Volta
Conflict23 October 1702

Battle of Vigo Bay

During the War of the Spanish Succession an Anglo-Dutch fleet destroyed the Spanish treasure fleet and its French escort sheltering in Vigo Bay — leaving a long legend of sunken treasure ships.

The Battle of Vigo Bay — the Anglo-Dutch fleet breaks the boom (c. 1705, Rijksmuseum)
The Battle of Vigo Bay — the Anglo-Dutch fleet breaks the boom (c. 1705, Rijksmuseum)

Unknown author · CC0 · Source

In 1702 the Spanish treasure fleet returning with American silver avoided the Anglo-Dutch fleet by putting into Vigo Bay in Galicia instead of Cádiz. On 23 October Admiral Sir George Rooke’s Anglo-Dutch fleet broke the boom across the Rande narrows at the head of the bay and burned or captured the French escort and the treasure ships.

Records say most of the silver had already been landed before the battle, but the tale of treasure ships lying on the bottom of the bay endured, and many salvage attempts followed. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas Jules Verne had Captain Nemo fund the Nautilus with this treasure.

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States at the time
Spain
Places
Rande Strait (Vigo Bay)

Themes that include this event

  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas1702 – 1958

    Jules Verne’s novel of Captain Nemo’s submarine Nautilus circling the world beneath the sea — the treasure ships of Vigo Bay, La Pérouse’s wrecks, the giant squid and the Atlantic cable behind it, and the people who really reached the South Pole and passed under the North Pole after the novel went there first