Ponta Delgada and the destruction of a larger fleet

At Ponta Delgada in 1582, Bazán commanded twenty-eight ships against a Franco-Portuguese force of roughly sixty during the Portuguese succession struggle. His title of Marquis of Santa Cruz gave a proven professional enough noble standing to command politically important subordinates without making lineage the basis of his authority. After an earlier indecisive exchange, he gained the advantageous wind position and drove his larger Portuguese-built galleons into close action. Superior artillery, high-sided ships, trained marine infantry, and concentrated attacks on the enemy flagship helped break up a numerically superior fleet. The battle offers the clearest example in his career of how he might later have fought English forces.