Battle of Cape Ortegal 1805
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 4 November 1805 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1805 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Europe) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Napoleonic Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | France, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 43.8180, -7.8578 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Cape Ortegal was the final action of the Trafalgar campaign, and was fought between a squadron of the Royal Navy and a remnant of the French fleet that had been defeated earlier at the Battle of Trafalgar. It took place on 4 November 1805 off Cape Ortegal, in north-west Spain and saw Captain Sir Richard Strachan defeat and capture a French squadron under Counter-admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley. It is sometimes referred to as Strachan's Action.
Dumanoir had commanded the van of the line at Trafalgar, and had managed to escape the battle having suffered relatively little damage. He initially attempted to continue the fleet's mission and enter the Mediterranean, but fearful of encountering strong British forces, changed his mind and headed north to skirt round Spain and reach the French Atlantic ports. On his journey he encountered two British frigates and drove them off; shortly afterwards he encountered a single British frigate and gave chase to it. The frigate led Dumanoir within range of a British squadron under Strachan, who was patrolling the area in search of a different French squadron. Strachan immediately gave chase, while Dumanoir fled from Strachan's superior force.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Cape Ortegal (revision 1378814962), 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.
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