Just recently Carolyn and I spent just over a week catching some winter sun in Tenerife which is a marvellous place to just kick-back and relax, as well as enjoying plenty of walking and exploring along with a bit of fine dining to keep our strength up, and for me in particular another opportunity to explore some military history specifically around the three battles against the English/British that took place in the waters just of Santa Cruz the capital of the island of Tenerife, and one of the capitals of the Canary Islands, along with Las Palmas.
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| JJ's Wargames: JJ's on Tour - Tenerife and the Battles of Santa Cruz (Part One). |
In the first part of this post I looked at the history of the three battles, some of the controversy about the first and specifically looking at items held in the Military Museum that are linked to the most famous of the three, Nelson's attack in 1797 during which the famous British admiral would lose his arm, see the link above.
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| Some very nice looking models of the three ships that Columbus made his first journey to America, La Pinta, La Niña and La Santa Maria. I am hesitant to mention his 'discovery' of America as I have been to Iceland where they celebrate Leif (the Lucky) Erikson who is recorded in the Icelandic Sagas to have discovered Vinland, modern day Newfoundland, and Norse settlements dating back to c1021 have been discovered there indicating the first European presence in North America some 500 years before Christopher Columbus. |
In this post I thought I would conclude by looking at some of the other items held in the Military Museum that grabbed my attention, together with a look around the town at what remains of the history today and a brief look at some of the other attractions that Tenerife entertained us with during our short break.
The first galleries in the old fortress house some interesting models and maps and guns covering Spain's early involvement in the age of discovery during the 15th century, bringing back memories of my visit to the Lisbon Maritime Museum last year, covering the similar history in Portugal.
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| JJ's Wargames: JJ's on Tour - Portugal 2025, Lisbon, Part 2, The Lisbon Navy Museum. |
These fine models are illustrative of the first Spanish ships that established the Spanish empire in the Americas and with the conquest and occupation of Tenerife between 1494-96 and the establishment of the island as an important base between the new colonies and mainland Spain.
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| Juan Sebastián Elcano, the intrepid captain of the carrack Victoria and the first man to circumnavigate the Earth 1519 to 1522. |
The Victoria or Nao Victoria was a carrack famed as the first ship to successfully circumnavigate the world, and was part of the Spanish expedition to the Moluccas (now Indonesia's Maluku Islands) commanded by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
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| The Victoria was part of an expedition to the Moluccas that began from Seville on 10th August 1519 with five ships, however, only two of the ships reached their goal , and thereafter, Victoria was the only ship to complete the return voyage, crossing uncharted waters of the Indian Ocean under Juan Sebastián de Elcano's command to sail around the world. |
Along with the four other ships, the expedition's flagship and Magellan's own command, the carrack Trinidad, the carracks San Antonio, and Concepción, and the caravel Santiago, she was given to Magellan by King Charles I of Spain (later Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire) and was an 85-ton ship with an initial crew of about 42.
Gálvez carried out a masterful military campaign and defeated the British colonial forces at Fort Bute, Baton Rouge, and Natchez in 1779, with the Battle of Baton Rouge, fought on 21st September 1779, freeing the lower Mississippi Valley of British forces and relieving the threat to the capital of Louisiana, New Orleans.
In 1782, forces under Gálvez's overall command captured the British naval base at Nassau on New Providence Island in the Bahamas without a shot being fired, however, Gálvez's was angry that the operation had proceeded against his orders and ordered the arrest and imprisonment of Francisco de Miranda, aide-de-camp of Juan Manuel Cajigal, the commander of the expedition, with Miranda later explaining Gálvez's actions as stemming from jealousy of Cajigal's success.
This map dating from 1779 captured my interest, showing the territory between 19 and 45 degrees north and latitudes 251 and 290 degrees east, containing the Provinces of old and new California, Sonora, Nueva Vizcaya, New Mexico, Coahuila and Texas and prepared for the Governor of New Mexico in that year for an expedition against the Comanche Nation.
The mighty Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad, nicknamed La Real, was the largest warship in the world when launched on the 20th March 1769, originally mounting 112 guns, which was increased between 1795 and 1796 to 130 guns by closing in the spar deck between the quarterdeck and forecastle.
