Captain general of the Navy Juan Francisco de Lángara y Huarte (1736 – 18 January 1806) was a Spanish Navy officer and politician.
Life and career
Early life
Juan Francisco de Lángara y Huarte was born in 1736 at A Coruña, Galicia into a Basque family. His father was admiral Juan de Langara Arizmendi, who fought as lieutenant (Teniente de Navío) at the Battle of Minorca. Having entered the Spanish Navy at a young age, in 1750, as a Guardiamarina, Lángara quickly distinguished himself in various wars. From 1766 until 1771 he made several scientific expeditions, among others, three voyages to the Philippines and the China Sea, and made several important contributions in cartography. In 1774 he commanded the frigate La Rosalia on a scientific expedition, which led to several important discoveries with regards to pilotage and navigation.
Anglo-Spanish War (1779–83)
By 1778, he was at the rank of brigadier and participated in the Armada of 1779, capturing the British corvette HMS Winchcomb, the only Royal Navy ship lost during the failed expedition. When the combined fleet wintered at Brest and Cádiz respectively, during the winter 1779–80, Lángara was left in command of a small squadron of 11 ships of the line. Promoted to squadron commander in December 1779, he fought against a British fleet of 18 ships of the line and 6 frigates under Admiral of the White Sir George Rodney in the afternoon of 16 January 1780.
Lángara's intention had been to intercept a British convoy destined for the relief of Gibraltar; but the French authorities, who knew well enough about Rodney's departure and strength, failed to warn the Spanish, who maintained Lángara's fatal orders until it was too late. He and his crews could not prevent the British from capturing five of their own number, while the 70-gun Santo Domingo blew up during the early evening. Lángara surrendered at 2 a.m. with his flagship, the 80-gun Fénix, completely battered. This battle is known as the Moonlight Battle, because it was unusual for naval battles in the age of sail to take place at night. Released from captivity soon afterwards, Lángara's career did not suffer. By 1798 he was promoted to captain general of the Navy, after serving for a time as an effective naval minister.
French Revolutionary Wars
In 1793 he joined Sir Samuel Hood, with 18 Spanish ships-of-the-line, in occupying the French naval arsenal of Toulon (August–December). The mutual cooperation between the two sides was marked by tension and suspicion. Horatio Nelson had acquired a poor opinion of Spanish seamen when he visited the port of Cádiz on his way to the Mediterranean, which is not surprising as the Spanish mercantile marine was so small that only about 10 per cent of the Spanish Navy's crewmen were experienced seamen. At Toulon, these tensions made it difficult to defend the newly-captured arsenal. When Federico Gravina was heavily wounded, a Spanish lieutenant general called Valdez asserted his own claim to overall command of the allied force.