These included the Battle of Cape Spartel (1782),[1] which was an indecisive naval battle between a British fleet under Admiral Richard Howe and a Franco-Spanish fleet under Spanish Admiral Luis de Córdova; an expedition against Algiers (1783) to attack Barbary raiders; and the Battle of Cape St Vincent (1797), where thanks to his military perceptiveness while in command of the Príncipe de Asturias, he helped to save the Spanish flagship, the Santísima Trinidad, when the squadron commander José de Córdoba y Ramos lost control over the situation while under attack by British Commodore Horatio Nelson.

Escaño later served during the Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805) when a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder fought an indecisive naval battle against French Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve's combined Franco-Spanish fleet as it was returning from the West Indies.

It was his opinion that it would be best to remain within the Bay of Cadiz and not try to breakout of the British naval blockade, which had been reinforced by Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Escaño was temporarily the acting commander of the Spanish ships due to Gravina being severely wounded during the Battle of Trafalgar (both were on the Spanish flagship Príncipe de Asturias, one of the few ships to not surrender and make it back to Cádiz).

Despite having been wounded himself during the battle, Escaño communicated to Spanish Prime Minister Manuel Godoy the results of the battle since "the situation in which Lieutenant General Don Federico Gravina finds himself, as a result of a shrapnel bullet that at the end of yesterday's action he received in his left arm, does not allow him to give V.E.