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Edward Vernon — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Cartagena de Indias

In 1741 he commanded a great fleet formed by one hundred and ninety-five ships and around thirty thousand men whose objective was to take the Spanish port of Cartagena de Indias, main port of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, defended by the Spanish admiral Blas de Lezo. The British fleet totaled two thousand cannons arranged in almost one hundred and eighty ships, including three-bridge ships (eight), ships of the line (twenty-eight), frigates (twelve), bombards (two) and transport ships (one hundred and thirty), and around thirty thousand combatants including sailors (fifteen thousand), soldiers (nine thousand regulars and four thousand from the American militias) and black slaves from Jamaica (four thousand).

The defences of Cartagena included three thousand men among regular troops (about one thousand seven hundred and eighty), militiamen (five hundred), six hundred Indians brought from the interior, plus the seamen and landing troops of the six warships that the city had (one hundred and fifty men): the Galicia, which was the captain ship, the San Felipe, the San Carlos, the África, the Dragón and the Conquistador. After taking some of the city's defences, the British assault on the castle San Felipe de Barajas, the last important bastion defending it, failed on April 20; with a large part of the troops ill, heavy casualties suffered in the fighting and the arrival of the rainy season, the British opted to destroy the defences within their reach and abandon the siege.

British losses were very heavy: some four thousand five hundred dead, six ships lost and between seventeen and twenty badly damaged.4 The latter forced the British Government to concentrate its forces on the defence of the metropolis, the northern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and to discard new campaigns in the Spanish colonies in America.4 The defeat at Cartagena derailed British plans for the campaign and allowed Spanish rule in the region to continue for several more decades.5 The British, certain that they were going to take the victory, had rushed to mint coins and medals to celebrate it.6 These medals read on their obverse: "British heroes took Cartagena April 1, 1741" and "Spanish pride humiliated by Vernon. "76

Vernon's expedition continued its operations in the Caribbean without further success after the failed attack on Santiago de Cuba, thanks to the defence plan deployed by Governor Francisco Cagigal de la Vega and the French engineer Francisco de Langle.8 Vernon returned to England with the bulk of the fleet in 1742.

At the end of May 1741, the British forces in the Caribbean decided to attack Cuba. Vernon captured Guantánamo Bay, briefly renaming it Cumberland Bay. He arrived with a force of eight warships and 4,000 soldiers with plans to march on Santiago de Cuba, but finally abandoned the half-hearted attempt in December after sickness broke out again. Vernon could no longer hold back his anger at what he perceived as Wentworth's ineptitude and a bitter quarrel ensued ending in the recall of both parties to Britain at the end of 1742.

Further political career, naval innovation and death

While he had been away, Vernon had been elected MP for Ipswich, after having purchased the Orwell Park estate in Nacton, Suffolk. Vernon returned to Parliament and continued to harass the government on naval affairs. In 1745, Vernon was promoted to admiral and appointed to command the North Sea Fleet in response to the threat from the French forces in support of Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"). This was his last operational command. When the Admiralty refused to grant him the status of Commander-in-Chief, he asked to be relieved on 1 December 1745. Vernon's naval career had, however, a controversial ending. He wrote two pamphlets about his disagreements with the Admiralty. The first was entitled "A Specimen of Naked Truth from a British Sailor" and the second "Some Seasonal Advice from an Honest Sailor". As a result, the Admiralty brought the matter to King George II who advised to have his name removed from the navy flag list. He was dismissed on 11 April 1746. After this, his political career was seen to go into decline, although he held on to his Ipswich seat in the 1754 general election despite a stiff challenge.

Throughout his career, Vernon had tried to improve naval procedures and encouraged his captains to improve manoeuvres and gun drill. He introduced new instructions to improve the flexibility of handling fleets in battle and formed the basis of continuing improvement to Admiralty fighting instructions by subsequent naval commanders. Vernon continued to serve in Parliament and remained active in the interest of naval affairs until his death at Nacton on 30 October 1757.

His enduring claim to fame was his 1740 order that his sailors' rum should be diluted with water. In 1740, supposedly calling the new drink "grog" after Vernon's nickname "Old Grog", attributed to his habitual wearing of a grogram coat. Some writers have claimed that Vernon also added citrus juice to prevent spoilage and that it was found to prevent scurvy. Scurvy is not mentioned in Vernon's order, in which he instructed his captains to dilute the sailors' daily allowance of rum with water, "which those that are good husbandmen may from the saving of their salt provisions and bread, purchase sugar and limes to make more palatable to them."]

Scurvy, a disease of long ocean voyages—not of squadrons operating among islands where there was an abundance of fruits and fresh foodstuffs—was seen by the medical establishment (incorrectly) as the consequence of poor digestion and internal putrefaction.[4] Standard medical remedies focused on 'gingering up' the system by imbibing a variety of (ineffective) fizzy or fermenting drinks. Until an official daily issue of lemon juice was introduced into the Royal Navy in 1795, scurvy continued to be a debilitating disease which destroyed men and disabled ships and whole fleets. Practical seamen and surgeons, however, had known from practical experience that vitamin C, in the form of citrus juice, cured scurvy. In 1795, in defiance of medical opinion, the Admiralty and the admirals introduced lemon juice and sugar as a regular part of the naval diet. When a few years later Spain allied itself with France and lemons became unobtainable, West Indian limes were substituted. It was from this time that British obtained the nickname limeys.