The treasure had already been landed and was safe but the English engaged the harbour forts and the Spanish ships, many of which were scuttled and the remainder burnt.

Although his captains wanted to search for the Spanish galleons immediately, Blake refused to divide his forces and waited until victualling ships from England arrived to re-provision his fleet at the end of March.

In an operation similar to the raid on the Barbary pirates of Porto Farina in Tunisia in 1655, Blake planned to send twelve frigates under the command of Rear-Admiral Stayner in Speaker into the harbour to attack the galleons while he followed in George with the rest of the fleet to bombard the shore batteries.

[18] Around noon, the flagship of the Spanish admiral, Don Diego de Egues, caught fire; shortly afterwards she was destroyed when her powder magazine exploded.

[10][20] Having achieved its objective of destroying the Spanish vessels, the English fleet was faced with the hazardous task of withdrawing from Santa Cruz harbour under continuing fire from the forts.

According to accounts the wind suddenly shifted from the north-east to the south-west at exactly the right moment to carry Blake's ships out of the harbour;[5][9] however, this story is probably based upon a misunderstanding of a report pertaining to general weather conditions on the voyage as a whole.

[10] The English fleet worked its way back out to the open sea by warping out, or hauling on anchor ropes, a tactic Blake had introduced during the raid on Porto Farina.

According to historian John Barratt, the battle was a major victory and one of Blake's greatest exploits; he had penetrated a heavily defended harbour, burnt twelve Spanish ships and captured another five which were later destroyed.

Worn out by his years of campaigning, he died aboard his flagship the George on 7 August 1657 as his fleet approached Plymouth Sound.

Some of the Santa Cruz plate was captured when a hired Dutch ship was seized as it attempted to break the blockade of Cadiz.

[25] King Philip congratulated them for what was perceived by Spain as a victory (the safe delivery of the treasure) and awarded them rents of 2,000 and 1,500 ducats respectively.