Santa Ana was a 112-gun three-decker ship of the line of the Spanish Navy, built to plans drawn by engineer Miguel de la Puente, following a specification issued by José Romero Fernández de Landa. Her actual constructor at Ferrol was Honorato Bouyón. She was the prototype and lead ship of the Santa Ana class, also known as los Meregildos, which were built during the following years at Ferrol and Havana and which formed the backbone of the Spanish Navy - the other ships were the Mejicano, Conde de Regla, Salvador del Mundo, Real Carlos, San Hermenegildo, Reina María Luisa and Príncipe de Asturias. Her dimensions were 213.4 Burgos feet long, 58 feet in the beam and a total tonnage of 2,112 tonnes.

José Romero y Fernández de Landa (1735–1807), better known as Romero Landa was a Spanish naval and army officer and the Spanish Navy's first official naval engineer and ship designer. He designed several two-and three-deck ships of the line in the late 18th and early 19th centuries which fought at the Battle of Cape St Vincent and the Battle of Trafalgar.