Napoleon said about him that if Villeneuve had his qualities, the battle at Cape Finisterre would have been lost by the British. About this man there are rumors that are not entirely clear that he was the bastard of King Carlos III, and at the time of the birth of our hero - the king of Naples and Sicily. Some people curse him, calling him complete mediocrity and insignificance, others glorify him, claiming that if he was responsible for the operations in which he participated, then the landing of Napoleon in Britain could take place, and under Trafalgar the Allies at least would not lose. The name of this man is Federico Gravina, and it is about him that the story will go today.
A boy from a good family
From the very birth Federico Gravina was a "star boy". His father was Juan Gravina and Moncada, Duke of San Miguel, a 1st class grandee of Spain, his mother was Dona Leonor Napoli and Monteaporto, daughter of Prince Resetena, another grandee. Born in 1756 in Palermo, he received his primary education at one of the most prestigious church-related educational institutions in the world, the Clementine Catholic Collegium in Rome. Little is known about his childhood and adolescence, all information about him begins to come from 1775, when he becomes a midshipman, and begins his long journey through the hierarchy of the ranks of the Armada.
Gravina was assigned to the fleet by his uncle, the ambassador of Naples in Madrid, and the boy himself, apparently, did not particularly resist such a fate, especially since success accompanied him - he completed special naval training with honors, and, apparently, did not because of its origin. Then, not only the inclinations of a good naval officer, but also a diplomat, appeared, since Federico always knew how to find a common language with completely different people, and became a fairly popular figure in the high society of Spain.
He was first assigned to the ship "San Jose", but soon he was transferred to the frigate "Santa Clara", promoted to midshipman of the frigate (alferez de fragata). There was a war with Portugal, and "Santa Clara" was sent on a voyage to the shores of Brazil, where Gravina achieved success in his first independent assignment - the capture of the fortress Assensen on the island of Santa Catalina. But on the way back "Santa Clara" suffered a terrible catastrophe - the ship crashed on the rocks, almost the entire crew died. Here, for the first time, another talent of Gravina was vividly recommended, which in the future will be noticed by many, and which will dry up only after the Battle of Trafalgar. Despite the critical situation, he was able to escape, and even get out of trouble without much damage to his health. In the future, more than once in such situations he was very lucky, and again and again he came out whole or with minimal losses from the most difficult troubles where, it seemed, the losses could have been much greater.
In 1778, Gravina returned to Spain, where he joined the Coast Guard, responsible for protecting the Spanish coast from the raids of Algerian pirates. Having received the rank of lieutenant of the frigate (teniente de fragata) and the post of commander of the shebeka "San Luis", he took part in the Great Siege of Gibraltar. And although it ended unsuccessfully, and the light forces of the Armada showed themselves not in the best way, Gravina was marked by a promotion to the rank of lieutenant of the ship (teniente de navio), and was appointed commander of the naval station in Algeciras. But here he did not stay long, and at the end of the war with the British managed to be noted in the capture of Fort San Felipe in Menorca, where again he was accompanied by good luck and the attention of higher ranks, thanks to which he received another promotion - to the captain.
In the mid-1780s, Gravina already commanded a small detachment of ships, which, along with the rest of the Armada forces, fought against Algerian pirates in the Mediterranean Sea, and in 1788 accompanied the Spanish ambassador to Constantinople, where he first began a detailed study of astronomy, conducted long observations of the stars. and made several reports, which, however, did not make a great contribution to the development of science. Upon his return to Spain, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier, received the frigate "Pass" under his command, and undertook to fulfill a rather grim task - to notify the colonies as soon as possible about the death of King Carlos III. And again good luck accompanied Gravina, filling the Pasa's sails with the wind, and warding off diseases - without any special losses, in just 3 months he completed the task, after which he returned home and took command of his first battleship Paula.
From that moment on, he begins to constantly combine diplomatic work and military affairs, without ceasing to behave like a typical native of the upper strata of society, attending balls and social gatherings, being personally acquainted with the favorite Manuel Godoy and King Carlos IV. For this, he received a reputation in Armada as a "parquet shark", and earned a rather disdainful attitude from many of his compatriots and allied British with the French, but such people were always in the minority - despite everything, Gravina remained a military officer, and although he did not cover himself with glory as regularly as some, but still remained one of the most active and successful naval commanders of Spain.
