The action of 7 July 1799 was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars in which the Spanish 34-gun frigate Nuestra Señora del Carmen captured the Royal Navy's 18-gun Hired armed cutter Penelope, which was under the command of Sir Frederick Maitland.

[2] Admiral Jervis, Earl of Saint Vincent, who was on board the 44-gun ship HMS Argo, at anchor in the bay and on the eve of his departure for England, sent Lieutenant Maitland in the Penelope to reconnoiter and ascertain the cause of the firing.

Anxious to gain the most accurate information, he stretched across the Gut with very light winds during the night, that was so pitchy dark and calm, that the cutter was unperceived by the combined fleet and so close among them, that the words of command in French and Spanish could be distinctly heard.

A breeze now springing up, the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora del Carmen, armed with 34 guns,[3] sailed up and placing herself about a cable's length on the cutter's weather-beam, fired a broadside.

[2] When her crew found there was no chance of escape from the combined fleets, they made an attempt to plunder the treasure, which Lieutenant Maitland most honourably and successfully resisted, alleging that, as public property, it was lawful prize of the captors.