She was the most heavily armed ship in the world when rebuilt, and bore the most guns of any ship of the line outfitted in the Age of Sail, however she was not a popular command among senior Spanish flag officers as due to her great bulk, her helm was unresponsive in light winds.
In March 1780, Gálvez recaptured Mobile from the British at the Battle of Fort Charlotte, but perhaps Gálvez's most important military victory over the British forces occurred on 8th May 1781, when he attacked and took by land and by sea Pensacola, the British (and formerly, Spanish) capital of West Florida from General John Campbell of Strachur, the loss of both Mobile and Pensacola leving the British with no bases along the Gulf coast.
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| The siege of Pensacola, fought from March 9 to May 10, 1781, was the culmination of Spain's conquest of West Florida during the Gulf Coast Campaign of the American War of Independence. The siege was commanded by Bernardo de Gálvez, whose nearly 8,000 troops ultimately overran the British forces in the region, and the success of the siege resulted in Gálvez' promotion to governor of West Florida and Louisiana. |
In 1782, forces under Gálvez's overall command captured the British naval base at Nassau on New Providence Island in the Bahamas without a shot being fired, however, Gálvez's was angry that the operation had proceeded against his orders and ordered the arrest and imprisonment of Francisco de Miranda, aide-de-camp of Juan Manuel Cajigal, the commander of the expedition, with Miranda later explaining Gálvez's actions as stemming from jealousy of Cajigal's success.
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| Gálvez at the siege of Pensacola "Por España y por el Rey, Gálvez en América" (2015), by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau. |
The King of Spain in recognition of Gálvez's exploits, granted him the title of Count and his coat of arms bears the motto 'Yo Solo' (I Alone), whist George Washington acknowledged in various writings the importance of the second battle front against the British created by Gálvez.
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| Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad |
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| My own interpretation of the Santísima Trinidad which I built in 2020 for my Trafalgar collection JJ's Wargames - Santisima Trinidad |
Santísima Trinidad was captured by the Royal Navy on 21st October 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar but was scuttled the next day.
There was no reference to it, but I can only assume the block pictured next to the model is from the great ship.
Another famous Spanish participant in the Battle of Trafalgar was the 74-gun third-rate ship San Juan Nepomuceno launched in 1765 from the royal shipyard in Guarnizo (Cantabria), and named after a saint (John of Nepomuk).
At Trafalgar San Juan Nepomuceno was one of the last ships still fighting after most of the French ships had surrendered and most of the Spanish ships had either been captured or had yielded.
Her commander, Don Cosme Churruca, had previously ordered the flag to be nailed to the highest mast, and as the hours passed Churruca, whose leg had been torn off by a cannonball, the deck of his ship covered by the blood of his wounded and dead seamen, continued to stubbornly order his ship's batteries to fire.
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| The death of the Spanish brigadier Cosme Damián Churruca (1761-1805), who died during the Battle of Trafalgar while commanding the 74-gun ship San Juan Nepomuceno - Eugenio Álvarez Dumont. |
Mortally wounded, the Basque-born Churruca prohibited his officers from surrendering and ordered them to continue returning fire whilst he remained breathing, and his officers kept their word, even after Churruca died and command of the ship had been passed to the second-in-command, Francisco de Moyna, who continued the fight until he himself was killed.
He was replaced by the next officer in command who also refused to surrender, however, unable to break the circle of fire formed by the six enemy ships, including Defiance, Tonnant and Dreadnought, and in order to prevent the ship from sinking with all the wounded trapped below, the last officer left alive in San Juan Nepomuceno yielded with over 400 dead and injured on board.
Again in 2020, I was very busy constructing my Spanish fleet that included my interpretation of this famous ship and you can see more about her and my final build in the link below.
The keyboard in a wooden box with its series of cogs and plug points, seen below, should be very familiar to anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the breaking of the German WWII codes by the hard work of British code breakers and cypher clerks at Bletchley Park and most famously the involvement of the Cambridge mathematician Alan Turing.
