CERVERA, PASCUAL CERVERA Y TOPETE (1839 1909), Spanish admiral, was born at Medina Sidonia. As a sub lieutenant he took part in the naval operations on the coast of Morocco during the campaign of 1859-60. Then he was engaged in operations in the Sulu Islands and the Philippines, and after wards on the West Indian station during the first Cuban War (1868-78), returning to Spain in 1873 to serve on the Basque coast against the Carlists. He distinguished himself in defending the Carraca arsenal near Cadiz against the Federals in 1873. He became minister of marine in 1892, in a cabinet presided over by Sagasta, but he withdrew from the cabinet when he found that his colleagues, from political motives, declined to support his re forms and, on the other hand, unwisely cut down the naval esti mates. When in 1898 the Spanish-American War (q.v.) broke out, he was chosen to command a squadron composed of four first-class cruisers, which was totally destroyed by the superior forces of the enemy. After the war, Cervera and his captains were honourably acquitted by the supreme naval and military court of the realm. In 1901 he became vice-admiral, in 1902 chief of staff of the Spanish navy, and in 1903 was made life senator.
See A. Risco, Apuntes Biograficos del Cervera y Topete (Toledo, 192o).