[2] The attempts failed thanks to the fortuitous encounter that they had with 5 Dunkirkers under Judocus Peeters, who was chasing a flotilla of Algerian privateers, off Cape St.

[2] Peeters managed to reach Cádiz without losing a single vessel and put on alert the Marquis of Ayamonte and Don Gaspar Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán, 9th Duke of Medina Sidonia.

[3] It was a hasty maneuver, since the Dutch ships had orders to return to their country if the West Indies Fleet didn't appear before November.

[3] The military governor of Cádiz, Don Juan Alonso de Idiáquez y Robles, Duke of Ciudad Real, was appointed commander of the fleet in substitution of the Captain General, the Duke of Maqueda, who was ill.[5] He was a veteran soldier, having seen action in the Siege of Leucata against the French, but was inexperienced in sea battles.

Some of the Dutch ships under Artus Gijsels, abandoned by their Portuguese and French allies, had to sail back to England to make repairs.