During the Spanish Civil War, the Third Reich secretly gave several 'Enigma' machines to the army of General Franco, and A-1232 was one on them, and with likely just 300 similar machines left today from the 200,000 units of all models produced during WWII this is quite a rare item to see; and I myself have only seen one other which accompanied a visit by GCHQ staff members to my son's school on a recruitment visit to the A-Stream class of pupils taking maths.
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| The map illustrating Nelson's assault plans over the 21st to the 25th of July and outlining the extent of the old town is here showing the four points of interest I opted to go and look at that featured in Nelson's battle to capture the town. |
Having seen what I wanted in the Military Museum, I was keen to explore Santa Cruz and find the buildings that were contemporary to the battles fought off and on its waterfront, and so we went back to the car and headed off to the underground carpark by the cruise ship terminal.
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| This more detailed map of the British landing on 25th July 1797 illustrates the locations of the sites visited and there relation to one another. Map - 1797 Nelson's Year of Destiny, Colin White. |
San Cristobal Castle and Alameda Gardens
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| San Cristobal Castle and Alameda Gardens - Nicolás Alfaro In this view of the gardens the mole is obscured by the back wall of San Cristobal Castle and Nelson's party would have landed on the small beach to the right of the gardens. |
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| A similar view of the Alameda Gardens in this photograph from 1876, with a clearer view of the small beach at the base of the mole to right of picture. |
The carpark is very handily right next to and under the old Alameda Gardens built just ten years before Nelson's attack, and being right next to the remains of San Cristobal Castle serves as a very useful point to workout where the old mole and waterfront used to be to orientate oneself to the action that occurred in the vicinity.
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| A perfect spot for any visitor to Santa Cruz looking to orientate themselves with the 1797 British attack led by Nelson is the Alameda Gardens ornate gate, which provides a perfect link to the events of over 200 years ago and with the changes wrought to the waterfront allows one to estimate where Nelson was wounded in the early hours of the 25th July. |
It was at this point at 1.00 a.m. on the morning of the 25th July that Nelson's division of boats closed to within a few hundred yards of the mole, seemingly unspotted, the bomb-ship Terror having been lobbing shells at Paso Alto for over two hours previous, hoping to draw Spanish troops away from Santa Cruz, until at that moment cries of alarm were heard from Spanish sentries on the mole and some ships moored nearby.
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| The view from the Alameda Gardens gate across the ornate water feature built over the old water front area on land reclaimed in the early 20th century, the outline of the bastion of the Castillo de San Cristóbal, demolished in the work, can be seen outlined in the concrete, easily seen during our visit without the normal water covering it. |
Alarm bells rang and within minutes a hail of gunfire swept the water from the shore defences and a veritable whirlwind of cannister and musket balls engulfed the British boats as they approached the landing.
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| Captain William Henry Webley circa 1809 - Artist Unknown |
Lieutenant Henry Webley, First Lieutenant aboard HMS Zealous described the scene in a letter home to his mother:
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| The Mole at Santa Cruz - On the right is the main citadel, Castillo de San Cristóbal, while flanking fire came from two gun batteries just out of picture and on the left, in addition Spanish guns had been dragged and emplaced to fire straight down the mole, turning the area into a killing ground. The beach on which Nelson's party landed is in the foreground. |
As Nelson clambered forward from his barge, and in the act of drawing his sword, his right arm was struck a hammer blow, as a grape shot hit him just above the right elbow, smashing the bone and severing the main artery.
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| Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson wounded at Tenerife - Richard Westall |
Nelson collapsed into the bottom of the boat crying 'I am a dead man', blood pumping from his wound, and if the bleeding had continued at that rate he would have been right; however the prompt action of his stepson, 17-year old Josiah Nesbit, gripped Nelson's arm above the wound, and with two necker-chiefs, bound the wound tightly.
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| Affair of Tenerife. Nelson’s life was probably saved by his step-son, 17-year old Josiah Nisbet, who had the forethought to place a tourniquet on Nelson’s shattered arm before he was taken back to HMS Theseus. This image is clearly romanticized when compared to accounts, however Nelson astonished witnesses with his resilience to the shock of his wounding with not only climbing the side of the ship under his own power, but insisting upon picking up survivors of Fox as his boat rowed for Theseus. |
Later Nelson readily acknowledged that he owed his life to this action.
