The Battle of Augusta was a naval battle of the Franco-Dutch War which was fought off the coast of Sicily on 22 April 1676. The Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter had been sent to the Mediterranean with 18 ships to assist the Spanish Navy in fighting off the French Navy, which had arrived in force off the coast of Sicily to aid the city of Messina in its anti-Habsburg revolt. In 1676, De Ruyter was joined by a Spanish squadron of ten warships, and the combined fleet decided to attack the French fleet which was guarding Messina's harbor. In the ensuing battle off Augusta, the two fleets met at the Bay of Catania. The Dutch-Spanish fleet found itself outnumbered, and, though only fractions of both fleets were engaged in the battle, De Ruyter skillfully extracted his fleet from a French trap, in which the French attacked his fleet from both sides. However, De Ruyter lost his leg to a French cannonball in the process, and, the next morning, the fleets separated without further fighting. Neither side lost a ship, but the Dutch fleet's manpower losses were greater, and the Spanish and Dutch failed in their objective of defeating the French fleet and attacking Messina. The Dutch would lose their new admiral Jan de Haan at the Battle of Palermo shortly after, and the French would not withdraw for Messina for another two years.