Ignacio Maria de Alava y Saenz de Navarrete

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Ignacio Maria de Alava y Saenz de Navarrete (1750-May 1817) was a Spanish naval officer, present at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Alava joined the Spanish navy in 1766. In his early years, he was involved in fighting the pirates of the North African coast (whom the Spanish navy had been fighting for a long time).

In 1781, he commanded the corvette San Luis, which took part in the Spanish blockade of Gibraltar during the American Revolutionary War. He took part in an attack on the floating batteries of Gibraltar, and was involved in the Battle of Cape Spartel on October 20, 1782.

Shortly after, he was promoted to capitán de navío (naval captain), and was transferred to the frigate Sabina.

From 1787 to 1790, he was flag captain in the fleet of Admiral Don Juan de Lángara. In 1790, commanding the San Francisco de Paula, he brought relief to the city of Oran, which was besieged by Algerian pirates.

In 1792, he was promoted to brigadier (Commodore), and given command of a squadron in Lángara's fleet. In 1793 and 1794, Alava took part in the campaigns in the Golfe du Lion, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

In 1795, Alava, who had been promoted to jefe de esquadra (rear admiral) the previous year, was given command of a naval squadron that sailed around the world in order to undertake several missions in the Spanish colonies, for example reorganizing the naval forces in the Philippines. He would not return to Cadiz until 1803. By then he was a teniente general (vice admiral).

On February 15, 1805, Alava was appointed second-in-command of the Spanish fleet in Cadiz, under Admiral Gravina. When Gravina joined the French Mediterranean fleet under Villeneuve for its voyage to the Caribbean, Alava remained as commander of the ships in Cadiz.

On August 20, 1805, Gravina and Villeneuve returned, and Cadiz was blockaded by a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson. On October 19, the combined French and Spanish fleet left Cadiz, with Alava on board of his flagship, the 112-gun Santa Ana. On October 21, they met the British fleet and the Battle of Trafalgar ensued.

Alava was severely wounded in the battle, and the Santa Ana was captured by the British. However, two days later, a squadron under the command of Commodore Cosmao-Kerjulien succeeded in recapturing her and getting her back to Cadiz. After Gravina died of the wounds he had received in the battle, Alava became the commander of the remaining ships in Cadiz.

In May 1808, Alava defected to Sevilla, where a junta had formed to oppose the French. After Cadiz had been recaptured by the Spanish, Alava once again became commander of the naval squadron based there.

In 1810, Alava became Commander-in-Chief in the Caribbean, based in Havana. He returned to Cadiz in 1813, as its governor.

In 1814, he became a member of the Supreme Council of the Spanish Admiralty, and on February 24, 1817, he became Admiral of the Spanish Fleet. He died after only three months in this position.

A letter, sent by the British admiral Cuthbert Collingwood to Alava, after the Battle of Trafalgar:

To Vice-Admiral Don Ignatio Maria D'Alava.
Frigate Euryalus, before Cadiz, October 30, 1805

It is with great pleasure that I have heard the wound you received in the
action is in a hopeful way of recovery, and that your country may still have
the benefit of your future service. But, Sir, you surrendered yourself to me;
and it was in consideration only of the state of your wound, that you were not
removed into my ship. I could not disturb the repose of a man supposed to be
in his last moments; but your sword, the emblem of your service, was delivered
to me by your Captain; and I expect that you consider yourself a prisoner of
war, until you shall be regularly exchanged by cartel.