The Battle of Flores (1592), also known as Cruising Voyage to the Azores of 1592, or the Capture of the Madre de Deus describes a series of naval engagements that took place from 20 May to 19 August 1592, during the Anglo-Spanish War.

The battle was part of an expedition by an English fleet initially led by Sir Walter Raleigh, and then by Martin Frobisher and John Burgh.

Sir Walter Raleigh, having only just been released from the Tower of London, received a commission from Queen Elizabeth I for an expedition to the West Indies.

[8] On 11 May a storm struck just off Cape Finisterre, scattering the majority of the fleet; three small ships were sunk and Garland very nearly foundered.

The other, under Frobisher in Garland with Clifford, cruised off Cape St. Vincent with the strategy to pin the Spanish fleet against their own lee coast.

She was carrying a large amount of ironware valued at £7,000 and was sailing to Sanlúcar de Barrameda where further freight was destined for the West Indies.

Don Alonso de Bazán, brother to the Marquis of Santa Cruz and Captain General of the Armada, was to pursue and intercept Raleigh's fleet.

[9][11]: 121 Burgh did not have to wait long: on 25 June his scout ships spotted a large vessel approaching them near Corvo Island, the northernmost of the Azores.

Burgh immediately dispatched 100 soldiers who waded ashore and easily dispersed those who guarded the shore; after some resistance the site was captured, and the Portuguese fled.

From the southern flank near Flores Island, the order of ships was Dainty, Golden Dragon, Roebuck, Tiger, Sampson, Prudence, and Foresight.

[11]: 121  The Spanish fleet, which had been sighted briefly, seemed no longer a threat; Alvaro de Bazan had made a major miscalculation: he disobeyed orders and headed further west, allowing the English to first reach the area of interception.

[15] The carrack was nearly destroyed when a cabin full of cartridges caught fire, and only quick English action saved the prize.

[9] As the fleet sailed back to England, Burgh produced an inventory - the report mentions: "Gods great favor towards our nation, who by putting this purchase into our hands hath manifestly discovered those secret trades & Indian riches, which hitherto lay strangely hidden, and cunningly concealed from us".

There were also canopies, and course diapertowels, quilts of course sarcenet and of calico, carpets like those of Turky; whereunto are to be added the pearl, muske, civet, and amber-griece.

The rest of the wares were many in number, but less in value; as elephants teeth, porcelain vessels of China, coco-nuts, hides, ebenwood as black as jet, bested of the same, cloth of the rind's of trees very strange for the matter, and artificial in workmanship".

Hakluyt observed that it was "enclosed in a case of sweet Cedar wood, and lapped up almost an hundredfold in fine Calicut-cloth, as though it had been some incomparable jewel".

[4] Madre de Deus entered Dartmouth harbor on 7 September, towering over the other ships and the town's small houses as it sailed by.

At seeing this huge vessel, pandemonium broke out amongst the townspeople; they visited the floating castle and sought out drunken sailors in taverns and pubs, buying, stealing, pinching, and fighting for the takings.

[21] Alonso de Bazan, despite having a greater fleet, failed to intercept any English ship, lost two large carracks and was disgraced by the King of Spain for his negligence.

When later ships were brought into the Thames for unloading, the dockers were made to dress in "suits of canvas doublet without pockets" to reduce opportunities for theft.

Madre de Deus's rutter from Macau was a forerunner to voyages that would end up establishing the East India Company in 1600.