August 1797 Commander in Chief:

Nelson became commander in chief of a squadron, which had order to sail to Tenerife and conquer a Spanish treasure ship, which had sailed to Tenerife to be safe from the British frigates, which had order to control the Spanish ship's movement near the Canary Islands.
His flagship was the "H.M.S. Theseus", a ship of the line with 74 guns. Furthermore he had the command of 3 other ships of the line, 3 frigates and the cutter "Fox". After Nelson had arrived during the night, he attacked the port with 700 men, but the attack didn't succeed. So Nelson ordered his ships to carry out a bombardment of Santa Cruz.

As most of the British sailors were on Tenerife to fight against the Spanish, there weren't enough men to make the bombardment efficient. Again the assault failed and the British ships retreated from Tenerife towards the Atlantic Ocean. During the next days, Nelson felt very dissatisfied and sad, and that was why he returned to Tenerife and tried attacked again. After Nelson's second attack Santa Cruz got new reinforcements of soldiers from the other parts of Tenerife. This time Nelson led the boat attack with a force of 1100 men personally. The Spanish defenders used all their guns and muskets to stop the "English pirates". The Spanish fire caused high casualties, and even Nelson was hit by a musket-bullet. He was taken back to "Theseus" and the ship's doctor amputated Nelson right arm. While Nelson was lying in "Theseus", the British situation became hopeless; several post-captains had died and the Spanish had now the perfect possibility to finish off the English.
But Post-captain Thomas Troubridge invented a bluff to force the Spanish to surrender: Troubridge's men would burn the town, if the Spanish didn't surrender. The Spanish accepted Troubridge's suggestion and in addition to that, they helped the wounded sailors to arrive at their ships.

After all the wounded had been transferred to the ships, the British left for Portsmouth with casualties of nearly two hundred officers, sailors and soldiers. On this mission Nelson was escorted by his step-son Lt. Josiah Nisbet. On the 6th of September, Nelson had returned to England and was welcomed as a hero, because the population of England still celebrated him as the symbol of the great success in the Battle of St. Vincent. Furthermore the loss of his right arm made his defeat forgotten. After Nelson's recovery was successfully finished he felt strong enough to take a new command about ships of his Majesty's Fleet. Soon he was ordered in "Vanguard" to join the Mediterranean Fleet under the command of Earl St. Vincent.