Battle
Vernon's force appeared off Portobello on 20 November 1739. The British ships entered the bay prepared for a general attack, but a wind coming from the east obliged Vernon to concentrate his ships on the Todo Fierro harbour fort. The Spanish garrison was caught unprepared. When some Spaniards began to fly from several parts of the fort, several landing parties were sent inshore. The British sailors and marines scaled the walls of the fort, struck the Spanish colours in the lower battery and hoisted an English ensign. The Spaniards surrendered then at discretion. Of the 300-man Spanish garrison, only 40 soldiers led by Lieutenant Don Juan Francisco Garganta had remained in the fort.
Once captured Todo Fierro, Vernon shifted his ships against Santiago Fortress, sinking a Spanish sloop and causing other damages. At dawn on the following morning, the Spaniards requested terms. Governor Francisco Javier MartÃnez de la Vega y Retes surrendered at the afternoon. Portobello was occupied by the British at the cost of three dead and seven injured. Three prizes were taken: an armed snow which was renamed Triumph and two coastguards of 20 guns each one. The British occupied the town for three weeks, destroying the fortress and other key buildings and ending the settlement's main function as a major Spanish maritime base, before withdrawing.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Porto Bello
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“Above the bayonets, mixed and crossed,
Men saw a gray, gigantic ghost
Receding through the battle cloud,
And heard across the tempest loud
The death cry of a nation lost!”
—Will Henry Thompson (1848–1918)
“War consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
“A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.”
—Leonard Cohen (b. 1934)