1657 April 19th.General-of-the-seas Robert Blake's fleet arrived off Santa Cruz; Santa Cruz lies in a deeply-indented
bay and the harbour was defended by a castle armed with forty guns and a number of smaller forts connected
by a triple line of breastworks to shelter musketeers; seventeen Spanish ships were moored in a semi-circle in
the harbour under cover of the shore batteries, including seven great galleons of the plate fleet, in an operation
similar to the raid on the Barbary pirates of Porto Farina in Tunisia in 1655, General-of-the-seas Robert Blake
planned to send twelve frigates under the command of (now) Rear-Admiral Richard Stayner in the Speaker into
the harbour to attack the galleons while he followed in the George with the fleet to bombard the shore batteries.
1657 Battle. April 20th.The attack began at 9:00a,m. in the morning, Rear-admiral Richard Stayner's division maneuvered alongside the Spanish ships,which protected the English ships to some extent from the guns of the castle and forts, no shot was fired from the English ships until they had moved into position and dropped anchor. General-of-the-seas Robert Blake saw what the Spanish had not; that the six galleons masked the fire of the other ten ships, while the frigates attacked the galleons, General-of-the-seas Robert Blake's heavier warships sailed into the harbour to bombard the shore defences. General-of-the-seas Robert Blake ordered that no prizes were to be taken; the Spanish fleet was to be utterly destroyed, most of the Spanish fleet, made up of smaller armed merchantmen, were quickly silenced by the superior gunnery of Admiral Richard Stayner's warships, only the two great galleons, strongly built and with powerful guns, presented a real challenge and continued to fight after the rest of the fleet had surrendered. General-of-the-seas Robert Blake's division cleared the breastworks and smaller forts; smoke from the gunfire and burning ships worked to the advantage of the English by obscuring their ships from the Spanish batteries, around noon, the flagship of the Spanish Admiral Don Diego de Egues caught fire; shortly afterwards it was destroyed when the powder magazine exploded. English sailors took to boats to board Spanish ships and set them on fire, by 3:00.p.m afternoon, all sixteen Spanish ships in the harbour were sunk, surrendered or ablaze; Contrary to orders, the Swiftsure and four other frigates each took a surrendered ship as a prize and attempted to tow it out of the harbour. General- of-the-seas Robert Blake sent peremptory orders that the prizes were to be burnt, he had to repeat his order three times before the reluctant captains obeyed. Having achieved its objective of destroying the Spanish ships, the English fleet was faced with the hazardous task of withdrawing from Santa Cruz harbour under constant fire from the forts, according to accounts the wind miraculously shifted from the north-east to the south-west at exactly the right moment to carry General-of-the-seas Robert Blake ships out of the harbour; however, this story is probably based upon a misunderstanding of a report pertaining to general weather conditions on the voyage as a whole.The English fleet worked its way back out to the open sea by warping out, or hauling on anchor ropes, a tactic General-of-the-seas Robert Blake had introduced during the raid on Porto Farina.The Speaker,which was the first ship to enter the harbour and last to leave, had been badly damaged, but no English ships were lost in the battle.
1657 Battle. April 20th.The attack began at 9:00a,m. in the morning, Rear-admiral Richard Stayner's division maneuvered alongside the Spanish ships,which protected the English ships to some extent from the guns of the castle and forts, no shot was fired from the English ships until they had moved into position and dropped anchor. General-of-the-seas Robert Blake saw what the Spanish had not; that the six galleons masked the fire of the other ten ships, while the frigates attacked the galleons, General-of-the-seas Robert Blake's heavier warships sailed into the harbour to bombard the shore defences. General-of-the-seas Robert Blake ordered that no prizes were to be taken; the Spanish fleet was to be utterly destroyed, most of the Spanish fleet, made up of smaller armed merchantmen, were quickly silenced by the superior gunnery of Admiral Richard Stayner's warships, only the two great galleons, strongly built and with powerful guns, presented a real challenge and continued to fight after the rest of the fleet had surrendered. General-of-the-seas Robert Blake's division cleared the breastworks and smaller forts; smoke from the gunfire and burning ships worked to the advantage of the English by obscuring their ships from the Spanish batteries, around noon, the flagship of the Spanish Admiral Don Diego de Egues caught fire; shortly afterwards it was destroyed when the powder magazine exploded. English sailors took to boats to board Spanish ships and set them on fire, by 3:00.p.m afternoon, all sixteen Spanish ships in the harbour were sunk, surrendered or ablaze; Contrary to orders, the Swiftsure and four other frigates each took a surrendered ship as a prize and attempted to tow it out of the harbour. General- of-the-seas Robert Blake sent peremptory orders that the prizes were to be burnt, he had to repeat his order three times before the reluctant captains obeyed. Having achieved its objective of destroying the Spanish ships, the English fleet was faced with the hazardous task of withdrawing from Santa Cruz harbour under constant fire from the forts, according to accounts the wind miraculously shifted from the north-east to the south-west at exactly the right moment to carry General-of-the-seas Robert Blake ships out of the harbour; however, this story is probably based upon a misunderstanding of a report pertaining to general weather conditions on the voyage as a whole.The English fleet worked its way back out to the open sea by warping out, or hauling on anchor ropes, a tactic General-of-the-seas Robert Blake had introduced during the raid on Porto Farina.The Speaker,which was the first ship to enter the harbour and last to leave, had been badly damaged, but no English ships were lost in the battle.
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