By 1778, he was a Brigadier or Commodore and participated in the Armada of 1779, capturing the British corvette HMS Winchcomb, the only Royal Navy ship lost during the failed expedition.

With this he faced the entire naval strength of 18 battleships and 6 frigates under Sir George Rodney off the stormy, dark cliffs of Cape St. Vincent, in the afternoon of 16 January 1780.

When Gravina was heavily wounded, a Spanish lieutenant general called Valdez asserted his own claim to overall command of the allied force.

Before Toulon was evacuated, British and Spanish incendiary parties commanded by Sir Sidney Smith were sent to destroy the arsenal and the ships in the harbour.

On 14 February 1795, after 6 hours of chase aboard the ship of the line Reina Luisa he captured the 32-gun French frigate Helène.

He collected seven ships at Cartagena and cruised as far as Corsica, but did not attack the British squadron lying in San Fiorenzo Bay.

He proceeded to Toulon, where the combined Franco-Spanish fleet, totalling 38 ships of the line, heavily outnumbered the British Mediterranean squadron, which had lost a third of its strength after Mann precipitately fled back to the English Channel.