His "Paula" participated in the evacuation of the Spanish army from near Oran, and after another promotion, Gravin went to England, combining a diplomatic mission with reconnaissance goals. The inhabitants of Foggy Albion met him with honor, as an ally and a seasoned sailor. Having studied the peculiarities of modern naval tactics and strategy of Great Britain, he returned home and received under his command a squadron of four ships, raising his flag on "San Ermenejildo" (112 guns, type "Santa Ana"). At the head of this detachment, he took an active part in the war with France in the Mediterranean, where again and again he showed himself quite well, having noted in several combat episodes.
In 1796, Spain signed a treaty with France in San Ildefonso, and everything turned upside down again - now the British were again the enemy, and the French were allies and friends. After that, Gravina entered the command of Admiral Masarreda, and was noted by him as one of the best junior flagships. Once again, Gravina proved to be a rather successful commander during the blockade of Cadiz by the British in 1797-1802, when, having returned to active operations with the light forces of the fleet, they managed to defend the city and deliver serious problems to the fleet of Admiral Jervis, as a result of which the blockade ring turned out to be loose and the city constantly military and merchant ships broke through.
In 1801, Gravina even led an expedition to the West Indies, which, however, did not achieve great results. But in 1802, the signing of a peace treaty with the British followed, and hostilities ceased, and the need for military officers in the active fleet disappeared. Gravina was offered to become a diplomat in Paris, which was in its own way a prestigious assignment, and he agreed to fulfill it, but with only one condition - in the event of a new war, he would be returned to the navy. As a diplomat, he was close enough to Napoleon, and even attended his coronation as emperor on May 18, 1804.
Cape Finisterre and Trafalgar
At the end of 1804, the war with Great Britain began again, and Gravina was returned to the fleet. Since he was very popular in France and was personally familiar to the emperor, and in Spain he enjoyed a reputation as an experienced sailor, he was appointed commander of the fleet, despite the presence of more suitable candidates like the same Masarreda. However, all this selectivity in the eyes of Napoleon was reduced to naught by the subordination of Gravina to the French admiral Villeneuve, a controversial person and in the eyes of the Spaniards who did not possess any inclinations of a naval commander, if only because he had little experience of active military operations at sea. In addition, the French, as always, behaved rather arrogantly, did not listen to the opinions of the Spanish captains, who had much more naval practice, as a result of which relations between the allies did not immediately go well.
Gravina, having raised the flag on the 80-gun "Argonaut" in February 1805, acted as a kind of transmission link between the French and the Spaniards, and tried to somehow smooth out the resulting friction, but he succeeded with difficulty. In addition, he was responsible for the mobilization of the fleet and the formation of a combat-ready squadron from the rabble, which at that time was the Armada. Years of peace, Napoleon's systemic siphoning of money from Spain, and Godoy's abhorrent governance have had a negative impact on the state of affairs. The Armada had previously been inferior in quality to the general training of personnel to the British, standing out only for its excellent officer corps and ships, but in 1804 the situation was generally on the brink of disaster - the crews were disbanded, the ships were mothballed, there was no money even to withdraw them from the reserve, not to mention already about normal combat training. The fleet had to be formed almost from scratch, and here Gravina showed remarkable patience and organizational skills, having managed to find funding by the middle of the summer of 1805, to form a combat squadron capable of at least more or less keeping in line, and practically completing the formation of several more detachments.
And soon followed by an exit to sea under the command of Villeneuve, a diversion in the Caribbean and a return home, when at Cape Finisterre, an allied fleet of 6 Spanish and 14 French ships was intercepted by 15 English ships led by Admiral Calder. The battle took place in difficult meteorological conditions (the sea was covered with thick fog), in which it was difficult to figure out where and who was. Villeneuve, deciding that it was most important to carry out the order and go to Brest, decided to ignore the fact that part of his squadron was fighting the British, and in fact left it to its fate. This part of the squadron turned out to be the six Spanish ships of the line Gravina, who were supported by several French, who had to fight in the minority against the British.
