On New Year's Day, 1780, Rodney's armada was at sea. In addition to the scouting frigates and twenty-one line of battleships no less than three hundred merchantmen cleared the Channel that chill morning. In accordance with her instructions Cyclops was part of the escort attending the transports and so took no part in the action of 8th January.

A Spanish squadron of four frigates, two corvettes and the 64-gun ship Guipuscoano was encountered off Cape Finisterre with a convoy of fifteen merchantmen. The entire force was surrounded and taken. Prize crews were put on board and the captured vessels escorted back to England by the Guipuscoano, renamed Prince William in honour of the Duke of Clarence then a midshipman with the fleet. The captured vessels which contained victuals were retained to augment the supplies destined for Gibraltar.

As the concourse of ships plodded its slow way down the Iberian coast on the afternoon of the 15th, Drinkwater sat in the foretop of the Cyclops. It was his action station and he had come to regard it as something of his own domain, guarded as it was by its musket rests and a small swivel gun. Here he was free of the rank taint between decks, the bullying senselessness of Morris and here too, in the dog watches, he was able to learn some of the finer points of the seaman's art from an able seaman named Tregembo.

Young Nathaniel was quick to learn and impressed most of his superiors with his eager enthusiasm to attempt any task.