Second Battle of Cape Finisterre 1747
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 25 October 1747 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1747 | 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 | War of the Austrian Succession | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Great Britain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 42.8822, -9.4043 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The second battle of Cape Finisterre was a naval encounter fought during the War of the Austrian Succession on 25 October 1747. A British fleet of fourteen ships of the line commanded by Rear-Admiral Edward Hawke intercepted a French convoy of 250 merchant ships, sailing from the Basque Roads in western France to the West Indies and protected by eight ships of the line commanded by Vice Admiral Henri-François des Herbiers.
When the two forces sighted each other, Herbiers ordered the merchant ships to scatter, formed his warships into a line of battle and attempted to draw the British warships towards him. In this he was successful, the British advanced on the French warships, enveloped the rear of the French line and brought superior numbers to bear on the French vessels one at a time. Six of the French warships were captured, along with 4,000 of their seamen. Of the 250 merchant ships, only 7 were captured.
The British victory isolated the French colonies from supply and reinforcement. The war ended the following year and under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle France recovered those colonial possessions which had been captured in return for withdrawing from her territorial gains in the Austrian Netherlands (approximately modern Belgium and Luxembourg).
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Second Battle of Cape Finisterre (revision 1370736000), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Action of 20 October 1778 1778 · 9 km
- Action of 10 August 1805 1805 · 10 km
- Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805) 1805 · 11 km
- Battle of Muros Bay 1543 · 36 km
- Battle of Bayona Islands (1590) 1590 · 83 km
- Battle of Puente Sanpayo 1809 · 88 km
Other battles of the War of the Austrian Succession
- Raid on Lorient 1746
- Siege of Antibes 1746
- Siege of Brussels 1746
- Siege of Genoa (1746) 1746
- Siege of Namur (1746) 1746
- Battle of Assietta 1747
- Battle of Lauffeld 1747
- Siege of Bergen op Zoom (1747) 1747
- Siege of Genoa (1747) 1747
- Siege of Maastricht (1748) 1748
All 32 battles of the War of the Austrian Succession →
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