Francisco de Alcedo y Bustamante

Notes on Officer

Google translation of the Spanish language original

Alsedo and Bustamante, Francisco de. Santander (Cantabria), 3.IX.1758 – Trafalgar (Cádiz), 21.X.1805. Navy Captain, sailor.

He was born into a high-ranking family: his father, Francisco de Alsedo y Agüero, Knight Commander of the Order of Santiago, Colonel of the Royal Armies of His Majesty, was Governor of Ocaña and of the four coastal towns, in Laredo, died when he was very young; Her mother, María Antonia de Bustamante, Marquise of Villatorre and Viscountess of Cabañas, was characterized by her religiosity and dedication to works of charity.

The year following his birth, specifically on August 10, saw the premature death of King Ferdinand VI and the arrival in Spain, from Naples, of his half-brother Carlos III who, given the hostile attitude of the British government of William Pitt, established with France —very much in need of Spanish intervention in the Seven Years' War to alleviate the adverse course that the contest was taking for its interests— the third Family Pact (1761) that led to the declaration of war on England on December 2. January 1762, the year in which Havana surrendered to the English on August 13 and Manila surrendered on September 22. On March 10, 1762, after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the Seven Years' War ended. On April 13, 1766, the riot against Esquilache broke out in Madrid, which ended with his fall. In April 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from Spain and on May 28, Jorge Juan managed to culminate the contacts prior to a peace treaty with Morocco, which failed to stop the attacks and coups by more or less uncontrolled forces against the Jesuits. Spanish squares of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de los Vélez. On September 19, 1773, Sidi Mohamet declared war on Spain and during the winter near Melilla and artillery shots were exchanged in the other two places. In 1775 the situation with Morocco was restored and with the desire to take advantage of the troops that had been prepared, an expedition was organized against Algiers that ended in failure. Jorge Juan manages to culminate the contacts prior to a peace treaty with Morocco that does not manage to stop the attacks and coups by more or less uncontrolled forces to the Spanish squares of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de los Vélez. On September 19, 1773, Sidi Mohamet declared war on Spain and during the winter near Melilla and artillery shots were exchanged in the other two places. In 1775 the situation with Morocco was restored and with the desire to take advantage of the troops that had been prepared, an expedition was organized against Algiers that ended in failure. Jorge Juan manages to culminate the contacts prior to a peace treaty with Morocco that does not manage to stop the attacks and coups by more or less uncontrolled forces to the Spanish squares of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de los Vélez. On September 19, 1773, Sidi Mohamet declared war on Spain and during the winter near Melilla and artillery shots were exchanged in the other two places. In 1775 the situation with Morocco was restored and with the desire to take advantage of the troops that had been prepared, an expedition was organized against Algiers that ended in failure. Sidi Mohamet declared war on Spain and during the winter near Melilla and artillery shots were exchanged in the other two places. In 1775 the situation with Morocco was restored and with the desire to take advantage of the troops that had been prepared, an expedition was organized against Algiers that ended in failure. Sidi Mohamet declared war on Spain and during the winter near Melilla and artillery shots were exchanged in the other two places. In 1775 the situation with Morocco was restored and with the desire to take advantage of the troops that had been prepared, an expedition was organized against Algiers that ended in failure.

Alsedo was educated at the Royal Seminary of Nobles, where he received careful instruction that included learning Latin, English, French and Exact Sciences. On April 27, 1774, he entered the Cádiz marine guard company, where he was an outstanding student. After completing his studies, he embarked on the ship Paula of the squadron that, under the command of General Arce, led a convoy from Cádiz to Cartagena, where Alsedo passed to the Gamo jabequeof the squadron of Lieutenant General Pedro de Castejón that on July 8, 1775 beat the fortresses of Algiers to protect the landing and re-embarkation of the forces commanded by the Count of Orelly. In this operation, Alsedo showed his courage by giving chase, in command of his ship's launch and under fire from all the artillery in the square, an enemy ship that was heading to port. Once the operations were over, he successively embarked on the frigate Santa Marta and on the jabeque Atrevido, from which he disembarked on October 21, 1775 in Ferrol.

In 1776 he embarked on the frigate Dorotea in which he sailed through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico carrying flows between the ports of Havana and Veracruz, and at the beginning of 1779 he embarked on the frigate Nuestra Señora de la O in which he carried out several war commissions for those seas.

In April of this year, Carlos III decided to intervene alongside France in aid of the thirteen English colonies in North America, in revolt against the metropolis since 1776. In July 1779, Spanish troops began the blockade of Gibraltar.

