This battle should not be confused with the Battle of La Guaira

Battle of La Guaira

The Battle of La Guaira or La Guayra, took place on 2 March 1743 in the Caribbean, off the coast of La Guaira, present day Venezuela. A British expeditionary fleet under Sir Charles Knowles was defeated, and the expedition ended in failure. 400 men were killed and wounded, among whom was the...

 in 1743.

The Battle of La Guaira was a naval engagement fought in the West Indies on December 11 of 1812 during the war

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

 between Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. An American privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

 captured a British privateer at the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 port of La Guaira

La Guaira

La Guaira is the capital city of the Venezuelan state of Vargas and the country's chief port. It was founded in 1577 as an outlet for Caracas, to the southeast. The town and the port were badly damaged during the December 1999 floods and mudslides that affected much of the region...

 in Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

.

Battle

On December 10, while on a commerce raiding

Commerce raiding

Commerce raiding or guerre de course is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt the logistics of an enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them.Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by...

 cruise, the American schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 Saratoga under Captain

Captain (naval)

Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....

 Charles W. Wooster anchored off La Guaira. But just after arriving, Captain Wooster was warned by the American consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 that if he remained at the port, the Spanish garrison

Garrison

Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....

 would sink his ship with their shore batteries. So accordingly the Americans withdrew out of range but remained in front of the city. That same day the Saratoga captured a British schooner and sent her as a prize back to the United States. On the following morning as a heavy fog cleared away, the Americans spotted an incoming brig

Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

, unknown at the time, she was the Rachel, originally commanded by Captain N. Dalmarhoy mounting twelve long 9-pounders and two others with a crew of thirty-six men. Her captain had died two weeks before the battle so a first mate named Alexander was in charge. Immediately after spotting the British, Saratoga was underway in the direction of the enemy and it took two hours for her to close to firing range.

The Spanish colonists expected the arrival of the Rachel and they knew she carried fourteen guns and thirty-six officers and crewmen. A battle was imminent so hundreds of the colonists rushed to the beaches to observe the engagement. When the range closed the two vessels began tacking towards lands, the Saratoga opened fire from five miles off the port with her starboard bow gun. The British answered with shots from their port quarter guns until both ships were side by side. For over half an hour the two vessels dueled but the fighting ended when the Rachels fire weakened, allowing the Americans to close in and board. Only one man from the Saratoga was wounded and all but one of the Britons were casualties. A day later, twenty-five of the prisoners were released and sent to La Guaira in a longboat

Longboat

In the days of sailing ships, a vessel would carry several ship's boats for various uses. One would be a longboat, an open boat to be rowed by eight or ten oarsmen, two per thwart...

.