Jervis was forced to the Tagus, from where he rebuilt his fleet with reinforcements from Britain. He focused operations on the Cádiz blockade, patrolling in search of the Spanish fleet. On 14 February 1797 he encountered a much larger Spanish force in fog off Cape St. Vincent and inflicted a severe defeat on the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, who retreated to Cádiz and did not re-emerge until the Croisière de Bruix campaign in 1799. With British dominance at the Atlantic entrance to the Mediterranean established, Jervis awaited an opportunity to return to the Sea, while his blockading squadrons under Nelson harassed the Spanish, including a failed assault on Cádiz in June, and the disastrous Battle of Santa Cruz in July at which Nelson lost an arm. It was not until the spring of 1798 and the attempt by a French army under Bonaparte to invade Egypt that a British fleet was able once more to enter the Mediterranean. In the Mediterranean campaign of 1798 a recovered Nelson tracked the French fleet and destroyed it at the Battle of the Nile, reasserting British naval supremacy in the region and initiating the War of the Second Coalition.