Fénix was an 80-gun ship of the line (navio) of the Spanish Navy, built by Pedro de Torres at Havana in accordance with the system laid down by Antonio Gaztaneta launched in 1749. In 1759, she was sent to bring the new king, Carlos III, from Naples to Barcelona. When Spain entered the American Revolutionary War in June 1779, Fénix set sail for the English Channel where she was to join a Franco-Spanish fleet of more than 60 ships of the line under Lieutenant General Luis de Córdova y Córdova. The Armada of 1779 was an invasion force of 40,000 troops with orders to capture the British naval base at Portsmouth.
As the flagship of Admiral Juan de Lángara, the ship fought at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on 16January 1780, where she was captured by the British Royal Navy and commissioned as the third rate HMS Gibraltar in March of that year. She spent a short while in the English Channel before joining Samuel Hood's squadron in the West Indies and taking part in the Capture of St Eustatius in February 1781 and the Battle of Fort Royal the following month. Gibraltar and five other ships were sent to stop a French invasion fleet bound for Tobago in May 1781, but found the French too powerful and had to withdraw. In November, her 18-pound guns were replaced with 24-pounders, after which, in February 1782, she sailed to the East Indies and in the following year participated in the Battle of Cuddalore.
At the start of the French Revolutionary War, Gibraltar served in the Channel Fleet, fighting at the Glorious First of June in 1794 before being sent to the Mediterranean in May 1795. In June, the ship was in an action off Hyères; then, in December 1796, she was badly damaged in a storm and had to return to England for major repairs. By June Gibraltar was back in the Mediterranean, serving in the navy's Egyptian campaign, where she remained during and beyond the Peace of Amiens, except for a short period when she was sent home for a refit.
Returning to the Channel in April 1807, Gibraltar joined the fleet under Admiral James Gambier, which fought the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809. This was her last major action; the ship was taken out of service in 1813 and converted to a powder hulk. She became a lazarette in 1824, then was broken up in November 1836 at Pembroke Dock.
Construction and armament
Fénix was a Spanish, two deck, ship of the line built in Havana from mahogany. Launched in 1749, her dimensions were along the gun deck, at the keel, with a beam of and a depth in the hold of . This made her 2,184 tons burthen (bm).
Classed as an 80-gun third rate, Fénix was armed with thirty on her lower gun deck, thirty-two on her upper gun deck, twelve on the quarterdeck, and six on the forecastle. Her sister ship, , was later converted to a 100-gun, three-decker. She was wrecked at Trafalgar in 1805.
Fénix was captured by the British in 1780. She was copper sheathed and fitted out for British service at Plymouth Dockyard between April and August 1780 at a cost of £16,068.5.3d. The Admiralty changed her armament a number of times: in November 1781 the 18-pounders on her upper deck were upgraded to 24-pounders, and the same December two carronades were added. By 1810, the guns on her quarterdeck had been replaced with four guns and eight carronades, and on her forecastle with four 12-pounder guns and two 32-pounder carronades. Although large, two deck ships were favoured in other European navies, the British preferred to build three-deck third rates; the extra space making them better suited for flagships. After the capture of Fénix, the Admiralty began to see the advantages of a longer two-deck ship which was less prone to hog, almost as well armed as its three-decked counterparts, and relatively quick.
Spanish service
Fénix was part of a squadron of eleven ships-of-the-line, accompanied by two frigates and two tartanes, sent to collect the new king, Carlos III, from Naples in 1759. Under Captain Gutierra de Hevia y Valdés and as the flagship of Lieutenant General Juan Jose Navarro, she set sail from Cádiz on 29August. The squadron passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on 2September, before stopping at Cartagena on 10September to pick up supplies. On 28September it arrived at its destination, where it was reinforced with five other men-of-war. The King embarked on 7October, and the squadron arrived in Barcelona on 17October.