In the fog, not knowing where their own and where the strangers were, the forces of the Spanish admiral fought to the last, and inflicted a number of damages on their British counterpart, but, in the end, the ships "Firme" and "San Rafael" (both Spanish) surrendered after the destruction of the mast and the deprivation of the course, and taken away by the British in tow. The next day, as if coming to his senses, Villeneuve decided to pursue the British with all his might, but supposedly a weak wind prevented him from doing so. Finally, having reached Spain, he decided not to go to Brest, as was required, but to the south, to Cadiz, than the French admiral finally devalued his actions in battle, and thwarted Napoleon's plans to invade England, while stating that in the last battle he also prevailed. The Spaniards were, to put it mildly, dissatisfied with the actions of their French allies, who actually threw them in battle, and only a few ships and captains deserved honor and respect. Gravina himself was depressed, and Napoleon, having received news of what had happened, uttered his famous speech, giving an assessment of what happened:
“Gravina behaved brilliantly and decisively in battle. If Villeneuve had such qualities, the Battle of Finisterre would have ended in complete victory."
However, this statement did not prevent Napoleon, for reasons of national prestige, from leaving the French admiral in charge, and the Spanish admiral subordinate in the fleet, which began to gather in Cadiz.
For four months the Spanish-French fleet stood in Cadiz, and this standing caused enormous damage to the already not very high combat capability of the Armada. The salaries of officers and sailors were not paid for 4-8 months, which is why they "slightly" got worn out, and could not even buy themselves replacement uniforms. Of course, there was not enough money to maintain the ships in service in a normal form, because of something here and there information is found, maybe entirely invented, and maybe quite reliable, that some ships were kept in a more or less acceptable form for account … Raising funds from officers, or rather those of them who had income in addition to the officer's salary, and could contribute to the purchase of at least paint and thread for mending leaky sails. In addition, an epidemic swept across Andalusia, which took a huge number of people from the crews, to which desertion was added - as a result of which in October, when Villeneuve decided to go to sea, it was necessary to announce the mobilization of the population throughout the province, forcibly drive anyone to ships, literally grabbing people right on the streets and market squares in order to at least make up for the losses, and get the right number of workers to service the ships.
There was no time to train recruits at least the basics of naval art, although Gravina did everything possible to increase the combat capability of his ships at least slightly above the catastrophic one. It was even necessary to remove part of the gun crews from the fortifications of Cadiz and put them on the guns on the decks of the ships. He himself transferred his flag to the "Principe de Asturias" - one of the strongest and most efficient ships left in the ranks, although things were far from the best on him. On the basis of the future going to sea, a conflict arose with the French - the Spaniards did not want to go out with such ill-prepared ships at sea, especially since the barometer predicted an imminent storm, but Villeneuve became stubborn and decided to act in spite of everything. It is possible that the French admiral, anticipating trouble because of his behavior and knowing that he would soon be replaced by Admiral Rossilla and sent "on the carpet" to the emperor, decided to show for the last time that he had gunpowder in his powder flasks, and he was not must be shot, guillotined or punished in any other way fraught with fatal consequences for his health. The voice of reason from the Spaniards, and he no longer heard his own officers.
The result of all this turned out to be quite predictable. The English fleet attacked the Spanish-French, and although it suffered heavy losses, including the great Admiral Nelson, it achieved victory, causing colossal damage to the allies. "Principe de Asturias" during the battle suffered considerable losses - 50 people killed and 110 wounded, from a crew of more than a thousand people, but lost all masts and received considerable damage to the hull.
There is English and French evidence that during the battle this ship, instead of supporting the allies, closed the gun ports, and simply drifted, receiving shells over and over again in its thick mahogany sides. The phenomenon is outrageous, shameful - but not at all surprising, given that at least a third of the crew were people who did not really get even the basic skills necessary for battle, who did not have time to absorb naval discipline, and in general they saw this sea and these ships in their graves, for they came here directly from the streets and squares of Cadiz against their will. However, there is a possibility that such evidence has no real basis, for the chaos of the battle was such that it was impossible to speak about something with complete certainty, and the "closed gun ports" meant only a very low fire efficiency developed by the battleship. Despite all this, the Principe de Asturias did not surrender, and, having withstood the shelling and losing the mast, was towed to Cadiz by the French frigate Themis. Federico Gravina himself was wounded in the battle, but he had not yet lost his luck and reason, remained with a cold mind. A storm was approaching, somewhere there the British were towing captured ships to Gibraltar, and a number of damaged Spanish ships washed ashore of Andalusia or drifted, losing their sails, on the high seas.
