Don Jose de Mazarredo Salazar de Muñatones y Gortázar Order of Santiago (Bilbao 1745 – Madrid, 1812) was a Spanish naval commander, cartographer, ambassador, astronomer and professor of naval tactics. He is considered to be one of the best Spanish naval commanders of all time.
Early life
His inclination toward the sea began at a young age; at 14 he enlisted himself aboard the sloop Andaluz. After 12 years of service in the Spanish navy, he was promoted to assistant of the maritime department of Cartagena. In 1772 Don José de Mazarredo went to the Philippines aboard the Frigate Venus. In 1774 he was transferred to the frigate Rosalía and took part in a hydrographic campaign in South America.
In 1775 he took part of the Spanish attack on Algiers. The decisions on navigation, anchorage and disembarkation of the twenty thousand men of the Spanish army were made by him. Shortly after, Mazarredo developed a tabular system for the use by the Spanish Navy. In 1778, as commander of the ship of the line San Juan Bautista, he completed hydrographic surveys in the Iberian Peninsula, contributing to the creation of a Maritime Atlas.
Tactics
Mazarredo was an original theorist. The Spanish Navy entered the American Revolutionary War with a system of tactics devised by him, Teniente de navío de la Real Armada, and expounded in Rudimentos de Táctica Naval para Instrucción de los Officiales Subalternos de Marina, printed at Madrid in 1776, dedicated to King Charles III. Despite bearing some evidence of the influence of Paul Hoste and Sébastien Morogues, this is a text book for junior officers, though it could clearly have been read with profit by all alike. In common with the French writers, Mazarredo said very little about fighting the enemy. Broadly speaking, his tone was sophisticated and undogmatic.
Mazarredo did introduce a new sea-warfare idea, the use of fireships by the windward fleet, if threatened with doubling as a means of covering its retreat to windward. [He] also showed himself an innovator in his treatment of breaking the enemy line. He proposed that, when the fleet was to windward, the centre should break through the enemy centre. In the process of breaking through, the enemy's centre ships immediately astern of the break would be forced away to leeward, so disorganising the enemy rear and isolating it. Meanwhile, the enemy van would have no choice but to stand on to avoid being put between two fires, and it would thus become completely separated from the remainder of the fleet.
Exactly the same movement might be executed from leeward, though in that case the enemy's rear would be forced to give way to windward, thus exposing itself to the fire of the centre and rear ships of the attacking fleet. Mazarredo also drew up a signal book, specifically for Córdova's fleet, which was printed in 1781. It was used in the operations against Minorca and Gibraltar, and it does not seem unreasonable that Córdova's signalling system was somewhat similar when he first joined comte d'Orvilliers in 1778. Mazarredo's signal book of 1781 is an improvement on Chevalier du Pavillon's. Like the latter, it employed a tabular system, but much less complex. It employed tables 20 yby 20, each permitting 400 signals.
This signal book was prepared for Franco-Spanish cooperation, as it begins with special signals for indicating Spanish and French squadrons, divisions, frigates, the reserve corps, etc. The 400 signals for use at anchor covered not only every feature of fleet administration, as in the manner of Morogues, but also shore bombardments and landings. Twenty special signals allowed for reporting the movements of ships, to be made by privateers. The signals for use under sail by day, made with a combination of 'cornets', which were swallow-tail flags, other flags, and flags from the table, included a series of battle signals. No-one studying this book could criticise the Spanish either for a lack of useful signals for battle and general purposes, or for over elaboration of signalling technique. Although still tied to the tabular system, their arrangement was brilliantly simple compared with that of the French.