals as they arrived to the group of senior officers assembled on the quarterdeck of Victory.

"There are eight sail of the line, Sir John"

"Very well, sir"

"There are twenty sail of the line, Sir John"

"Very well, sir"

"There are twenty five sail of the line, Sir John"

"Very well, sir"

"There are twenty seven sail of the line, Sir John."

"Enough, sir, no more of that; the die is cast, and if there are fifty sail I will go through them."

At this statement the ebullient Captain Benjamin Hallowell, former captain of Courageux, slapped Jervis on the back and shouted "That's right Sir John. That's right, by God we shall give them a damned good licking." Determined to attack the main force of the Spanish fleet, Jervis gave orders for his fleet "Form in a line of battle ahead and astern of Victory as most convenient", instructions to form into a single line of battle bearing southwards towards Córdoba's flagship, which was leading the confused mass of Spanish ships in an effort to unite with the leeward division. This division had turned away and was sailing southwest away from the British, although one ship, San Ysidro attempted to cross the British line and rejoin the main fleet. The manoeuvre was successful, but the ship came within range of the frigate Lively. Although frigates did not normally engage ships of the line during fleet battles, Garlies gave permission for a single shot, which smashed amidships and killed five sailors. Return fire scattered overhead without damaging the frigate.

At 11:12 Jervis sent a new signal "Engage the enemy", followed at 11:29 with "Admiral intends to pass through enemy lines." The British line was led by Troubridge in Culloden, followed by the large second rate ships HMS Blenheim (1761) and HMS Prince George. Victory lay seventh in line, while Nelson in Captain was thirteenth and third from last. The fifteenth and final ship was HMS Excellent (1787) under Captain Cuthbert Collingwood. Jervis' intention was to cut between the divisions and engage the main Spanish fleet to windward, which was still sailing in a disorganised mass. Fire began at 11:30, when Culloden passed a Spanish ship at point-blank range. So close were the ships that Troubridge was warned that there was a risk of collision by a lieutenant. He replied "Can't help it Griffiths, let the weakest fend off." The initial broadside was so devastating that the Spanish ship was unable to respond.

Melee
The British fleet had now cut Córdoba's fleet in two, and the Spanish admiral was unable to reach the valuable lee division without heading straight into the tight-knit gunnery of the British line. Instead, he issued orders to steer northwest with the wind to pass beyond the stern of the British fleet. Smoke from the fire of Culloden, Blenheim, Prince George and now HMS Orion and HMS Colossus obscured the Spanish movement, but when Jervis recognised the shift in direction he issued orders at 12:08 for the line to tack in succession. Troubridge had anticipated the order, and as Jervis' signal rose on Victory he pulled Culloden immediately around towards Córdoba's fleet; on seeing how swiftly Culloden executed the manoeuvre, Jervis exclaimed "Look at Troubridge there! He tacks his ship in battle as if the eyes of England were upon him." By 12:15 every British ship was in range and firing on the Spanish.

The only ship of the leeward squadron to attempt to intervene in the developing action to the west was Moreno's 112-gun flagship Principe de Asturias. Pulling towards the British fleet, Moreno bore down on Victory and swung to port, firing some of the starboard guns at the British flagship from close range. The manoeuvre was poorly executed, and Moreno's ship accidentally exposed its stern to the flagship, which fired a devastating raking broadside into Principe de Asturias. The Spanish ship was badly damaged, losing its steering wheel and spinning out of control, exposing the bow in time for another broadside from Victory. Crippled, Moreno's ship drifted out of action to the east.

Despite the Spanish disorganisation, not every British ship was able to execute Jervis' order in the same manner as Troubridge. Colossus, fourth in line, was struck by fire from Principe de Asturias and lost a foresail yard, missed stays and swung out of line out of control, forcing HMS Irresistible (1782) and Victory to have to take evasive manoeuvres to avoid a collision. Jervis, observing this from Victory at 13:05, was nearly hit by a Spanish cannonball which struck a marine standing nearby and showered the admiral in blood and brain matter. Using an orange to rinse the blood from his mouth, Jervis called for a new signal to be raised, "Take suitable stations for mutual support and engage the enemy as coming up in succession."

