Spain and England were sworn enemies as far back as 1525, intermittent conflicts flaring up every few years, only for peace treaties to be signed and broken years later.
The conflict that came to be known as the Anglo-Spanish War of 1654 to 1660, was to be centered around the colonies in the West Indies, colonies that the Spanish owned and the British wanted.
Oliver Cromwell was the Lord Protector at the time, a term used for the head of state, and in this instance, it was his mission to win the war, to take what the Kingdom of England coveted. But this wasn’t just about land, it was a war driven by commerce, in this case, sugar.
Fully aware in 1655 that the British were planning to attack their colonies, the Spanish armadas were more than prepared for the incoming fleet under the command of General Penn and General Venerables. However, they were repulsed time and time again, achieving minor victories but on the whole, their attempted invasion and capture of the lucrative sugar islands were a failure.
On their return to England, both were flung into the Tower of London in disgrace.
This failure was to lead to the shores of Tenerife, and the battle for gold and silver in the small port of Santa Cruz.
Going to war was an expensive process and continually launching attacks on Spanish trade routes, was depleting the financial reserves of England’s coffers. The solution by Oliver Cromwell to bolster those reserves was to steal the vast sums of silver and gold bullion that traveled between Spain and the Americas every year.
By pulling off this daring heist would have the added benefit of crippling the Spanish economy and preventing them from waging a war against the Commonwealth of England so effectively.
With this plan in mind, Cromwell directed forty-six ships to set sail in 1656, led by Robert Blake. Initial plans to engage the enemy off the southern coast were ignored by the Spanish who refused to engage them offensively, opting instead to defend their shores until the enemy tired of the pointless onslaught.
Seeing that they were making no progress, Blake’s alternative plan was to sail to the port of Cadiz. Once there, he blockaded the port for several months, waiting patiently for the Spanish treasure ships to sail into his greedy little trap.
The Kingdom of Spain had other ideas.
The treasure ships were instructed to divert to another port and wait until more escort warships were available to protect them on the rest of their voyage. That safe haven was the port in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Upon hearing this news, Robert Blake marshaled all of the 46 vessels together and set sail for Tenerife. Arriving there just after the treasure ships on 19th April 1657, he concocted a daring plan to take the port and the gold.
His intention was to launch 12 of his ships against the Spanish flotilla hunkered down in the harbor, and leave the remaining vessels at sea until needed. He was fully aware that the port was heavily defended by gun batteries from the forts on shore, and that the two warships within were lined up with all canons facing towards the entrance to blast his ships to pieces.
Those two vessels were the Jesus Maria and the Concepcion, captained by D. Diego de Egues and D. Jose Centeno. Both experienced captains were confident they could hold their positions and repulse the would-be thieves, but both had made a fatal error of placing their ships between the battery on land and the invading force, and that was going to cost them dearly.
Blake quickly revised his plan on witnessing this and prepared his captains for the attack the following morning.
At 9 am on the 20 April 1657, Blake signaled his twelve frigates led by Rear Admiral Richard Stayner to advance, and the defenders responded ferociously as they approached the entrance.
Canons boomed broadside from the two Spanish warships, musketeers hailed bullets down onto the enemy from the castle and forts on land, splintering wood, piercing flesh, taking lives. The British ships didn’t even return one salvo, patiently maneuvering their ships alongside the Spanish galleons, whose position inadvertently protected the British frigates partially from the relentless bombardment from the land batteries.
When they had achieved their position, anchors were dropped, arms were taken up and they engaged the defenders.
At about the same time, Blake advanced with his bigger warships to attack the shore defenses with their canons. The resulting fire and smoke helped to obscure the British frigates from accurate bombardment from the fortifications on land. Those defenses, and the small flotilla of armed Spanish merchantmen, were soon crippled severely by the superior firepower of the British, and that left the two Spanish galleons alone to fight on bravely.
For two brutal hours, they held off the British, taking casualties but refusing to surrender despite being outgunned and outmatched.
The end was inevitable, though, when the Jesus Maria caught fire and was completely destroyed in the resulting explosion when the flames reached a powder magazine. That spurred the English sailors to launch boats and set alight other Spanish ships. It was complete bedlam, screams of the injured mixed with the cries of the battle.
By 3 pm, 6 hours after the conflict had started, it was all over. Sixteen Spanish ships had been sunk, were burning infernos, or had surrendered. The British had suffered 48 casualties, amazingly not losing even one vessel in the carnage.
Blake was hailed as a hero, had won a devastating victory, had defeated the enemy, but had not won the prize.
The Spanish had lost the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife but not the precious bullion.
Not long after arriving in the harbor, they had moved all the bullion ashore and hidden it well beyond the clutches of the British just in case they succeeded in taking the harbor.
Unfortunately, because the fleet had been destroyed, there was now no way to get the bullion from Tenerife to Madrid. This lack of transportation was to leave the Spanish economy in ruins, yet if the British had captured it their ability to wage war against the Spanish would have increased tenfold, and allowed them to decimate the country.
Historically, this had been a crucial battle for both countries, a pivotal point in history that had been fought in the small Canarian port of Tenerife.
The question is: did the treasure trove of silver and gold bullion ever leave the shores of Tenerife? Were they eventually shipped to Madrid?
Or are they still hidden in the mountains, forgotten in one of the many caves dotting the hillsides, its millions waiting to be discovered by a shrewd explorer?
