Battle of Cape Spartel... four page "Extraordinary"...

Item # 559167

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November 08, 1782

THE LONDON GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY, London, Nov. 8, 1782 This four page "Extraordinary" contains several dispatches about the famous but indecisive naval battle between a Franco-Spanish fleet and a British fleet commanded by Lord Howe. The battle, according to a Wikipedia source, was part of a successful campaign by the British "...to maintain supply routes to Gibraltar, then under siege by the Bourbon armies as part of the American Revolutionary War."
     The content on the ftpg. begins with word that: "Captain Henry Duncan, of His Majesty's Ship the Victory, arrived this Morning with Dispatches from Lord Viscount Howe, and also Dispatches from Captain Curtis of the Brilliant, who commanded the Brigade of Seamen at Gibraltar..."
     Hereafter is an "Extract of a Letter from Lord Viscount Howe to Mr. Stephens, dated on Board the Victory, October 21, 1782, Cape Spartel E.N.E. 40 Leagues." On pg. 2 there is a second extract from Howe, dated October 24, 1782 that includes a "Return of the Killed and Wounded, from the Fire of the Combined Fleets, the 20th of October, 1782", all listed under "Line Of Battle", signed in type: Howe (see for portions).
     An "Extract of a Letter from Captain Curtis, of His Majesty's Ship Brilliant, to Mr. Stephens, Secretary of the Admiralty, dated Camp at Europa, Gibraltar, September 15, 1782" begins on pg. 3 and concludes on the bkpg. with a "State of the Combined Forces of the Enemy in the Bay of Gibraltar at the Time of the Attack of the Ten Battering Ships, on the 13th of September, 1782", plus a "List of the Spanish Battering Ships burnt before Gibraltar, on the 14th of September, 1782", each signed in type: Roger Curtis. Finally, there are two more extracts also from Curtis (see for portions).
     Complete in 4 pgs., the first leaf has four small holes in the left margin, some foxing, mostly in the margins.

Category: The 1600's and 1700's