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April 25, 1607 - Bay of Gibraltar: On a dark, overcast day during the Eighty Years' War, a small Dutch escort fleet under the command of Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk sailed into the Bay of Gibraltar. At the time, a small Spanish fleet under the command of Don Juan Alvarez de Avila was anchored in the bay. The appearance of the Dutch fleet surprised Don Alvarez, who was anchored safely in Spanish territorial waters. His fleet consisted of twenty-one warships, ten of them large galleons, the premier warship of the time. Van Heemskerk commanded thirty ships, twenty-six of which were small warships and four merchantmen.

Leaving a few warships at the mouth of the bay to protect the merchantmen, van Heemskerk ordered his fleet into the bay to engage the Spanish flagship, San Augustin. Surrounding the large galleon, the Dutch opened fire on the San Augustin, but not before Don Alvarez ordered a cannonade of his own, severely damaging the Dutch flagship, AEolus, and mortally wounding Admiral van Heemskerk. The Admiral, standing on the aftdeck, was bellowing orders to his signalman when a cannonball severed his left leg. Collapsing in a pool of his own blood, van Heemskerk quickly bled out from the horrific wound.

Now commander-less, the Dutch rallied at the orders of van Heemskerk's second-in-command to double up against the galleons. The broadside attacks against both sides of the galleons took all ten quickly out of commission, with one blown clear out of the water after a well aimed cannonball hit the powder magazine. Flames licked the sails of several Spanish ships as the crews abandoned the infernos before their sinking.

The San Augustin was targeted next by the Dutch captains. After several salvos that damaged the flagship, the Dutch boarded, quickly overpowering the crew and receiving the surrender of Don Alvarez. However, in retaliation of the death of Admiral van Heemskerk, the Dutch murdered Alvarez and dumped his torn, battered body into the bay before killing the remaining Spanish crew aboard the ship. The San Augustin was set adrift to burn down to the waterline.

After four hours of heavy fighting and countless fusillades, the Spanish were completely defeated, having lost every ship originally anchored in the bay. Hundreds of Spanish sailors still thrashed about in the warm waters trying to survive and reach shore. The Dutch commander gave the order to lower the longboats and see to the Spaniards. Seeing the longboats nearing, many Spanish sailors swam toward them, believing that they would rescue them from drowning. However, the Dutch sailors used short swords to hack the Spaniards to death, rowing from sailor to sailor ensuring that each was dead before returning to their ships.

One hundred Dutch sailors were killed in the battle, including Admiral van Heemskerk. When they sailed out of the bay late that evening with all thirty ships intact, the Dutch left behind four thousand Spanish sailors in the dark water of the bay and twenty-one ships below it. Witnesses from ashore reported later that the bay was the color of a sunset from the blood, which took hours to dilute. Seabirds and sharks picked at the bloated bodied floating in the bay for weeks afterward, and residents of the coast regularly found the evidence of the Dutch butchery washed ashore. Although it was a decisive Dutch victory, they did not win their independence from Spain for another forty years, with the Battle of Gibraltar fading into the chronicles of history shortly after.