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The Action of 15 July 1798 was a minor naval battle of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought off the Spanish Mediterranean coast by the Royal Navy ship of the line HMS ''Lion'' under Captain Manley Dixon and a squadron of four Spanish Navy frigates under Commodore Don Felix O'Neil. ''Lion'' was one of several ships sent into the Western Mediterranean by Vice-Admiral Earl St Vincent, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet based at the Tagus in Portugal during the late spring of 1798. The Spanish squadron was a raiding force that had sailed from Cartagena in Murcia seven days earlier, and was intercepted while returning to its base after an unsuccessful cruise. Although together the Spanish vessels outweighed the British ship, individually they were weaker and Commodore O'Neil failed to ensure that his manoeuvrees were co-ordinated. As a result, one of the frigates, ''Santa Dorotea'', fell out of the line of battle and was attacked by ''Lion''. Despite ineffectual long-range gunfire towards the British ship by the remainder of the Spanish squadron, the isolated ''Santa Dorotea'' was rapidly forced to surrender, O'Neil eventually turning the other three frigates back towards Cartagena. Unopposed, Dixon was able to consolidate his prize and send it to St Vincent's fleet off Cadiz, where it was subsequently purchased into the Royal Navy. ''Lion'' remained in the Mediterranean during the year, later participating in the blockades of Malta and Alexandria. The Spanish, their seaports carefully guarded by Royal Navy squadrons, launched no further expeditions into the Mediterranean during the year. ==Background== At the start of 1798, the Mediterranean Sea was entirely under the control of the French Navy and their allies, including Spain, which had switched sides in the French Revolutionary Wars in late 1796 at the Treaty of San Ildefonso.〔Rose, p. 140〕 Denied access to deep water ports and adequate supplies, the Royal Navy fleet deployed in the Mediterranean under Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis was forced to withdraw to the nearest friendly fleet anchorage, at the mouth of the Tagus River in Portugal.〔Maffeo, p. 224〕 Although forced to retreat, Jervis' force was not defeated and on 14 February 1797 he achieved a victory over the Spanish Navy at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, capturing four Spanish ships of the line.〔Clowes, p. 318〕 A blockade of the Spanish Atlantic ports was instituted, especially Cadiz, the large southern fleet anchorage, and the Spanish did not again attempt to break out during the remainder of the year.〔 Early in 1798, rumours reached Jervis, recently ennobled as Earl St Vincent, of a buildup of French forces around the Mediterranean seaport of Toulon under General Napoleon Bonaparte. Similar rumours had reached the Admiralty in London, and St Vincent therefore sent Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson and three ships of the line to observe French activity.〔Clowes, p. 351〕 Nelson arrived too late however, and the French fleet had already sailed, carrying over 30,000 men into the Eastern Mediterranean. Nelson, joined by a fleet of ten ships sent by St Vincent under Captain Thomas Troubridge, pursued the French, but failed to learn of their destination before the French fleet captured Malta. Ten days later, Bonaparte sailed for Alexandria for the second stage of his operation and Nelson's fleet unwittingly passed his during the night, the British beating the French to Egypt but sailing off again before Bonaparte arrived.〔Adkins, p. 15〕 While Nelson was crossing the Mediterranean, St Vincent was taking advantage of the absence of enemy forces in the Western Mediterranean to deploy newly arrived warships to the region.〔Gardiner, p. 54〕 One of these vessels was the 64-gun ship of the line HMS ''Lion'', under the command of Captain Manley Dixon, who had been sent to St Vincent's fleet early in the year as a replacement for one of Troubridge's ships. Initially ordered to patrol the Spanish Mediterranean coast, ''Lion'' was cruising southeast of Cartagena, a port in the Spanish Region of Murcia at 09:00 on 15 July when four sails were spotted to the southeast.〔James, p. 225〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Action of 15 July 1798」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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