Nelson's gamble
Although his ships were under heavy fire, Córdoba's orders to sail northeast around the stern of the British fleet appeared to be achieving success; the British line was now in pursuit but the Spanish had the advantage of the wind. Nelson, commanding the rearguard which had not yet made the turn towards the Spanish, had barely contributed to the action, and recognised the danger that Córdoba would escape. Choosing to follow Jervis' most recent signal and not the one which preceded it, Nelson ordered Captain Ralph Miller to wear Captain to port and tack back across the Spanish line of advance, passing between HMS Diadem and Excellent to his rear as he did so. This placed him in the path of the Spanish van squadron, led by Santísima Trinidad, supported by the 112-gun ships Salvador del Mundo, Mexicano, San Josef the 80-gun San Nicholas and the 74-gun San Ysidro. Against such an overwhelming force Nelson's ship could not hope to resist for long, his intention only to delay the Spanish until the remainder of Jervis' fleet could come into action. Although Nelson's ship came under heavy fire from the massed Spanish batteries, Culloden was already within range, and aiding Captain in the unequal fight.

Córdoba was forced to alter course towards Jervis' fleet to avoid becoming entangled with Captain, and this enabled Collingwood in Excellent, the last ship of the British line, to reverse his course too and support Nelson in action with Córdoba's squadron. Blenheim then joined the close action soon after Nelson's manoeuvre, with the rest of Jervis' ships were rapidly approaching while the Spanish were still scattered. A confused melee ensued in thick smoke; Collingwood recounts that he first engaged the Salvador del Mundo at 14:40, battling the much larger Spanish vessel with support from the rest of the British fleet. Within ten minutes Spanish fire had slackened and Collingwood believed that they had surrendered, moving on to attack San Ysidro, which did surrender at 15:00. Excellent then pulled close to San Josef, opening a destructive fire on the Spanish ship, causing heavy casualties, and mortally wounding the commander Admiral Francisco Winthuysen, who had both legs torn off. San Josef veered away from Excellent and slammed into San Nicolas, the Spanish ships becoming entangled with one another.

Behind Collingwood, Salvador del Mundo had opened fire once more against the following British ships. Captain Sir James Saumarez in Orion then attacked the 112-gun ship, supported by Victory, to whom the ship surrendered after taking heavy casualties, including the commander Brigadier Antonio Yepes killed in action. Collingwood, Saumarez and most of the remainder of the British fleet passed by the surrendered and damaged ships, leaving the disabled Captain and Colossus behind, in order to attack the vast Santísima Trinidad. Battered for more than an hour by the majority of the British fleet, the Spanish flagship was severely damaged. Córdoba wrote that it was "entirely dismasted, without the power of making signals with flags or lights." There was no Spanish support; Mexicano withdrew with severe damage, pulling rapidly away from the melee, while most of the rest of the Spanish fleet, many of which had played no part in the battle at all, passed by at a considerable distance, unable or unwilling to intervene. Only Purísima Concepción and Soberano offered any resistance, and both were driven off with severe damage. The British accounts state that Santísima Trinidad surrendered to Orion, Nelson even stated later that Spanish prisoners had attested to it, but the flagship did not stop, gradually pulling out of the action towards the distant leeward division.

The Patent Bridge
Captain was badly damaged in the lone fight with Córdoba's squadron, having the sails and rigging torn to pieces, the wheel destroyed and the fore topmast shot away. Drifting and unable to follow the attack on Santísima Trinidad, Nelson ordered Miller to steer the ship towards the tangled San Josef and San Nicolas, coming close alongside the latter and, crying "Westminster Abbey or Glorious Victory!", ordered his men to board the damaged Spanish ship. The attack was led by Captain Edward Berry, who leapt onto the mizzen chains near the stern of the ship followed by soldiers of the 69th Regiment serving aboard as marines. Nelson followed with another boarding party through the broken stern windows. Brigadier led a Spanish counter-attack but was shot dead in close combat at the cabin door. Charging up the stairs, Nelson found that Berry had cleared the quarterdeck and struck the Spanish colours. As Nelson accepted the surrender of the remaining Spanish officers, the British boarders then came under fire from the deck of San Josef, still tangled fast alongside.

