George Anson's Voyage Around The World - Attacks in Spanish America

Attacks in Spanish America

By September 1741 back at Juan Fernandez, most of Anson's men were on the way to recovery and as their health returned, they were set to work carrying out much needed repairs on the ships - as best they could with limited materials and without port facilities. The big question for Anson though was what to do next. Given that his force had been so drastically reduced and that in the nine months since they had been at St. Catherines and received any news, the strategic situation may have changed so that perhaps England and Spain were no longer at war. There was also no way of knowing what had become of Pizarro's squadron that had attempted to intercept them though he assumed that although they likely had troubles getting around the Horn, they had probably been repaired and resupplied and were now on the lookout for him.

While contemplating an attack on Panama, a single ship was sighted on 8 September but it sailed past the island. Presuming it to be Spanish, Anson had the Centurion readied for sea and set after it but it disappeared into the night. They continued searching two more days but as they were about to give up, another ship was spotted coming directly towards them causing some alarm as they feared it might have been one of Pizarro's squadron but it turned out to be a lightly armed merchant vessel. After the Centurion fired four shots into the rigging, she surrendered. The cargo of the Nuestra Señora del Monte Carmelo (henceforth, the Carmelo) was of little interest to Anson but the passengers carried £18,000 of bullion.

Of far greater value was the information obtained from documents found aboard. Spain was still at war with Britain and a British attack in the Caribbean had been repelled so there was now no hope of linking with friendly forces for a combined attack on Panama, nor could they be resupplied.

However, there was no immediate danger from Pizarro as his squadron had suffered even more terribly in their attempt to get around Cape Horn ahead of Anson. Expecting a relatively quick voyage and with access to Spanish-held ports in Chile, Pizarro's ships had set out with only four months provisions but were hit by ferocious storms after rounding the Horn and were gradually pushed backwards. The paths of the British and Spanish ships must have crossed but while concentrating on survival and in minimal visibility, neither sighted the other.

At some point, the Hermiona (54 guns) sank without a trace while on the other ships, the crews began to starve. Pizarro's flagship, the Asia (66 guns) and the San Estevan (40 guns) made it back to the River Plate with only half the crew still alive. On the Esperenza (50 guns), just 58 out of 450 reached safety. The hull of the Guipuscoa (74 guns) began to leak, and eventually she lost all three masts, by which time 250 of the 700 crew had died. Fortunately the wind blew the broken ship north past the Rio Plata rather than into the Atlantic. The largely helpless vessel ran aground near St. Catherine's.

On arrival in Buenos Aires, Pizarro sent a message overland to Peru warning of Anson's likely arrival in the Pacific and in response, four armed vessels were sent from Callao supposedly with orders to kill rather than capture. Three were stationed off Concepción while the fourth was sent to Juan Fernandez. They gave up waiting in early June, concluding that Anson's ships had either been lost at sea or had gone elsewhere. As it happened then, the chart that incorrectly placed Juan Fernandez saved Anson's squadron : the nine days Anson wasted trying to find the island delayed his arrival until after the Spanish ship had left.

Furthermore, the ships from Callao had also been badly damaged by storms and would be in port for another two months so there were now no Spanish ship looking for them, though suspicions would be raised again when the Carmelo failed to arrive within a reasonable period. In the meantime, Anson's ships could capture unsuspecting merchant vessels sailing along the coast.

The Gloucester was sent north to hunt outside Paita but to stay sufficiently far out to sea that she could not be seen from land. Twenty nine Spanish prisoners were sent aboard to help man her, although only seven were of any use but all had to be guarded.

The Centurion, Carmelo and the little Tryal waited off Valparaiso. The Tryal took the Arranzazu, an unarmed merchant ship three times her size carrying cargo of little use except for £5,000 in silver. The Tryal had been badly damaged by storms, so her guns were transferred to the prize vessel and she was allowed to sink. The Centurion captured the Santa Teresa de Jesus whose cargo was near worthless but the passengers included three women. Anson intended to demonstrate that he was a disciplined military officer rather than a ruthless buccaneer, and so treated his prisoners well, including assigning a guard for the women and allowing them to keep their cabins. The Nuestra Señora de Carmin was then seized and an Irish sailor on board revealed that Gloucester had been sighted by a ship entering Paita, and that the authorities has been alerted.

