15 galleons The Battle of Ragusa was a naval engagement in 1617 between Francisco de Rivera from the Spanish Viceroyalty of Naples and Lorenzo Venier of the Republic of Venice.

Although they managed to force Rivera and his way smaller fleet retreat, reinforcements by d'Aragona turned the tables, making the Venetians return home even if they still outnumbered their enemies.

[8] However, Philip III's court was not favorable to the viceroy and preferred the peace obtained in the finished War of the Monferrat, so Osuna was ordered to cease his privateering and give back all the captured Venetian ships.

[9] In spite of his orders, Osuna was unwilling to drop his policy of aggression, especially given that Venice continued fostering Ottoman and Dutch presence, and threatened to resign when the court entertained to call all of his ships to Genoa.

[12][13] On November 9, 1617, two months after the end of the Uskok War, Francisco de Rivera came out of Brindisi with a fleet of 15 galleons to patrol the Strait of Otranto.

Rivera was in a bad position, as the absence of wind rendered the galleons immobile while the currents slowly separated them, while Venier fielded galleys which could row freely against him and capitalize on the chance.

Rivera meanwhile sent captain Diego Duque de Estrada in a felucca to exchange messages between the Spanish ships and remind them they would be at advantage in case of being boarded.

Rivera then caught them off guard by chasing him in his own flagship, the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, so quickly that the rest of Spanish ships could not follow him immediately.

Being unseaworthy due to the battle, 13 Venetian galleys and one galeass sank with the storm, adding up 2000 more casualties, while many survivors reached to Croatian coast only to be assaulted by Uskoks in retaliation for the events of the war.