Nelson sent orders for Miller to send more men to take possession of San Nicolas, and with Berry leapt across the gap between the ships to the main chains while the soldiers of the 69th opened a heavy fire on the stern of the Spanish ship. Nelson landed heavily and suffered a severe internal injury, but was assisted by Berry and climbed aboard the three-decked ship to find Winthuysen close to death and his officers willing to surrender. Nelson later wrote thus "did I receive the swords of vanquished Spaniards; which, as I received, I gave to William Fearney, my bargeman, who placed them with greatest sangfroid under his arm." This action, charging across the deck of one enemy warship to capture a larger vessel on the other side became known in British popular culture of the time as "Nelson's Patent Bridge for Boarding First Rates."

Evening
By 17:00 darkness was falling and the action had to be suspended. The British fleet had taken four Spanish ships of the line, all badly damaged, and severly damaged several more Spanish ships. Frigates came to take the British prizes under tow, Lively passing a rope to San Ysidro and Minerve attaching to the battered Captain. There were thousands of wounded to be treated, more than 2,500 Spanish prisoners under guard, while fires had broken out on San Nicolas and had to be extinguished. Jervis formed his ships up in a defensive line to the east of the main Spanish force, the leeward division and the drifting Santísima Trinidad having departed to the south. The disorganised mass of the remaining Spanish fleet was gathered in the distance to the west, still to windward. Jervis anticipated a renewal of the action on the following morning as the Spanish still substantially outnumbered his fleet, but was in no position to make such an attack himself. The Spanish, damaged and demoralised, held a council of war to determine whether to renew combat, and only three captains pressed for further action. The Spanish withdrew to the south, and eventually returned to Cádiz.

Losses in the battler were uneven. The British had suffered 73 killed and 227 wounded in the engagement, noted as a very light casualty list for such a long and contested battle. These casualties were unevenly distributed; Captain had 80 casualties including 25 killed, Blenheim 61 casualties and Culloden 57. Colossus, lost to the action early, had only five wounded, Diadem two, HMS Britannia one and HMS Egmont none at all. Damage was similarly distributed, with Captain, Culloden and Blenheim all severely damaged in the battle. Spanish losses are unclear, with a number of figures given; Spanish sources suggest figures of 200 killed and 1,284 wounded, the former including senior officers Geraldino, Winthysen and Yepes as well as Jefe de escuadra Claude, Conde de Amblimont on Conde de Regla and Brigadier Francisco de Herrera on Mexicano. In addition to the four captured ships, Santísima Trinidad was crippled and several other ships damaged, but large parts of the fleet were only lightly engaged or entirely unengaged, and consequently suffered little damage.

After dark Nelson, who had transferred to Irresistible, came aboard Victory to make his report. He had not changed, still dressed on his battle-stained uniform, part of his hat burned away. Jervis grasped him in a hug and thanked him for his role in the victory. Following the meeting Calder snidely remarked to Jervis that Nelson's manoeuvre had been against orders, to which Jervis replied "It was certainly so, and if you ever commit such a breach of your orders I will forgive you also." Nelson's next visit, after a wash and change of clothes, was to the frigate Lively on the morning of 15 February. There he sat with Drinkwater and told the colonel an elaborate account of his part in the battle, knowing that Drinkwater was preparing an account of the battle of publication in Britain.

