Rande...

The Battle of Rande

In 1702, our coast was witness of one of the bloodiest naval battles in the European History. At that time, Europe was involved into a high dimension conflict in which was at stake the succession to the Crown of Spain. The possibility that Felipe de Anjou, grandson of the Sun King, would ascent the Spanish throne, provoked a vigorous reaction of the other powers, fearful to see jointed together the military and economic power of France and the great potential of the Spanish colonial empire.

On 11th June 1702, the Fleet of Indies set sail from Havana to Cadiz: 19 Spanish galleons escorted by 22 French vessels, shipping the most valuable cargo that had never crossed the Atlantic Ocean. But halfway through the voyage, they saw a very powerful Anglo-Dutch squadron waiting for them at Cabo San Vicente. So the admiral Manuel de Velasco, following the advice of a Galician navigator, set a course for the ria of Vigo, where they entered on 22nd September. The convoy looked for shelter in the inlet of San Simón, starting immediately with the preparations for the defence: the strait of Rande was obstructed by a barrier made with trunks, wires and little boats at the same time that recruited hurriedly soldiers to reinforce the two little fortresses placed in both sides of the strait. At the same time, 1200 wagons were confiscated to transport the goods to Madrid.

Rooke spent exactly a month to ascertain the Fleet of Silver whereabouts and on 22nd October the biggest squadron ever seen entered the ria. The first aim of the Anglo-Dutch was to storm the castles of Rande and Corveiro, what they achieved the following day without great difficulties. Then the big battle started. The French artillery was able to contain the adversary in the first attacks. It was like that until the “Torbay”, the British flagship, armed with pickaxes, succeeded in breaking the barrier that obstructed the pass of the strait. The rival fleet was able to enter to the end of the ria, where the only option was the boarding due to the lack of space to manoeuvre. The fierce hand-to-hand fight was combined with the use of numerous incendiary materials, causing a nightmarish sight. The numeric difference between both squadrons was very big, and although the French fight bravely, the defeat was unavoidable. Then the commander of the Spanish merchant fleet, lacking in means of defence, ordered to sink the vessels in order to avoid them to finish in the hands of the enemy.

 It has been speculated a lot about the possibility that the Spanish galleons had sunk shipping innumerable wealth, founded so the legend of the treasure of Rande.

Until today, there have been numerous expeditions to look for it. It is probably that the most valuable part of the cargo had been carried yet to the inland of Spain during the month when the fleet was in the ria. However, we can’t dismiss that an important part of the cargo would still be in the hold of the ships. Evidence of that are the 4 millions of pesos taken by the enemy that together with seven warships and six galleons constituted a considerable booty.

There is no doubt that the battle of Rande was a slaughter. From the Franco-Spanish side, there were 2000 casualties, while the British and Dutch death were about 800. It is clear that it was a disaster for the defeated ones. French lost their best warships and Spanish stayed without ships to compete in the conquest of Indies. And while our country tried to forget soon about the bitter defeat (what contributed not few in the relative success in the total balance of the war that allowed the consolidation of the Borbon family in the throne), the victory of England and Holland reached a great spreading in all Europe, and was celebrated for a long time. The Vigo street in plain centre of London, still remembers the British the great importance of this fact of arms has, the same as Julius Verne immortalized the treasures of Rande in his novel “20.000 leagues of a submarine voyage”.