On October 16, 1780, Alsedo was part of the expedition organized by General Bernardo Gálvez, Governor of Louisiana, who, under the command of squad leader José Solano, left Havana to take Pensacola and end the English occupation of western Florida. A strong storm forced the ships to disperse and prevented the mission from being carried out. The Alsedo frigate, which was about to be shipwrecked, managed to return to Havana on November 17 in the company of the frigate Santa Cecilia and the packet Pío after capturing, after a hard fight, two English frigates that, armed in privateering and with merchandise, they sailed from Jamaica to New York.

In October 1781, he returned to Cádiz and embarked on the ship San Vicente of the squadron commanded by General Luis de Córdova y Córdova, where he stayed until March 20, 1782, when he passed to the ship San Dámaso, flagship of the squadron of twelve ships of which Squadron Chief Antonio Osorno was Commander General and who joined Rear Admiral Conde de Guichen's to participate in the expedition to the Islas de Madera, current Islas de la Bahía (Honduras), and Puerto Santo ( Venezuela).

Subsequently, both squadrons, together with Luis de Córdova's, took part in the last campaign in the English Channel and on September 13 in the unsuccessful assault attempt with floating batteries on Gibraltar. In this last action, Alsedo was wounded when, in command of his ship's armed launch, he was protecting said batteries during the attack. Despite his state, he did not consent to withdraw from the fight until it ended the morning of the following day.

Recovered from his wound, he embarked on the ship San Pascual as an assistant to Lieutenant General Juan de Lángara, whose squadron was planning to leave for America.

On December 21, 1782, he was promoted to the position of lieutenant for his distinguished merits.

Juan de Lángara's squadron did not leave for America as planned and Alsedo successively embarked on the ships San Fermín and Santa Isabel, from which he disembarked with a license for Santander. When his leave was over, he returned to the service and was assigned to the battalions and brigades of the navy, commanded at that time by officers of the general corps of the army. In June 1986 he was appointed a lieutenant in the company of midshipmen.

At the beginning of 1787 he embarked on the frigate Paz as command officer of the squadron chief Gabriel de Aristizábal and was entrusted with the command of the marine guards of the Ferrol company, stationed in the squadron of evolutions of Juan de Lángara.

On December 14, 1788, Carlos III died in Madrid and was succeeded by his son, Carlos IV. On July 14, 1789, the storming of the Bastille took place in Paris and the French Revolution began.

On June 14, 1791, Alsedo was promoted to frigate captain and embarked on the ship Europa as commander of the marine guards stationed in the squadron of General Francisco de Borja. He then went to Cádiz to embark on the ship Salvador as first assistant to the majority of the squadron of Lieutenant General Marqués del Socorro, José Solano y Bote, participated in the Cape Finisterre campaign and returned to Cádiz, successively serving as senior assistant to the generals Gabriel de Aristizábal, Francisco de Borja and Felipe López de Carrizosa. On July 12, 1792, he was appointed lieutenant of the company of marine guards of Ferrol.

On May 15, 1793, the year in which the French Convention declared war on Spain, Alsedo embarked on the ship San Eugenioas major general of the squadron of Lieutenant General Gabriel de Aristizábal, destined for North America, which, based in Puerto Cabello, had as its mission the protection of Spanish commerce, the conduction of flows and the harassment of the part of the island of Santo Domingo, which was in the hands of the French and from where the corsairs acted against the Spanish ships. On the night of January 27, 1794, Alsedo participated very actively in the capture of the port of Fuerte-Delfín (Santo Domingo). At the head of four hundred men, with full powers of the general, he took the fort of La Boca and the so-called battery of Llars by surprise, allowing the entry of a frigate and a brig that intimated the surrender of the town, which capitulated despite being garrisoned by forces far superior to the Spanish.

On July 22, 1795, the Peace of Basel was signed, by which France returned the conquered territories to Spain and received the Spanish part of Santo Domingo as compensation. Godoy received the title of Prince of Peace. On August 18, 1796, the Treaty of San Ildefonso was signed between Spain and France and on October 6 a new war against England began.

On October 29, 1796, Alsedo was promoted to captain of the ship. On February 14, 1797, a Spanish squadron, commanded by Lieutenant General José de Córdova y Ramos, was defeated at Cape San Vicente by the English squadron commanded by Admiral John Jervis and in which Horacio Nelson was with the rank of Commodore. In this month, Admiral Eliab Harvey seized Trinidad and was defeated in Puerto Rico.

In July Nelson attacked Cádiz and, later, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; in both attacks he was repulsed and in the last he suffered the loss of an arm.

