Don Federico Carlos Gravina y Nápoli, (August 12th 1756 - March 9th 1806), was a Spanish Admiral during the American Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, who died of wounds sustained during the Battle of Trafalgar.
He was the son of Don Juan Gravina y Moncada and Doña Leonor Napoli y Monteaporto. His family originated in Sicily, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, and ruled by a Spanish Bourbon dynasty. With the help of his uncle, the Neapolitan Ambas...
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Don Federico Carlos Gravina y Nápoli, (August 12th 1756 - March 9th 1806), was a Spanish Admiral during the American Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, who died of wounds sustained during the Battle of Trafalgar.
He was the son of Don Juan Gravina y Moncada and Doña Leonor Napoli y Monteaporto. His family originated in Sicily, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, and ruled by a Spanish Bourbon dynasty. With the help of his uncle, the Neapolitan Ambassador to Spain, he entered the Spanish Navy, as a naval cadet aged 12. He then served as Midshipman on board the frigate Santa Clara in Brazil. In the course of this voyage, he carried out his first command when obtaining the surrender of the castle of the Ascensión, located in a small barren island near Santa Catalina. In 1777 he survived a boat accident in the River Plate in which most of the crew drowned. In 1778, on returning to Spain, he served as a lieutenant aboard a ship suppressing Algerian pirates. He then obtained his first command ...
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