page_title: Solomon Ferris
section_title: First Battle of Algeciras
hierarchical_section_title: Solomon Ferris / Later commands / First Battle of Algeciras
context_page_description: Solomon Ferris was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
  Ferris's rise through the ranks brought him the commands of several small ships during the period of peace between the end of the American War of Independence and the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, but he did not achieve the rank of a full post-captain until the start of the wars with France. He spent most of the war in command of a single ship, on a variety of eclectic services. More active and conventional commands followed, and he was involved in the capture of Gorée in 1801. Returning fresh from this triumph, he was appointed to the command of the 74-gun HMS Hannibal, and sent out with a fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez to patrol French and Spanish ports. While carrying out this task, Saumarez discovered and attacked a squadron under Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois. This action, the First Battle of Algeciras, was hard-fought, and the British were hampered by shallow waters, light breezes and the presence of enemy shore batteries.
context_section_description: Finding Linois prepared for him, Saumarez entered the bay, causing Linois to move into the shallower waters around the bay, under the close protection of shore batteries. Ferris, in the rear of the attack, arrived later to the action, at 09:20, and took up position ahead of Saumarez's flagship, the 80-gun HMS Caesar. At 10:12 he received orders to move inshore and attack Linois's flagship, the 80-gun Formidable, Saumarez detailing him to "go and rake the French admiral". Ferris used the light winds to pull ahead, and then tacked back to Formidable. As he approached however, Hannibal ran aground. Though in a position to fire on both the Formidable and the Spanish defences, his ship was vulnerable to shore-based fire. Under heavy fire now, and isolated from the rest of the British line, Ferris was unable to manoeuvre away, or into a better position to return fire. His signal halyards had been torn away by shot, and some time passed before he was able to notify Saumarez of his predicament. Saumarez ordered the squadron to send their ship's boats to tow Hannibal off the shoal, but the attempt was beaten off. The wind died away, preventing the other ships from coming in close to assist Ferris.
  The French were severely mauled by Saumarez's squadron, several French ships also running aground, but the wind prevented the British from taking advantage of the opportunity to closely engage them. Hannibal was under heavy fire from the anchored Formidable and an array of Spanish batteries and gunboats, and could not bring her guns to bear on them. The main and mizzen masts were shot away, and her casualties mounted, while attempts to pull the ship off the shoal failed. The British force had suffered considerable damage to sails, masts and rigging, and in the light breeze, Saumarez saw there was the danger that the remainder of his ships might run aground like the Hannibal. At 13:35 he ordered his squadron to withdraw to Gibraltar, leaving the damaged Hannibal behind. Ferris ordered the survivors of his crew below decks to escape the worst of the fire as the combined guns of the French and Spanish forces turned on the last remaining target. He held out until 14:00, when seeing that further resistance would be futile, he ordered the colours struck, and the Hannibal's ensign came down.
  French and Spanish soldiers then stormed the ship, and Hannibal's surgeon later reported that a number of wounded men were trampled to death as the boarding parties sought to extinguish the fires. It has not been established whether what followed was a misunderstanding aboard Hannibal or a deliberate ploy by the French, but Hannibal's ensign was then rehoisted upside down, a recognised international signal of distress. Captain George Heneage Lawrence Dundas, who had watched the entire battle from Gibraltar, believed on seeing the flag that it meant that Ferris was still holding out on Hannibal and requesting either support to salvage his battered ship or for her to be evacuated before surrendering. Boats were sent from Gibraltar with carpenters from the dockyards there to effect repairs on Hannibal and Dundas took HMS Calpe back into the bay to provide assistance, coming under heavy fire before withdrawing when his error was realised, although not before several of the boats had been seized by the French as their crews boarded Hannibal. Ferris and his crew were taken prisoner, taking no part in the Second Battle of Algeciras, fought six days later, which ended in a British victory. Hannibal had suffered 75 dead, 62 wounded and 6 missing during the battle.
caption: Depiction of the First Battle of Algeciras by Louis Le Breton. Ferris's ship, HMS Hannibal, is aground, badly damaged and partly dismasted.
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