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| By taking a line of bearing from the point of the castle bastion it was a simple matter of guessing where the old beach on which Nelsons barge landed was located and the lamppost provides a marker for a likely spot where he was hit. |
The outline of the bastion of the Castillo de San Cristóbal was set up during the remodelling of the water feature on the Plaza de Espana, in 2006, that the remains of the old fortress were rediscovered in its construction, and on the opposite side is the entrance to the small museum set up underground allowing visitors to see the formidable strength of its walls from what remains together with models of the castle and other forts, and an important relic from the battle.
The El Tigre Cannon forms the centre piece display to the museum and is the gun claimed to have wounded Nelson as he attempted to clamber from his barge, sword in hand, and hit by a cannister round fired from this cannon.
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| El Tigre Cannon - the gun claimed to have wounded Nelson. |
It makes for a great story and I cannot blame Santa Cruz for claiming a part of the Nelson mythology, but with all the musket and cannon rounds likely flying about in the darkness as Nelson's party closed with the beach area close to the mole, it seems unlikely that the specific round fired can be definitely attributed to this weapon, but hey, as I say, it makes for a great story.
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| Nelson's attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife on July 25th, 1797. The 'Tigre' Cannon emplacement - Jordi Bru. |
Just as interesting as El Tigre is the remains of Castillo de San Cristóbal and precisely the lower stonework of its formidable walls that resisted the attacks of Blake, Jennings and Nelson.
The Church of our Lady of the Conception
Returning to ground level we headed off on foot through the narrow streets of modern day Santa Cruz to follow the progress of the left flank British attacks as Nelson and Troubridge failed to press their attack against Castillo de San Cristóbal with the one building standing that serves as an excellent landmark to the fighting, namely the Church of our Lady of the Conception where Captain's Hood and Miller landed and managed to fight their way ashore despite their disorder.
With the darkness and their unfamiliarity with the maze of streets and the enemy harassing them at every corner, they were soon hopelessly lost, and still taking casualties they blundered into the square in front of the church.
Lieutenant Henry Webley described the nature of the fighting as the British landing parties struggled to fight their way into the town;
'. . . notwithstanding [the heavy fire of cannon and musketry] we landed 500 men in a very bad surf, which were with difficulty collected by light, having landed in different places, so that nothing material took place during the Night but continual skirmishing in the streets and the satisfaction of the inhabitants firing at us from holes and corners'.
A Spanish officer of Irish descent Bernado Cólogan recorded his impression of the fighting;
'Our people threw themselves into all the alley-mouths leading to these streets, in bands of from forty to sixty soldiers, some of them having a field gun discharging grape. As soon as the enemy showed his face, these were fired and felled a number of them'.
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| The Church of our Lady of the Conception seen across the bridge over the Barranco (River) de Santos. |
Sadly the convent was demolished, and the site is now occupied by a theatre. The church, now a cathedral, however survives and as well as providing a reference building to the 1797 battle also houses the tomb of General Gutiérrez, who died on the island just two years after his victory.
There is also another building that is contemporary to the 1797 battle that is close by, namely the Palacio de Carta in Plaza de la Candelaria, where Hood & Troubridge signed the truce and then paraded through the plaza.
The Palacio de Carta and Plaza de la Candelaria
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| The British return to their ships, 25th July 1797 - Nicolás Alfaro y Brieva The Palacio de Carta is on the left of the picture. |
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| The same view as above of the Palacio de Carta in Plaza de la Candelaria in 2026. |
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| If you look closely you can see the roofed tower structure peeking above the front of the building and illustrated in Nicolás Alfaro y Brieva's picture. |
The Tourist Information Office area is well worth a visit just to see the glories of this building with its intricately carved wooden facias and balustrades, a feature of the old architecture on the island, together with this Romanesque open air central garden feature, and there are information panels explaining the history of the building.
The fort today is situated in a run down commercial area of the town, looking somewhat unloved and uncared for with litter lying around and a dosser's old sleeping bag left under a public bench, but given the historical relevance of the place it's well worth a visit.
A quick look over the wall and around its lower rampart, now with a seemingly disused play park on part of the reclaimed land that has altered the waterfront positioning since 1797 gives a hint at the sturdiness of this position and explains the effort Nelson's crews went to constructing scaling ladders in the first attempt to take this place on the night of the 21st July.
