Battle of Cape St. Vincent
1780 CE.
Shown on the map at 36.818°, -8.564°.
The Battle of Cape St. Vincent (Spanish: Batalla del Cabo de San Vicente) was a fleet action fought off Cape St. Vincent on 16–17 January 1780 during the American Revolutionary War. A Royal Navy fleet under Admiral of the White Sir George Rodney defeated a smaller Spanish Navy fleet under Squadron Commander Juan de Lángara in what became known as the Moonlight Battle (batalla a la luz de la luna), unusual since the Age of Sail saw almost exclusively daytime battles. It was the first major British naval victory of the war, and proved the maneuvering value of copper sheathed hulls. On 21 June 1779 Spain had joined its ally France, which was allied with the United States, in their war with Britain. Rodney was escorting a supply convoy with a powerful fleet of 18 ships of the line to relieve the Spanish siege of Gibraltar, when he encountered Lángara's fleet south of Cape St. Vincent on 16 January 1780. When Lángara saw the size of the British fleet, he rushed toward the safety of Cádiz, but the copper-sheathed British ships chased him down.
Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.