Spain entered the war with one of the goals of recovering Gibraltar, which had been lost to England in 1704.[52] Its garrison included troops from Britain and the Electorate of Hanover.[53] Spain formally began the siege in June 1779, the fourteenth and longest of Gibraltar, with the Spanish establishing a land blockade around the Rock of Gibraltar.[54] The Spanish strategy combined a steady bombardment of Gibraltar from the land with seaborne attacks and attempts to cut off the supply lines to Morocco,[55] planning to retake Gibraltar by blockading and starving out its garrison.[56] The matching naval blockade was comparatively weak, and the British discovered that small fast ships could evade the blockaders, while slower and larger supply ships generally could not. By late 1779, however, supplies in Gibraltar had become seriously depleted, and its commander, General George Eliott, appealed to London for relief.[57]