In 1801 three almost consecutive treaties were signed between Napoleon and Godoy by which Spain undertook to declare war on Portugal to separate it from England, to contribute with naval units to the formation of four Spanish-French fleets and to the formation of a Spanish army. with French collaboration whose command was assigned to Godoy with the title of general. Between May 20 and June 6, the brief War of the Oranges took place, which ended with the Treaty of Badajoz when Portugal asked for peace.

On May 6 of this year, 1801, Alsedo took command of the ship San Ramón and on the 8th he left Havana with the frigate Anfitrite, which bore the insignia of Brigadier Francisco de Montes, to escort a convoy to the ports of Barlovento. . Upon returning to Havana, after having separated from the Anfitrite,He met a ship, two frigates and an English corvette, one of the frigates overtook him and he beat a retreat when he verified that the rest of the ships were approaching him, during the night he took refuge in the place of the Cruz del Padre in the vicinity of the port of Matanzas (Cuba) and the next morning he managed to enter this port, where he remained blocked for two and a half months until, taking advantage of a separation from the coast of the blockade forces, he left for Havana escorting a convoy with a valuable cargo.

In December of the same year, he took command of the ship Asia and sailed for Spain. Upon leaving the port, he suffered a tremendous storm that left the ship completely dismasted and with a significant leak that forced him to enter Puerto Rico to repair it.

Once the damages were repaired, it left for Cádiz, later moving to Cartagena where the ship began works.

On March 27, 1802, the Peace of Amiens was signed, which was nothing more than a truce between France and England, but allowed Spain to recover Menorca in exchange for ceding Trinidad to England.

On March 29, 1804, the year in which Napoleon became emperor of the French and in which the captures of Spanish ships and the attacks carried out on the American coasts made Godoy lean again towards France, Alsedo was appointed major general from the department of Ferrol and in June 1805 he took command of the ship Montañés, built at the expense of his Santander countrymen who offered it to the king, and joined the newly created squadron of General Grandallana.

On August 14, he left the Ares estuary with the combined squadron of France and Spain under the orders of Admiral Villeneuve and Lieutenant General Federico Gravina heading towards the English Channel to try to dominate these waters while Napoleon's land forces They landed in the British Isles.

At sea they sighted the fleet of the French admiral Allemand that had left Rochefort to join Villeneuve's squadron, but they did not meet as they believed each other to be enemies. Allemand entered Vigo on the 16th, and the combined squadron headed for Cádiz to avoid confrontation with what he had believed to be an enemy fleet. On the 19th, the squadron, made up of thirty-three ships (eighteen French and fifteen Spanish), five frigates and two corvettes, anchored in the Bay of Cádiz. Napoleon ordered them to leave the port and go to the Mediterranean so that, together with the fleet that Salcedo commanded was in Cartagena, make landings in Naples and wage war on the shipping of England and its allies in that sea and finally enter in Toulon. But the English blocked them with a fleet made up of twenty-seven ships and six frigates under the command of Admiral Nelson. Faced with this situation, they decided to wait to leave until a favorable situation arose, which could be when the enemies were forced to divide their forces to escort their convoys. Napoleon grew impatient at the delay and decided to replace Villeneuve with Admiral Rosily Merós.

Villeneuve learned of the intentions to relieve him of command and informed that an English convoy had left Algeciras escorted by six ships, he decided to leave Cádiz and did so on the 20th, both squads facing each other on the 21st in the memorable battle of Trafalgar. . The Montañés ship,under the command of Alsedo, he was part of the observation squad, which, aligning himself with the main one by express order of Villeneuve, remained at the rear of the battle line, in which the hardest part of the fight took place. It fought for a long time with an English ship with three decks that dominated it in the short distance and caused significant damage. Alsedo received the impact of a cannonball in the back and died on the spot, he was replaced in command by the second commander of the ship, frigate captain Antonio Castaños, who soon suffered the same fate as the commander and was relieved by Navy Lieutenant Alejo Gutiérrez de Rubalcaba who continued the combat until receiving the order to join the Prince of Asturias,Admiral Gravina's flagship, with which, sailing canned, he returned to Cádiz.

The name of Alsedo appears on a plaque that by order of King Alfonso XII was placed in the Pantheon of Illustrious Sailors of San Fernando to honor illustrious sailors killed in combat.

On one of the facades of the house-palace where he was born, in Santander, a commemorative plaque of his birth was placed in 1880.

In the Naval Museum of Madrid there is a portrait of Alsedo when he was a lieutenant in the uniform of the marine guards corps of the time, painted in oil on canvas.

In honor of Alsedo, the Navy has named a brig that was in service between 1851 and 1869; a gunboat, in service from 1882 to 1898; a destroyer, in service from 1924 and 1957, and a patrol boat, in service from 1977 to 1993.