First Battle of Algeciras 1801
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 6 July 1801 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1801 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Spain | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Algeciras Campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | French First Republic, Kingdom of Spain, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.1333, -5.4292 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The First Battle of Algeciras was fought on 6 July 1801 between a Royal Navy squadron and a smaller French Navy squadron lying at anchor in the Spanish port of Algeciras during the Algeciras campaign of the War of the Second Coalition. The French squadron, under Counter-admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois, had stopped at Algeciras en route to the major Spanish naval base at Cádiz, where they were to form a combined French and Spanish fleet for operations against Britain and its allies in the French Revolutionary Wars. The British, under Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez, sought to eliminate the French squadron before it could reach Cádiz and form a force powerful enough to overwhelm Saumarez and launch attacks against British forces in the Mediterranean Sea. Although the British heavily outnumbered their opponents, Linois found a strong defensive position that combined Spanish coastal defences with the complicated shoals that obscured the entrance to Algeciras Bay. During the battle, Linois effectively utilized warping tactics to prevent the opponent from flanking his line.
Sailing directly from his blockade station off Cádiz, Saumarez's squadron consisted of six ships of the line, twice the number under Linois's command.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article First Battle of Algeciras (revision 1378412031), 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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- Siege of Algeciras (1309–1310) 1309 · 2 km
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Other battles of the Algeciras Campaign
Browse more: battles in Spain · Europe · 19th century battles