| Battle of Pinos | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAnglo-Spanish War (1585) | |||||||
 Location of Isla de Pinos (called Isla de la Juventud since 1978) inCuba. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 England |  Spain | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Thomas Baskerville | Bernardino de Avellaneda | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 14 warships[1] | 13 galleons[1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 galleon captured 1 patache captured 325 killed or captured[2] | 1 ship sunk 80 killed or wounded[2] | ||||||
TheBattle of Pinos was a naval engagement between a Spanish fleet under Admiral Bernardino Delgadillo y Avellaneda and the surviving ships ofFrancis Drake's expedition to theSpanish West Indies, now in command of Drake's lieutenant, Sir Thomas Baskerville, which took place off theIsland of Pinos during theAnglo-Spanish war of 1585. The Spanish squadron was victorious, capturing two English ships.
After failed attacks againstSan Juan de Puerto Rico andPanama, during which Francis Drake andJohn Hawkins had perished fromdysentery, the English fleet anchored inPortobello to reorganize and careen their ships prior to return to England.[2] Sir Thomas Baskerville, Colonel-General of the landing forces, was then elected by his officers as the new commander of the retreating fleet,[3] whose number of ships soon decreased to 18, as two of them, theDelight and theElizabeth, had to be burned or sunk due to lack of crew.[4] Two generals, 15 captains, and 22 officers had died in combat or from disease; a loss which demoralized the men on board.[2]
The English fleet departed Portobello on February 8.[4] A few days later a storm scattered the fleet.[4] Several ships returned to England viaJamaica, while Baskerville, with the bulk of the fleet, headed toCabo Corrientes to sail to his country along the northern coast of Cuba.[4] In Spain, meanwhile, news of Drake-Hawkin's attack inGran Canaria had reached the Spanish court.[2] A fleet of 8 galleons and 13 other vessels (mainlyhulks andpinnaces) under Captain General Don Bernardino de Avellaneda, with Juan Gutiérrez de Garibay as Admiral, Juan de Villaviciosa asflag captain, and about 3,000 men aboard, was dispatched fromSevilla to Cuba, which was supposed to be menaced by the English.[2] In early March they arrived atCartagena de Indias, disposed to pursue Baskerville.[5]
On March 7, part of Avellaneda's fleet surprised two English ships south ofCienfuegos.[5] They were thePegasine and were commanded by Thomas Maynarde.[5] Engaged by the Spaniards, they received extensive damage, but finally managed to escape avoiding the dangerous shoals ofPinar del Río, and reached England on May 3,[5] just a week before Avellaneda encountered the bulk of the English fleet supplying of wood and water at Guaniguanicos Cove, in theIsland of Pinos, south ofCuba.[2] Avellaneda immediately ordered his ships hoist their flags and attack.[2] Baskerville, whose flagship was John Hawkin'sLa Garlande, however, tried to avoid combat scattering his ships towardsCape San Antonio.[2] Most of the English ships escaped because they abandoned their boats and threw theirbaggage into the water. Vice Admiral Juan Gutiérrez de Garibay's three-ship vanguard managed to intercept and capture two ships:[1] a 300-man galleon and a 25-man patache whose prisoners were put to work onHavana's fortifications.[1] The loss on the Spanish side amounted to 80 men killed or wounded and a warship, sunk during the clash.[6]
Avellaneda's fleet pursued the English as far as theOld Bahama Channel.[6] On 22 May, returning to Havana, they captured John Crosse’s pinnaceLittle Exchange off the town.[1] This was not the last loss suffered by the English, as only eight of the 28 warships which had departed England on 1595 returned to their country.[6] The survivors reachedPlymouth at the same time theSpanish treasure fleet disembarked atSanlúcar de Barrameda with 20 millionsilver dollars, one of the largest shipments ever to arrive from the Americas.[6]