Battle - 1721 - July 22 - Defending Havana

Ships in Action:
British Fleet

Captain the Baron Leo Davis - HMS Albion, Trinity second rate (Black Group)

Captain James Castor - HMS Leonidas, Hercules Heavy Frigate (White Group)

22 other British Captains

Spanish Fleet

24 Spanish Captains in three third rates and mostly heavy frigates.

Action Setup:
On the evening of July 22. 1721 I received reports of an impending attack on Havana. I ordered to make my Trinity Class second rate HMS Albion to be readied for battle and left Turtling Bay to join our defending force. Together with Captain James Castor I reached Havana just in time before the spanish attack fleet arrived.

The battle took place on the Wild Keys Map at night.

With four first rates one second rate and three third rates, plus a large detachement of heavy frigates, the british admirality was able to field an impressive fleet to defend this most important port. Our fleet Admiral was Captain Tikky. The spanish fleet consisted of two Wenden and one Valiant third rates and a mix of heavy frigates.

The Action Itself:
We positioned our fleet in the bay in front of the port entrance. The colossals formed a single tight line from the southern end of the bay up to the port defence gun emplacement. The fourth rates were ordered to stay on the starboard side of our colossal group as a reserve. The frigates had the task to circle clockwise and closely around our line to cover the colossals and to prevent any spike attacks on a single ship.

Just as we had formed our line, the spanish fleet appeard north west from our position. They sailed around the small fortress island and destroyed its gun emplacement. Then they sailed in a long line further south to prepare their attack on our position.

After they had organised their formation they sailed back north to engage us in a long range line fight. They tried to pick single targets out of our formation but thanks to our fast moving frigates and excellent blocking they were not able to sink any of our ships.

For about 30 minutes both fleets exchanged broadsides over distances of 650 to 700 yards without sinking any ships.

The spaniards now realised that they had no chance to break up our line this way, and tried a diversionary maneuver. One of their frigate groups sailed further north then it turned around and approached the front of our position. This way they were able to destroy our port defence guns. But this maneuver brought them in close range of some of our first rates, which were able to destroy a spanish Hercules Mastercraft Frigate with some full broad sides. At the same time a damaged spanish Valiant left the spanish battle line and sailed south to perform some repairs, for our luck its captain underestimated our range and came under fire of my Trinity and two Prince First rates, with some well aimed broadsides we were able to sink the Valiant.

Now the spanish fleet had lost two ships without doing any noteworthy damage to our fleet. They started to disengage from our line and formed a new triple line south of the fortress. There they waited for 20 minutes until the port entrance opened up.

We now realised that they wanted to try a last desperate charge at our position. Fleet Admiral Tikky ordered us to stay in our position, but to close all gaps, so that if the enemy fleet crashes right into us it would not be able to break through easily. Also our Frigates were ordered to engage the enemy ships in boarding combat as soon as possible, so that our Ships of the Line could sink the boarded ships quickly.

The spanish fleet sailed with full speed directly at the center of our line. While we unleashed deadly broadsides from our whole fleet on their leading ships. Soon both fleets crashed into each other and the within some minutes many spanish ships went down in flames or were boarded and sunk. But some of their ships were able to break through scattering our line. Now a large chaotic brawl started. About seven or nine spanish ships got sunk while the british fleet lost only three Frigates.

The surviving spanish ships were able to break through to the port entrance and dispatched their troops in the city. Our fleet now quickly followed into town, to defend its garrison. The spanish troops were able to kill four Town Lieutnants, before we were able to take them down in a short but intense pistol and sword fight.

After one our and thirty minutes of fighting the spanish forces were defeated and the port secured.

The Result:
British Losses

We lost only three frigates: a Hercules Mastercraft,a Hercules Heavy and a Mercy Naval Frigate

Spanish Losses

The spanish fleet lost about nine or twelve ships including some of their ships of the line, while the rest of their fleet was killed in the streets of Havana.

Lessons Learned:
This was a great victory for the british nation. Thanks to Admiral Tikky´s briliant defensive tactic of constantly rotating the frigates around the colossals, the spanish fleet had no other option then diving into our lines in a suicidal charge. This gave us the chance to cut down their forces to a number, which we could easily defeat in the city itself.

this image shows our defensive line with the frigates rotating around it.



The last spanish captains are cut down in the streets of Havana