Jervis sent several frigates in pursuit of the Spanish, particularly searching for the battered Santísima Trinidad. The Spanish flagship was sighted several times, dismasted and rolling out of control, but always sufficiently protected to prevent an attack. Only one effort was made to bring the massive ship to battle, when Captain Richard Bowen in HMS Terpsichore (1785) found the Spanish ship undefended and opened fire. Santísima Trinidad was further damaged, losing nine killed, but its heavy broadsides succeeded in driving off the frigate, and the Spanish flagship was eventually able to reach Cádiz. Meanwhile Jervis' main fleet had sailed northwards, anchoring off Lagos on 16 February and landing 2,300 Spanish prisoners. The released sailors were placed under parole not to serve against Britain again, but the Spanish authorities ignored the agreement and most rejoined the Spanish Navy. The British fleet then sailed north with its prizes, anchoring at Lisbon on 24 February.

Aftermath
Jervis had prepared two dispatches on the battle on 15 February. The first was a lengthy and detailed account, naming Troubridge, Nelson and Collingwood as crucial to the battle's success and commending several other captains. Calder dissuaded Jervis from sending this account, noting that "as Nelson had disobeyed the signal of recall, any eulogy of his conduct would encourage other officers to do the same." Jervis replaced it with a brief and general account of the battle which did not single any officers out as particularly deserving of credit, with the exception of Calder. This was delivered to the Admiralty by Calder and subsequently published in the London Gazette, although Jervis did include a private letter to First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Spencer outlining much of what the dispatch lacked.

Nelson's account, disseminated through Drinkwater and Elliott, reached Britain on 3 March and was sent to Spencer and distributed more widely. Nelson later reinforced this account by sending a written version of the battle and a droll "recipe" for an "Olla Podrida" to the Duke of Clarence, both a Royal Prince and an old shipmate of Nelson. He was soon afterwards, as he hinted in his letters, knighted as a member of the prestigious Order of the Bath. As commander Jervis was rewarded with the titles of Baron Jervis and Earl St Vincent and a pension of £3,000 (£0 a year, while vice-admirals Parker and Charles Thompson were made baronets and William Waldegrave, already an aristocrat, was made Baron Radstock. Calder, as the messenger of the victory, was made a knight bachelor. A round of promotions followed the victory, during which Nelson, by seniority, became a rear-admiral.

Sending his prizes and damaged ships back to Lisbon for repairs, Jervis remained at sea until 24 February, at which point he withdrew to the Tagus. There all four Spanish prizes were purchased for the Royal Navy, although none saw extensive action. From Lisbon Jervis led the Blockade of Cádiz for two years, organised around a strong fleet patrolling in open sea while detached frigates and squadrons monitored both the Spanish port and the approaches to the Mediterranean. At the Action of 26 April 1797 a Spanish frigate squadron carrying silver was destroyed, although the silver was smuggled ashore in fishing boats. In June Nelson launched an unsuccessful attack on Cádiz, and in July he led the disastrous attack on Santa Cruz on Tenerife, at which Nelson lost an arm and the British took heavily casualties.

During Jervis' (now known as Earl St Vincent) long blockade, the Spanish fleet made no effort to put to sea, penned into harbour by the zealous British watch on the port. In May 1798 the French Mediterranean Fleet launched a major operation to invade Egypt, the army led by Bonaparte. After capturing Malta, the fleet anchored off Alexandria and the French army moved inland. A British fleet under a recovered Nelson had re-entered the Mediterranean in pursuit, and caught the French fleet in the exposed anchorage at Aboukir Bay on 1 August. In a ferocious evening and night battle, known as the Battle of the Nile, the French fleet was almost completely destroyed, leaving Britain in complete control of the Mediterranean and Bonaparte and the elite of the French Army trapped on the far side. This action precipitated the War of the Second Coalition, during which the main naval campaign in the Atlantic was the Croisière de Bruix of 1799. In this operation the French Atlantic fleet lured away the Cádiz blockade, now commanded by Lord Keith after St Vincent's promotion to First Lord of the Admiralty. This freed the Spanish fleet and the French and Spanish forces united at Cartagena. With this overwhelming force they evaded British pursuit and reached Brest at the entrance to the English Channel. There they were blockaded until the Peace of Amiens in 1802 by the British Channel Fleet under the renewed command of the Earl St Vincent.