With their cover blown, Anson decided to attack Paita immediately in the hope of intercepting treasure that was to be shipped to Mexico the next day. Given its small size, the town was lightly defended. But with limited forces, Anson had no hope of conquering any of the major Spanish settlements. Sixty men went ashore at night in the ships' boats and took the town with hardly a shot being fired by the Spaniards. One sailor was killed but it was believed to be 'friendly fire'. Most of the residents simply fled to a hill overlooking the town. Anson's men remained in the town for three days ferrying the contents of the custom's house out to the ships, along with livestock to feed the crew. On the way out, Anson ordered that the prisoners be sent ashore and that town be burned, with the notable exception of two churches. One Spanish vessel in harbour was towed away and the rest were sunk. The tally of prize money came to £30,000 which, according to the rules, was to be distributed by rank regardless of who had actually gone ashore. This was one of many disputes over allocation of prize money.

Meanwhile, the Gloucester had captured two small vessels netting another £19,000.

The squadron of Centurion and Gloucester plus six prize ships then set off toward Acapulco in the hope of intercepting the galleon from Manila. It would be two months before it would arrive which would normally be ample time, but both the Centurion and Gloucester were towing prize ships and the winds were against them. With water running short, they stopped at the island of Quibo (Isla de Coiba) where they also captured giant turtles for food, some of which were kept alive until needed. With good nutrition since leaving Juan Fernandez seven months earlier, only two of the crew had died.

Upon reaching what was thought to be the latitude of Acapulco on 26 January 1742 they turned east and seeing a light in the distance through the darkness, the Centurion and Gloucester set after it believing it to be the galleon. Dawn revealed it was merely a fire on a mountain. Anson needed to know if the galleon was already in port but Acapulco was nowhere in sight so, while keeping the ships well out to sea to avoid detection, he sent one of the ship's boats inshore to search for the port and to see if the ship had arrived. After five days they returned unable to even locate the port. After sailing further along the coast the boat was sent out again and this time they found Acapulco but also captured three fishermen who confirmed that the galleon had arrived three weeks earlier but the outbound galleon, loaded with silver, was to sail on 3 March, in two weeks. It had a crew of 400 and 58 guns.

The plan was that the Centurion and Gloucester would take part in any action so Anson's men were concentrated on these ships, supplemented by slaves taken from the Spanish who were trained how to use the guns and promised their freedom. They would stay far enough offshore during the day to avoid being sighted but come in close at night in case the galleon tried to escape under cover of darkness. The three prize ships had minimal crew but were still useful to maintain a lookout further out.

Nothing happened. The Spanish had spotted the ship's boat as it had sailed along the coast and had decided not to send the galleon, rightly suspecting that a trap had been set. There was no hope of a successful attack on the well-defended city so Anson gave up his frustrating wait at the start of April as water was running dangerously low and headed north-east to Zihuatanejo where William Dampier had reported a good water source. He left seven men in a cutter on patrol outside Acapulco to report later just in case the galleon sailed.

Watering proved much more difficult than expected as the river had reshaped the landscape since Dampier's visit in 1685 so the men had to walk a half-mile inland to reach water of barely acceptable quality.

Since the Spanish were now on alert for his squadron, it was obvious that the way home would be by way of China to either the Portuguese colony at Macau or further up the river to Canton, a base for the English East India company, rather than back around Cape Horn. Before leaving though, there was still the question of what to do with the prize ships. Anson had already decided to destroy the Carmelo and Carmin and given the severe shortage of men on the Centurion and Gloucestor, he concluded there was no choice but to also sacrifice the Arranzazu, now renamed the Tryal's Prize and transfer the men, even though the impressive 600-ton ship was "in good repair and fit for sea". This was against the determined argument of the officers from the Tryal since their transfer would mean loss of seniority and therefore pay and prize money.

The cutter had no reappeared so Anson sailed back toward Acapulco in the hope of finding his men. Concluding that they had been captured, he sent six Spanish prisoners ashore in a small boat with a note saying he would release the rest if his men were set free. On the third day waiting for a reply, the cutter appeared but not from out of the harbour. The crew were in very poor health after being unable to land to find water and suffering from severe sunburn after six weeks in an open boat. On their arrival, Anson sent 57 of his prisoners ashore including all the Spaniards but kept 43 of other races. On 6 May 1742 they headed west into the Pacific.