Gathering his forces in Cadiz and hastily repairing the existing ships, Gravina soon brought them to sea, and even managed to recapture the "Santa Ana" from the British. Alas, this was the end of the admiral's luck - the storm raged in earnest, the ships had to be taken back to Cadiz, and most importantly, the wound received in the battle caused a lot of problems, and soon he became very bad. Federico Gravina died on March 6, 1806, having recently received a promotion to the rank of captain-general of the fleet. His remains are buried in the Pantheon in San Fernando, alas, he did not leave a big mark in the national history of Spain, except for the island in Alaska, named after him.
Execution can not be pardoned?
What assessment can be given to Federico Gravina after all of the above? Was he an unrecognized genius, or, on the contrary, a complete mediocrity and mediocrity? Alas and ah, but in the assessments of this person, different subjective points of view collide. The British and French, elevating their confrontation to an absolute, treated the Spaniards with disdain, and now, alas, it is their historical point of view that prevails, and Federico Gravina suffers from it, like many others.
People who do not have any special sympathy for the British and French, on the contrary, glorify Gravina, sometimes attributing to him those features that were not actually observed for him. The Spaniards themselves are quite restrained in their assessment of this admiral, with which I also agree. Of course, he was not a brilliant naval commander - not a single sign of this can be traced throughout his career. However, at the same time, he was a top-notch professional, a skillful and experienced sailor who spent more than one year at sea, and more than once smelled gunpowder in real battles, albeit not on the scale of the same Trafalgar.
Having studied the history of Gravina's service, one can clearly state that this man was both successful and decisive and courageous - which in many cases was quite enough to command a ship or small formations. Finally, he was a good organizer and diplomat, which was especially useful to him during actions together with the French allies, and the formation of combat squadrons from practically nothing. Under both Finisterre and Trafalgar, he showed enough initiative, courage, and ingenuity not to call him a mediocre commander. In terms of decisiveness and initiative, he showed himself much better than the rather passive Villeneuve, and, more importantly, he simply had much more practical experience of operations on the high seas, having spent more time there. It is possible that, commanding the allied fleet, he, and not the French, could have taken a completely different course - at Finisterre Calder at least would have suffered heavy losses, and might not even have taken San Rafael and Firme with him. and Trafalgar simply would not have happened, because Gravina would never have thought of going to Brest, to go to Cadiz - something, but he knew how to carry out orders.
Actually, it was in the role of the junior flagship that Gravin usually showed himself best - moreover, the flagship of initiative, successful, skillful, but still devoid of any significant creative streak. But if we talk specifically about Trafalgar, then the Spanish fleet there was simply doomed due to the complex of the above problems, command it at least Federico, at least Villeneuve, at least Rossilli, at least some Spanish Horacio de Nelson, because the reason was not ineffective command, but in the systemic crisis of all of Spain, insufficient funding, problems with personnel and the confluence of a number of unfavorable circumstances like the same epidemic. All the more unfair are the attempts of some Francophiles to present everything as if Gravina was a fool, the Spanish fleet was of no value, and in general, if it were not for these noble Dons from the Pyrenees, they would have shown the British where the crayfish winter!.. However, here, as in other cases, history does not know the subjunctive mood, and it was Villeneuve who led the allied fleet to defeat. And Gravina, no matter how professional and brave a sailor he was, will remain one of those who lost the battle of Trafalgar, covering themselves with glory, albeit tragic, and chronologically becoming his last victim. By the way, the British highly appreciated the professionalism of Gravina, and therefore, soon after the Battle of Trafalgar, the newspaper "The Chronicles of Gibraltar" wrote the following lines, which characterize this man in the best possible way:
“Spain, in the person of Gravina, has lost its most outstanding naval officer; the one under whose command its fleets, albeit sometimes defeated, have always fought in such a way that they earned deep respect from their victors."
