Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1741): Blas de Lezo Holds Firm

The Battle of Cartagena de Indias was a British attempt in 1741 to capture Spain’s most important fortified port on the Caribbean coast of South America. Admiral Edward Vernon arrived with one of the largest amphibious forces of the 18th century, but after two months of fighting the expedition failed. The Spanish defence, led by Viceroy Sebastián de Eslava and Admiral Blas de Lezo, and the devastating effect of yellow fever made it one of Britain’s worst military defeats of the period.

Background: the War of Jenkins’ Ear

In the 1730s British merchants traded and smuggled heavily in Spanish America, partly through the Asiento slave-trade contract. Spanish coast guards stopped and searched British ships. In 1738 a merchant captain, Robert Jenkins, showed Parliament what he said was his ear, cut off by a Spanish officer in 1731. The story became a symbol of Spanish “outrages” and helped push Britain into war, declared on 23 October 1739.

The conflict, later absorbed into the wider War of the Austrian Succession, began well for Britain. In November 1739 Vernon captured Porto Bello in Panama with just six ships, and became a national hero. London then planned a much larger expedition to strike at the heart of Spain’s Caribbean empire.

Cartagena was a natural target. It was the port where silver and gold from New Granada and Peru were gathered for the treasure fleets, and it was protected by a ring of forts guarding the narrow entrance at Boca Chica and the inner harbour.

The forces

The British expedition was huge. Commonly cited figures are more than 180 ships, including about 29 ships of the line, carrying roughly 25,000 to 30,000 sailors, soldiers and labourers. About 3,500 of the troops were volunteers from Britain’s North American colonies. The army’s commander, Lord Cathcart, died of disease on the way, and command passed to the less experienced Brigadier General Thomas Wentworth.

The defenders were far fewer: around 3,000 to 4,000 regular soldiers, sailors, militia and Indigenous archers, with six Spanish ships of the line. Eslava held overall command as viceroy, while Lezo commanded the naval forces. The two men disagreed on tactics, and their rivalry continued in their reports to Madrid.

The siege

Vernon’s fleet appeared off Cartagena on 13 March 1741. Over the following weeks the British bombarded and stormed the forts at Boca Chica, and by early April they had broken into the outer harbour. Lezo ordered his ships to be scuttled to block the channel, but the British forced their way into the inner bay.

Confident of victory, Vernon sent news to Britain, and medals were struck celebrating the capture of Cartagena, some showing Lezo kneeling before him. The city itself, however, was still protected by the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas on a hill above it.

On 20 April British troops made a night assault on San Felipe. The attack went badly wrong: columns lost their way, the defenders’ fire was heavy and the assault was beaten back with severe losses. Accounts often add that the scaling ladders proved too short, a detail that appears in traditional narratives.

By then the rainy season had begun. Yellow fever, dysentery and other diseases spread through the crowded camps and ships. Thousands of men died or became too sick to fight. Vernon and Wentworth blamed each other, and the expedition began to re-embark. By 20 May the fleet had left.

Losses

Exact figures are uncertain. Most estimates put British deaths in the expedition, from all causes, in the range of several thousand to around 10,000, with disease far deadlier than Spanish guns. Spanish losses were much lower, usually given as roughly 800 killed and 1,200 wounded, along with the ships scuttled or lost in the harbour. Lezo himself was wounded and died in Cartagena on 7 September 1741, probably of disease.

Legacy

In Spain and Colombia, the defence of Cartagena is remembered as a great victory, and Blas de Lezo, nicknamed “Mediohombre” (“half-man”) for his earlier wounds, is a national hero with monuments in Cartagena and Madrid. In Britain the defeat was played down, while the premature victory medals became a famous embarrassment.

One American participant, Lawrence Washington, admired Vernon so much that he named his Virginia estate Mount Vernon. It later became the home of his half-brother George Washington.

Claims that the fleet was the largest ever assembled before the Second World War are popular but hard to prove; it was, however, among the largest of its century.

Timeline

• 1739, 23 October: Britain declares war on Spain.
• 1739, November: Vernon captures Porto Bello.
• 1740, December: Lord Cathcart dies on the voyage to the Caribbean.
• 1741, 13 March: The British fleet arrives off Cartagena.
• 1741, early April: The Boca Chica forts fall; the British enter the bay.
• 1741, 20 April: The assault on San Felipe de Barajas fails.
• 1741, May: Disease forces the British to withdraw; the fleet has gone by 20 May.
• 1741, 7 September: Blas de Lezo dies in Cartagena.

Why it matters

Cartagena showed the limits of British sea power in the tropics, where disease could destroy an army faster than any enemy. The defeat helped keep Spain’s empire in South America intact for another seven decades.