The fort's close proximity to the old town outskirts makes it obvious why Nelson and his captains considered this a good place to capture as the centre of their planned beachhead, and later construction of a heavy gun battery to bombard the town into submission, rather than the frontal assault on San Cristobal that they initially discounted but rather foolishly attempted on the 24th July, against an enemy defence well aware of their presence and on its guard.
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| View of Santa Cruz Town and Bay. This watercolour, painted on the spot by Lieutenant Henry Webly shows the British frigates and small landing boats on the morning of July 22, 1797, prior to the second landing attempt. In the centre can be seen the distinctive conical shape of La Altura, with the Castillo de Paso Alto at its foot. |
The first attack on Paso Alto was in fact the only real chance of a British victory with a total landing force of about 900 men (200 from the Theseus, 270 from the Zealous and 150 from the Culloden with a further 100 men each from the three frigates).
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| Captain Thomas Troubridge of the Culloden |
There is the famous account of his first lieutenant, Anselm Griffiths, advising his captain that they were likely to collide with one of the enemy ships as they closed on the gap between the two Spanish divisions. ‘Can’t help it Griffiths’, replied the indomitable Troubridge, ‘let the weakest fend off’, this before the Culloden 74-guns opened fire at the Spanish Admiral Moreno’s flagship the Principe de Asturias 112-guns, with a perfectly disciplined broadside at point blank range.
Of course hindsight is one-hundred percent correct and Troubridge could not have known how weak the Spanish garrison was that faced him, and apparently he was likely below par having, according to Captain Miller of the Theseus, 'lately been very ill' and so it would be very harsh to second guess his decision making that day.
On the afternoon of the 27th July 1797, the British squadron finally left the bay of Santa Cruz and headed north for Cadiz, the frigate Emerald having already sailed carrying Nelson's official report and with it his first full-length hand written letter striking a rather despondent note to Admiral Jervis now that the exhilaration of combat was over and the scale of defeat had begun to sink in;
'You will excuse my scrawl, considering it is my first attempt . . . I am become a burthen to my friends and useless to my Country.'
After a tedious voyage, he finally rejoined the fleet off Cadiz on the 16th August, and still in the grips of his black mood, he wrote to his commander;
'A left-handed admiral will never again be considered as useful, therefore the sooner I get to a very humble cottage the better, and make room for a better man to serve the state'.
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| Admiral Sir John Jervis, Earl of St Vincent (1735-1823) - Lemuel Francis Abbott. |
However the new Lord St Vincent, having just received official notification of his new title was having none of Nelson's melancholy, writing in response;
'Mortals cannot command success; you and your Companions have certainly deserved it, by the greatest degree of heroism and perseverance that ever was exhibited'.
Nelson returned home to recover, reaching Spithead on September 1st 1797 welcomed by cheering crowds and then onto Bath on the 3rd September with the Bath Journal reporting;
'The Rear Admiral, who was received at Portsmouth with universal greeting, reached Bath on Sunday evening in good health and spirits, to the great joy of his Lady and venerable father, and the gratification of every admirer of British Valour'.
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In conclusion Carolyn and I had a fantastic winter break in Tenerife, managing to dodge the stormy weather that engulfed the island following our departure, and along with some great dining we managed to include plenty of walking that included a trip to the mighty volcano Mount Teide mentioned in part one of the post.
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| The volcanic cone of Mount Teide, the third highest volcano in the world, and still very active, but thankfully during our visit, sleeping. |
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| Raquel Welch in her prime on Tenerife circa 1966. |
The lower crater where a lot of the film was shot with Miss Welch providing a happy distraction from the incredible creatures that stalked the barren landscape of Mount Teide was immediately recognisable as the backdrop - sadly they don't make films like this anymore!
I hope you enjoyed this little adventure in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the exploration of its history.
The blog will be back to wargaming in the next post with more AWI showcasing to present, plus another battle from the Anglo-Dutch War by Captain Steve, so as always more anon.
JJ
The Trafalgar Companion - Mark Adkins
1797 Nelson's Year of Destiny - Colin White
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