The Commodore was next instructed to embark the garrison of Porto Ferrajo preparatory to the abandonment of Elba. Certain of the troops were then to be landed at Gibraltar and the remainder at Lisbon: “The object of our Fleet in future is the defence of Portugal, and keeping in the Mediterranean the Combined Fleets,” namely those of Spain and France. While on his way to carry out his important mission Nelson was to meet with a surprising adventure.
Nelson’s First Great Fight: The Battle of Cape St Vincent
“_To have had any share in it is honour enough for one man’s life, but to have been foremost on such a day could fall to your share alone_”
Sir John Jervis had concentrated his fleet in Gibraltar Bay. Nelson was making his way from thence to Elba in the _Minerve_, accompanied by the _Blanche_, both 32-gun frigates. All went well until late in the evening of the 19th December 1796, when they fell in with two Spanish frigates named the _Santa Sabina_ (40) and the _Ceres_ (40) off Cartagena. The Commodore at once instructed Captain Cockburn to bring the _Minerve_ to close action with the former. The struggle which ensued lasted for nearly three hours. The lengthy resistance of the enemy is proof that there were still gallant officers in the naval service of what was once the mightiest Sea Power in the world, now long since fallen from her high estate. Captain Don Jacobo Stuart fought his ship with praiseworthy calm and daring. Not until 164 of the 286 men who comprised the crew of the _Santa Sabina_ had been killed or wounded did the Don strike his colours. The vessel had then lost both main and fore-masts, and the deck must have resembled a shambles. The _Blanche_ had also behaved well, although the action was trifling compared with the determined encounter between the other vessels. The approach of three additional ships prevented the captain of the _Blanche_ from following up his advantage and capturing the _Ceres_, which had hauled down her colours and sustained considerable damage to her sails and rigging.
Nelson’s prize was put in charge of Lieutenants Culverhouse and Hardy and taken in tow by the _Minerve_. They had not proceeded far before a third Spanish frigate came up and engaged the _Minerve_, necessitating the casting-off of the _Santa Sabina_, thereby leaving the two young, but able, junior officers to their own resources. The encounter lasted a little over half-an-hour, when the frigate having had enough of Nelson’s pommelling hauled off. The vessels from which Captain D’Arcy Preston of the _Blanche_ had escaped were now approaching, their commanders having been attracted by the sound of distant firing. Dawn revealed them to Nelson as two sail-of-the-line and a frigate. By hoisting English colours above the Spanish flag on the prize the enemy’s Admiral was attracted to her, a ruse which enabled the _Minerve_ and the _Blanche_ to escape, for it would have been foolish for Nelson to run the risk of sacrificing them because of the prize crew. Indeed, the situation was so perilous that Nelson afterwards wrote to Sir Gilbert Elliot, “We very narrowly escaped visiting a Spanish prison.” Neither before nor since have British Tars behaved in finer fashion. They sailed the _Santa Sabina_ until she was practically a hulk, when she was recaptured.