The night Nelson lost his arm in Santa Cruz

In the middle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, underneath the Plaza de España, there is a bronze cannon in an interpretation room. It comes from the remains of the castle of San Cristóbal, which stood where people now walk past with their shopping.

That cannon is called El Tigre, and for more than two centuries the city has told the story that it was the one that took Horatio Nelson's arm off.

The story is a good one even with the legend stripped out. And the two are worth separating, because not everything that gets told is documented to the same standard.

What Nelson came here for

In July 1797 Nelson was a rear admiral, and he arrived off Tenerife with a Royal Navy squadron. The island itself was not the point: the target was the traffic between America and Spain, and, while they were at it, bringing the Canaries under the British crown.

The plan was meant to be quick: land, take the town, help themselves to whatever was in the harbour.

Facing him was Antonio Gutiérrez, commander general of the Canaries, with around two thousand one hundred men made up of militia, infantry, gunners, French sailors and volunteers from the town. This was not a professional army. It was, to a large extent, local people.

Four days, and the night that decided it

The squadron was sighted on 21 July. The next day brought a first landing attempt at Bufadero beach, which was repelled, and a second at Valleseco, where some twelve hundred men did get ashore.

On the 24th the squadron reappeared with another warship. The main assault came in the early hours of 25 July, straight at the mole and the Alameda beach.

That is where the night turned. Nelson was in one of the boats approaching the shore when grapeshot hit him. His right arm was ruined, and it was amputated that same night aboard his flagship.

On the 26th the British evacuation began.

The most courteous surrender on record

What makes this episode unusual is not the fighting. It is how it ended.

The agreed terms were that the British troops would embark with their weapons and that prisoners would be returned. In exchange, the squadron would not attack Santa Cruz or the rest of the islands.

In other words: the defeated side left with its weapons and its dignity, and the winning side did not pursue. In the wars of that period, that was not the normal outcome.

From here on comes the part that the city's own chronicle presents as tradition rather than documented fact: that Nelson sent Gutiérrez a letter of thanks signed with his left hand, along with a pair of night glasses, cheese and English beer, and that the Spanish general sent back local wine.

It may have happened exactly like that. It may also have been rounded off over the years. It is worth telling while knowing which of the two you are reading.

About that cannon

El Tigre works the same way. The city's official chronicle records that Nelson was hit by grapeshot from that gun, positioned that night in an embrasure opened in the Santo Domingo bastion to cover the Alameda beach, which was otherwise undefended.

What no source can establish with certainty is which piece actually fired the shot that hit him. In a night defence with several batteries firing over the same stretch of water, crediting the hit to one specific cannon is, at best, a probability.

El Tigre exists, it was there, and it fired. That the shot was its own is what the city chose to remember.

Where to see all this today

The castle of San Cristóbal is no longer standing. It was demolished in the early twentieth century and the city grew over it. What survives of it, and the cannon, are kept in the underground interpretation centre beneath the Plaza de España, in the heart of Santa Cruz.

It is a short visit, and it has a rare quality: you are underneath the square where it happened, not in a museum on the outskirts.

Every 25 July the city commemorates that night, re-enactment included. If you are in Tenerife around then, it is one of the few historical events here that does not feel like a stage set.

To fit it in with the rest of the island there is our guide to Tenerife, and if you like places that stay off the coach circuits, the secret places of the islands.

Sources

• Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, official chronicle: "La gesta tinerfeña del 25 de julio de 1797". The courtesies between Nelson and Gutiérrez appear there as tradition, with no documentation cited.

Cover photo: the «El Tigre» cannon, castillo de San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Photograph: Koppchen, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.