Fénix was an 80-gun ship of the line (navio) of the Spanish Navy, built by Pedro de Torres at Havana in accordance with the system laid down by Antonio Gaztaneta launched in 1749.

As the flagship of Admiral Juan de Lángara, the ship fought at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on 16 January 1780, where she was captured by the British Royal Navy and commissioned as the third rate HMS Gibraltar in March of that year.

She spent a short while in the English Channel before joining Samuel Hood's squadron in the West Indies and taking part in the Capture of St Eustatius in February 1781 and the Battle of Fort Royal the following month.

By June Gibraltar was back in the Mediterranean, serving in the navy's Egyptian campaign, where she remained during and beyond the Peace of Amiens, except for a short period when she was sent home for a refit.

[3] Although large, two deck ships were favoured in other European navies, the British preferred to build three-deck third rates; the extra space making them better suited for flagships.

After the capture of Fénix, the Admiralty began to see the advantages of a longer two-deck ship which was less prone to hog, almost as well armed as its three-decked counterparts, and relatively quick.

Under Captain Gutierra de Hevia y Valdés and as the flagship of Lieutenant General Juan Jose Navarro, she set sail from Cádiz on 29 August.

Fénix underwent several large repairs at the Arsenal de la Carraca between 1764 and 1765, where she remained stripped of her armament until 1769, under the command of Francisco Cotiella.

This Franco-Spanish Armada of 1779 of more than 60 ships of the line was to escort an invasion force of 40,000 troops across the Channel in a bid to capture the British naval base at Portsmouth.

[2] She joined George Darby's fleet in the English Channel until 29 November, when she left for Samuel Hood's squadron in the West Indies under Captain Walter Stirling.

[14] Gibraltar was part of a 17-ship squadron, keeping four French ships-of-the-line in Fort Royal, Martinique, when on 29 April 1781 a 20-ship fleet and a merchant convoy under Contre-amiral François de Grasse arrived from Brest.

Out of sight of the British, de Grasse put a man ashore to swap information with Fort Royal's garrison, and agree on a plan of attack with the blockaded ships.

[18] In an attempt to force an action, Hood spent most of the next day struggling to get his ships to windward, but finding two of his fleet too damaged to sail properly, he eventually broke off in a northerly direction.

[17] Hood's withdrawal to Barbados had left St Lucia exposed, and on 10 May, the whole French fleet, less two ships-of-the-line landed 1200 troops at Gros Islet, a village at the northern end of the island.

The British fleet, eighteen ships-of-the-line including Gibraltar, under Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, anchored to the south to protect the army and its supply ships.

[21] French Admiral Pierre André de Suffren with a fleet of fifteen ships sailed from Trincomalee to support the besieged city on 10 June.

During the Great Spanish Armament, when Spain laid claim to the Nootka Sound, she was brought back into service under Captain Samuel Goodall in May 1790.

[24] Having had two frigates confirm that the French fleet was still at Brest, and realising that it would leave to protect the imminent convoy, Howe attempted an interception in advance by placing his ships where he thought an encounter likely.

[25][Note 2] On the same day, Howe's fleet fell in with the fifth-rate HMS Venus, which had been attached to Rear-Admiral Sir George Montagu's squadron.

Also searching for the convoy, Montagu had been cruising between Cape Ortugal and Belle-Isle, but knowing he would be hopelessly outnumbered, he had sent Venus to locate Howe and ask for reinforcements.

[32] The weather cleared on the morning of 1 June, and both fleets were drawn up line ahead, sailing in the same direction, Gibraltar in the centre, immediately before Hood's flagship, the first-rate Queen Charlotte and behind the 74-gun Culloden.

[38] After spending two days making repairs, the British fleet sailed for home with its prizes, having failed to stop the grain convoy that arrived in Brest on 12 June.

Culloden was obliged to get under way when her anchors failed to hold, narrowly missing Pearl Rock in the process, and at 21:00, Gibraltar was forced to cut her cable.

[2] In May 1799 Gibraltar was one of fifteen ships of the line in a British fleet commanded by George Elphinstone which had been blockading the port of Cádiz since the beginning of the year.

[58][60] In March 1801 Gibraltar took part in the pursuit of Contre-amiral Honoré Ganteaume, whose squadron had made a further attempt to reinforce the French troops in Egypt.

[62] Rear-admiral Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron, comprising Gibraltar, the seventy-fours Renown, Dragon, Généreux, Hector, and the 64-gun Haerlem, on hearing of the event, set off in pursuit.

The search continued on 4 March, minus Généreux, which was left to defend the island in the event of a surprise attack by French and Spanish forces.

[64] At dawn on 25 March, while crossing the Tyrrhenian Sea, the French squadron was spotted, having been reduced to ten ships by a storm the previous night.

The British ships gave chase, but Vétéran outran them and found a safe anchorage in Baie de La Forêt, Brittany.

[2][75] The French ships had been anchored under the protection of the powerful batteries on the Isle d'Aix[75] when on 11 April, Lord Cochrane attacked them with fireships and explosive vessels.