HMS Santa Margarita was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had been built for service with the Spanish Navy, but was captured after five years in service, eventually spending nearly 60 years with the British.

The Atlantic raid of June 1796 was a short campaign containing three connected minor naval engagements fought in the Western Approaches comprising Royal Navy efforts to eliminate a squadron of French frigates operating against British commerce during the French Revolutionary Wars. Although Royal Navy dominance in the Western Atlantic had been established, French commerce raiders operating on short cruises were having a damaging effect on British trade, and British frigate squadrons regularly patrolled from Cork in search of the raiders. One such squadron comprised the 36-gun frigates HMS Unicorn and HMS Santa Margarita, patrolling in the vicinity of the Scilly Isles, which encountered a French squadron comprising the frigates Tribune and Tamise and the corvette Légėre.