The Battle of Cape Palos was the last battle of the

Second Barbary War The Second Barbary War (1815) or the U.S.–Algerian War was fought between the United States and the North African Barbary Coast states of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers. The war ended when the United States Senate ratified Commodore Stephen De ...

. The battle began when an American squadron under

Stephen Decatur Stephen Decatur Jr. (; January 5, 1779 – March 22, 1820) was an American naval officer and commodore. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Worcester County. His father, Stephen Decatur Sr., was a commodore in the Unite ...

attacked and captured an Algerine

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

Background

After capturing the Algerine

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

''Meshuda'' and sending her to Cartagena under the escort of USS ''Macedonian'', Stephen Decatur and his squadron continued on their way towards

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

. On June 19, 1815, they sighted the 22-gun Algerine brig ''Estedio''.

Battle

Decatur began pursuit of ''Estedio'' and chased her into shoal waters near the coast of Spain off

Cape Palos Cape Palos ( es, Cabo de Palos) is a cape in the Spanish municipality of Cartagena, in the region of Murcia. It is part of a small range of volcanic mounts that form a small peninsula. The Mediterranean islands of Grosa and the group known as ...

. Fearing that his larger vessels might get beached, he sent the smaller vessels in his squadron the USS ''Epervier'', USS ''Spark'', USS ''Torch'', and USS ''Spitfire'' to deal with the brig. Here the vessels fought a short engagement lasting a half an hour before the Algerines began to abandon their vessel and surrender. As ''Estedio''s crew members began to flee towards the cape in her boats, the American vessels began firing upon the boats, sinking one. The surviving 80 crew of ''Estedio'' surrendered. Besides the 80 captured, ''Estedio'' lost at least 23 men killed.

Aftermath

After the battle a prize crew took ''Estedio'' to Cartagena, where Spanish authorities interned her. They returned her to Algiers at the end of the war, but then on 18 July 1815 the Algerines declared war on Spain so the Spanish government seized both her and the frigate

Mashouda The ''Mashouda'' or ''Meshuda'' was the Regency of Algiers, Algerian fleet flagship of admiral Raïs Hamidou during the Second Barbary War. Stephen Decatur captured her in June 1815 at the Battle off Cape Gata. This created a favorable American po ...

, which Decatur had also captured, at Cartagena.''

Lloyd's List ''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...

'
№4997.
/ref> Decatur's squadron regrouped and continued on its way to Algiers to force Dey

Omar Agha Omar Agha was the Dey of the Deylik of Algiers from April 1815 to September 1817, after the assassination of his predecessor Mohamed Kharnadji on 7 April 1815, who had been in office for only 17 days. Early life He was born on the island of Le ...

to terms.

Sources

From Bunker Hill to Manila BayThe End of Barbary Terror
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Off Cape Palos History of Cartagena, Spain

Naval battles involving Ottoman Algeria Conflicts in 1815 1815 in Africa 1815 in the Ottoman Empire June 1815 events