Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780) Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780) The Battle of Cape St. Vincent was a naval battle took place off the southern coast of Portugal on 16 January 1780 during the Anglo-Spanish War. A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a Spanish squadron under Don Juan de Lángara. The battle is sometimes referred to as the Moonlight Battle because it was unusual for naval battles in the Age of Sail to take place at night. It was also the first major naval victory for the British over their European enemies in the war and proved the value of copper-sheathing
Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1641) to reach Cádiz without losing a single vessel and put on alert the Marquis of Ayamonte and Don Gaspar Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán, 9th Duke of Medina Sidonia. Gijsels and Telles returned to Lisbon, where Telles was replaced by Tristão de Mendonça, former Ambassador to the Dutch Republic. The Portuguese fleet then sailed with the French fleet of the Marquis de Brézé, while the Dutch fleet set sail in order to intercept and capture the Spanish West Indies Fleet between the Azores and Cape St. Vincent. It was a hasty maneuver, since the Dutch ships had orders to return to