When it comes to "the ends of the earth", we will think of Sanya in Hainan, and even think of "only one person, all his life, the ends of the earth, only wishing you peace." Endless romance.

Now I want to talk about another place called Tianya Haijiao-Portugal's "Cape Saint Vincent". The rocks here are steep, the waves beat against the coast, rolling up white waves, and the scenery is magnificent. When you stand on the cliff of Cape Saint Vincent, the endless Atlantic Ocean will appear in front of you. Coming here is like coming to the end of the world.

You may not know that in such a beautiful cape, there has been a spectacular naval battle of "the ends of the earth, I only wish you peace", but the king here is not love, but the country. This is the famous "Battle of Cape Saint Vincent" in history.

At the end of the eighteenth century, Europe was in great turmoil. 1789, a revolution broke out in France, overthrew the monarchy and a large number of French nobles fled abroad. 1793 65438+1October 2 1 day, French king Louis XVI was executed, and terror enveloped France, which was at war with European countries.

Under the instigation of the French, Spain chose to form an alliance with the French against Britain. In order to compete for maritime hegemony and overseas colonies, the British Mediterranean fleet met the Spanish fleet at Cape Saint Vincent in the Atlantic Ocean and launched a fierce naval battle at Cape Saint Vincent.

1On February 5, 797, the Spanish fleet set off from Cartagena, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and sailed for Cadiz, expecting to meet the French fleet heading north. However, under the strong east wind, the Spanish fleet was blown into the Atlantic Ocean and failed to reach Cadiz on time.

In order to prevent the Spanish fleet from going north, Nelson's escort fleet first marched into Gibraltar in two ways, and the coastline advanced through Toulon and Cartagena (Spanish seaport). I look forward to meeting jervis's fleet as soon as possible and sending important information about the discovery of the Spanish fleet.

Finally, on February 1797, jervis was discovered and boarded jervis's flagship Victory. That night, jervis discussed maritime tactics with Nelson and others and decided to go to war.

At 2: 50 in the morning, the Spanish fleet fired a signal gun at a distance of 0/5 mile from the British fleet/KLOC-and slowly approached the British fleet. After learning the news, the British fleet prepared for the battle, and the British fleet was in two battle formations.

Four hours later, five enemy ships were found in the southeast. Soon after, a huge Spanish ship appeared in front of jervis. The Spanish fleet has 27 warships, divided into two vertical queues, one with 18 main battleship and the other with 9 main battleships. Jervis has only 15 main warships.

In contrast, jervis's fleet is at a disadvantage in number. After discovering the enemy's situation, Spanish admiral Cordoba didn't meet the enemy in a good formation, and the formation was chaotic. Immediately, jervis ordered to form a battle column before and after the victory, and rushed to the south to launch a fierce attack.

Within five hours after the start of the battle, the Spanish ship was heavily shelled by the British ship, causing all three masts of the ship to break, and the hull was damaged and leaked.

At that time, the western fleet with downwind tried to meet the western fleet with headwind. If they meet, the consequences will be unimaginable. Nelson, who led three fleets at the end of the formation, realized that he had to stop the Spanish fleet from moving forward, so he turned around and rushed to the front of the Spanish fleet, breaking the Spanish fleet into two pieces, and the fore and aft could not care for each other!

In this way, the British fleet successfully stopped the Spanish fleet from joining forces. After some struggle, the Spanish fleet, which lost its fighting capacity, lowered the Spanish flag and chose to surrender.

Throughout the naval battle at Cape Saint Vincent, the British army was outnumbered. In the battle, four Spanish warships were captured, the 10 ship was seriously damaged, more than 5,000 people were killed and captured, and the British fleet suffered little loss. The victory of this war dealt a heavy blow to the Spanish-French alliance and proved to people that the Spaniards at sea were no match for the British.