Fogbank Perspectives: Odyssey Marine and the Commercial Concept of ...

by David Pelfrey

For several years now, I have been engaged off and on, researching the history of what to Americans was a minor engagement between British and Spanish frigate squadrons off the coast of Portugal, October 5th, 1804. The action, known as the Battle of Cape St. Mary's, actually destroyed the uneasy peace that ensued in Europe between Revolutionary France and Great Britian after the Treaty of Amiens (25 March, 1802). In practical terms, the British interception of the four Real Armada frigates represented the end of an era for Bourbon Spain and regular specie shipments from the Empires New World mines and mints. The squadron to which Neustra Senora de Mercedes belonged was the last of its kind that the world would see: a Spanish treasure fleet moving bullion from the New World Viceroyalties to the Iberian kingdoms: after 1804, the Spanish moto During the intercept and subsequent action between the British squadron under Captain Graham Moore and the Spanish frigates, the Real Armada frigate...

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