The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 2, Winter 2019 | Page 119

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vessels. 47 The British first encountered a
Spanish convoy, also heading to Gibraltar,
and the British easily captured the
smaller Spanish fleet. 48 Then, on January
16, 1780, the British encountered a
Spanish fleet sent out to intercept the
British relief expedition.
This second Spanish fleet was
also significantly weaker than the British
fleet as it contained only eleven
ships of the line and two frigates, and
thus the Spanish elected to flee. 49 Rodney
ordered the British fleet to pursue,
and in a desperate gamble on a stormy
night amidst the shoals and reefs, placed
his ships between the Spanish and the
coast. 50 The gamble was a success and
the British captured six Spanish ships
and destroyed a seventh. 51 Gibraltar
was relieved and Minorca was as well.
The Spanish, however, continued the
siege, which culminated in an attack on
September 13, 1782 that ended in utter
failure. 52 While Spain would continue to
pose a threat to the British, they never
seriously endangered the British fleet.
The entry of France and Spain, however,
had expanded the war from a colonial
rebellion into a global conflict, and
this altered the British war strategy. The
entry of the Netherlands into the war
against Great Britain, far from complicating
Britain’s position by bringing in
yet another naval power, actually aided
her war effort.
The entry of the Netherlands into
the conflict in late 1780 brought economic
ruin to the Dutch and solved a
dilemma for Great Britain. The French
figured out a means of circumventing
the British blockade of the English
Channel using a canal system, which al-