The Santa Cruz harbor attack plan

Santa Cruz sits inside a defended bay covered by San Cristóbal, smaller forts, and breastworks for musketeers. Blake adapts the method he used against Barbary pirates at Porto Farina rather than improvising an entirely new attack. He assigns twelve fast, powerful frigate-built ships under Richard Stayner to close with the anchored vessels. Their exact rating is disputed, but their armament gave them roughly fourth-rate combat power despite the frigate-built form. Blake's heavier division will follow and bombard the shore batteries. The plan uses concentrated ship attack, a practiced harbor-raiding technique, and naval gunfire instead of depending on surprise alone.