Home Thoughts from the Sea

* See Google Maps. Cape St Vincent in Portugal, where in 1797 Sir John Jervis defeated a Spanish fleet during the French Revolutionary Wars. Following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1789, the enthusiasm of the new French government was such that they sought to export republicanism to their neighbours by any means possible. Sometimes the threat seemed worse than it was. See Jemima Fawr and the Last Invasion of Britain.

* Cape Trafalgar in Spain, where Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a Franco-Spanish fleet in 1805. See The Battle of Trafalgar. Although the states of the European Continent suffered far worse under Napoleon’s bid for a united Empire, Britain was always under threat and several invasions of England were planned; on one occasion, only rough seas prevented the French fleet from sailing. On England’s happy protection by the seas, see Fairest Isle.

* Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory, was captured in 1704 during The War of the Spanish Succession, two years after defeat at Battle of Cadiz (hence the appropriateness of the blood-red Bay); it was ceded to Britain in perpetuity when the war ended in 1713. Throughout the conflict, the invasion of England had been a very real possibility. From 1779 to 1783, during the American War of Independence, the residents and garrison of Gibraltar endured a siege by French and Spanish ships. It was a sacrifice that tied down enemy forces that might otherwise have been used to damaging effect elsewhere. Gibraltarians have been full British subjects since 1981.