In 1797 Admiral Nelson,
commanding a fleet of eight men-o'war,
launched a bungling,
unsuccessful and ultimately
embarrassing attack on Santa
Cruz, that cost the lives of
many of his men and, more
famously, the admiral's right
arm.
The assault on Santa Cruz was
carried out after four years of
war against Spain, with the
intention of capturing New World
gold from the galleon San José
, currently sheltering in the
town's harbour. Nelson based his
battle plan on the successful
capture of Caprina the previous
September, and wrote that the
planned assault "could not
fail?[It will] immortalise the
undertakers, ruin Spain and has
every prospect of raising our
country to a higher pitch of
wealth than she has ever
attained".
On June 22 a party was landed
east of Santa Cruz, with the
intention of encircling the town
before battleships were moved
into bombarding position. But
the island's predictably
unsettled local weather
conditions, particularly strong
winds and swirls known by local
fishermen as "the white
sheet", caused the attack
to be slowed down, removing the
element of surprise and causing
panic and a mass exodus of the
town's populace and
administration to La Laguna.
Nevertheless, the landing
party stuck to its plans and
laboured up the loose rocky
slopes of Jurada, mistakenly
assuming this hill to be an
extension of a ridge. Tired and
frustrated, the men camped on
top, positioning and firing
their artillery at the town and
its hastily assembled militia,
both of which were out of range.
Despite the failure of his
landing-party's mission, Nelson
decided to continue with a full
frontal attack. Under heavy
cannon fire from the shore's 84
guns, the British landing force
separated along the seafront in
some disarray, unable to
communicate with each other, or
retaliate thanks to damp
gunpowder. Many of Nelson's men
were sucked into the town's dark
alleys to be picked off by
snipers, but the Admiral, never
one to shrink from the action,
was among the second wave of
landing craft. He was about to
land when he was struck by
grapeshot on his right arm,
shattering the bone and severing
a major artery. By all accounts,
Nelson bore this stoically, his
first action being to switch his
sword to his good hand, even
before the life-saving
tourniquet had been strapped to
his arm.
Returning to his own ship,
Nelson sent a message to the
ship's surgeon to ready his
instruments, knowing that he
must lose his arm, and that the
sooner it was off the better.
Nevertheless, on arrival at the
ship's surgery, Nelson is said
to have insisted on waiting in
line for treatment, rather than
pulling rank on the other
wounded. Within half an hour of
the amputation, the admiral was
up, giving orders and practising
his left-handed signature for an
ultimatum demanding the town
give up the galleon. The letter
would never be sent, however,
since by daylight a boat
returned from the shore
informing him that all seven
hundred English on shore had
holed up in the Convent of Santo
Domingo and decided to surrender
on condition that they would be
returned to their ships
accompanied by "full
military honours with beating of
drums, flags and arms ?".
This Governor Don Antonio Gutiérrez
of Santa Cruz granted, lending
the attackers boats with which
to return to their ships, having
given treatment to their
wounded.
In recognition of this
honourable conduct, Nelson sent
the Spaniard a gift of beer and
cheese, a gesture which was
returned by sending back a
barrel of Malmsey wine. With
only a dozen Spanish dead, over
one hundred and fifty English
killed, a further hundred
wounded and his enterprise
having failed, Nelson left the
scene deeply regretful of his
misjudgement and depressed that
the whole affair and his own
disablement might spell the end
of his naval days.
