Action of 17 July 1761 1761
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 17 July 1761 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1761 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Europe) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Seven Years' War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | France, Kingdom of Great Britain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.5020, -6.3890 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The action of 17 July 1761 was a naval engagement fought off the Spanish port of Cádiz between a British Royal Navy squadron and a smaller French Navy squadron during the Seven Years' War. British fleets had achieved dominance in European waters over the French following heavy defeats of French fleets in 1759. To maintain this control, British battle squadrons were stationed off French ports and ports in neutral but French-supporting Spain, which sheltered French warships. In 1761, two French ships, the 64-gun ship of the line Achille and the 32-gun frigate Bouffone, were blockaded in the principal Spanish naval base of Cádiz, on the Southern Atlantic coast of Spain.
Achille had departed the French Atlantic base of Brest in March, fighting through the blockade of that port, and was then trapped in Cádiz by a British squadron detached from the Mediterranean Fleet based at Gibraltar comprising ships of the line HMS Thunderer and HMS Modeste, frigate HMS Thetis and sloop HMS Favourite, under the command of Captain Charles Proby on Thunderer. When the French ship attempted to leave, Proby gave chase, eventually catching them and bringing them to battle.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action of 17 July 1761 (revision 1370426027), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Cádiz (1669) 1669 · 1 km
- Siege of Cádiz 1810 · 8 km
- Battle of Cádiz (1656) 1656 · 10 km
- Cádiz expedition (1625) 1625 · 10 km
- Capture of Cádiz (1596) 1596 · 11 km
- Assault on Cádiz (1797) 1797 · 11 km
Other battles of the Seven Years' War
- Battle of Warburg 1760
- Battle of the Thousand Islands 1760
- Siege of Dresden 1760
- Siege of Glatz 1760
- Siege of Pondicherry (1760) 1760
- Battle of Grünberg 1761
- Battle of Langensalza (1761) 1761
- Battle of Villinghausen 1761
- Capture of Belle Île 1761
- Siege of Cassel (1761) 1761
All 102 battles of the Seven Years' War →
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