Action of 18 March 1748

Action of 18 March 1748
Part of the War of Jenkins' Ear
Date 18 March 1748 Location off Cape St Vincent, Spain Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Captain Thomas Cotes	Commodore Don Juan de Egues
Strength
6 ships of the line	9 ships of the line & frigates, 17 merchant vessels
Casualties and losses
Light	5 merchant ships captured

The Action of 18 March 1748 was a naval engagement during the War of Jenkins' Ear in which a fleet of six Royal Naval vessels captured a number of merchantman in a successful engagement against a Spanish convoy escorted by nine ships of the line and frigates.

Battle

Whilst off Cape St Vincent a small British fleet under Captain Cotes was watching his station when he caught eye of a Spanish convoy. He caught up with the tail end of the convoy and an action ensued. Three register ships, from Cadiz to Vera Cruz, and two others for Carthagena, are intercepted and captured out of a Spanish fleet of 17 merchantmen, under a convoy of nine ships of the line. The escorting Spanish ships of the line were Soberbio (74), Leon (74), Oriente (70), Colorado (70), Brillante (64), Pastora (64), Rosario (60), Xavier (54) and Galga (54). The Royal naval vessels consisted from 74 to 54 guns, by HMS Edinburgh, 70 guns, under the command of Captain Thomas Cotes, with the Eagle, Windsor, and Princess Louisa, 60 guns each, and Inverness, 24 guns and the frigate Gax. The rest of the convoy managed to escape under darkness with their escorting ships.

Notes

References

• Beatson, Robert (1804). Naval and military memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to 1783. 1. Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme. 

External links

• Soberbio