With Mann's desertion and the Spanish declaration of war, Jervis found his fleet isolated and outnumbered. Acting on orders from the Admiralty, he withdrew his forces from the Mediterranean entirely, retreating to Gibraltar and then Lisbon. There he received reinforcements from Britain and, in February 1797, launched a successful attack on the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, inflicting such a serious defeat that the Spanish fleet would not emerge again from Cádiz until the Croisière de Bruix campaign in 1799. Bowen was attached to the Cádiz blockade, capturing several merchant vessels in November 1796, defeating the French frigate Vestale off Cádiz at the Action of 13 December 1796, and attacking the damaged Spanish 130-gun Santísima Trinidad in the aftermath of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. In July 1797 Terpsichore was with the squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson which attacked the port of Santa Cruz on Tenerife. The operation was a failure, Nelson's force driven off with heavy casualties; Nelson lost an arm and Bowen was struck and killed by grape shot while storming the town. More than five decades after the battle the Admiralty recognised the action with a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.