The warship had its guns manned as it sailed in close to the Rock. The Royal Navy responded to this escalation and dispatched a vessel to investigate the incident. The Gibraltar government said: “The Royal Navy deployed a launch and a rigid-hulled inflatable boat to the scene.
“After being challenged by the Royal Navy, the Spanish warship sailed slowly along the Gibraltar coast with its weapons uncovered and manned.”
They added that they are “verifying every aspect of the incident in order to ensure that appropriate action is taking as soon as possible.
“It seems there are still some in the Spanish navy who think they can flout international law.
“This probably accounts for the state of extremism of some parts of the Spanish political spectrum these days.”
READ MORE: Three Royal Navy vessels chase Spanish warship out of British waters
An audio recording can be heard of the Spanish warship’s crew radioing the vessels anchored at the Rock to “leave Spanish territorial waters”.
In the radio exchange, one of the Gibraltar vessels can be heard asking the Spanish ship “to verify you are referring to our ship” because they are anchored in Gibraltar.
The commercial vessel replied saying, “we are not adrift, we are at anchor now,” before being told again to leave Spanish waters.
The recording obtained by the Chronicle of exchanges over VHF radio show how the Spanish Navy crew told the merchant ships that they were “violating the condition of innocent passage”.
At the time, both vessels were anchored awaiting orders in waters under the control of the Gibraltar Port Authority.
The spokesman for the Gibraltar government said: “There is only nuisance value to these foolish games being played by those who don’t accept unimpeachable British sovereignty over the waters around Gibraltar as recognised by the whole world in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
The Spanish warship was accused of trying to take “executive action” against the commercial boats, which were anchored on the eastern side of the Rock.
Commercial boats which were ordered to move were instructed to remain by the Gibraltar Port Authority.