Maritime Atlas of Spain—Cape Santa Maria

This illustration is from the ''Atlas Marítimo de España'' (Maritime Atlas of Spain) by Vicente Tofiño. It specifically shows Cape Santa Maria, to the south of Portugal, where the English attack on the Spanish fleet took place. The Spanish fleet was commanded by José Bustamante y Guerra and included the frigate "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes," traveling from the viceroyalties. At 7.00 a.m on October 5, 1804, the Spanish fleet met the English fleet, commanded by Commodore Moore and comprised of 4 great frigates called "Indefatigable," "Lively," "Amphion," and "Medusa." Each of the English ships drew up alongside a Spanish frigate and, at 8.00 a.m, Bustamante gave the order for ''battle stations.''

Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel was a Spanish cosmographer and sailor. Together with officials from Spain's Royal Observatory and students from the Royal Company of Midshipmen, he produced the Spanish Maritime Atlas, published by the Hydrographic Depot in Madrid between 1786 and 1789. Tofiño and his colleagues devoted themselves to traveling the Spanish coasts in search of information to study and record the shoreline properly.

It was created at the end of the 18th century on the orders of King Charles III, as at the time there were no reliable maps of the Spanish coastline, making navigation difficult. Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán, Captain General of the Spanish Royal Navy and Secretary of State of the Secretariat of the Navy and the Indies, led the creation of a "hydrographic map" of Spain like the one already made of France.

The map contained the demarcations of all Spanish ports and coastlines, making it the most in-depth national hydrography project at that time. The data-collection methods used were both modern and international, combining fieldwork on land and at sea.