On This Day In History: Naval Battle Of Porto Bello Begins – On Nov 20, 1739

AncientPages.com - On November 20, 1739, the Battle of Porto Bello started. It was a historic naval battle between a British naval force aiming to capture the settlement of Portobello in Panama and its Spanish defenders.

British merchants' desire to access the Spanish Empire's markets in the Americas culminated in 1738.

Battle of Portobello. This painting shows the attack on the Iron Castle. In the left foreground Vernon's flagship, 'Burford', 70 guns, with Vernon's blue Vice-Admiral's flag at the fore, in starboard-quarter view, engages the Iron Castle to port and two of the boats are moving in to make a landing. Ahead of her are the 'Strafford', 60 guns, and the 'Worcester', 60 guns, with Commodore Brown in the 'Hampton Court', 70 guns, on their right, flying his red swallow-tail pennant. Puerto Bello can be seen in the right background with gunfire coming from the castle. All the Union flags are incorrectly shown as being of the post-1801 pattern. Painting (1838) by George Chambers (1803 - 1840). Public Domain

Naval officer and Member of Parliament Edward Vernon was ready to take a Caribbean port - Porto Bello – with six ships only" and the British government being under the pressure of war, made Vernon a vice admiral with orders to capture the port.

On this day, Vernon appeared with seven ships but one ship he sent away because he only promised to take Porto Bello with six ships. Local coastguard vessels and warships offered no resistance to the British squadron.

Vice Admiral Edward Vernon captured Porto Bello within twenty-four hours. The Spanish garrison was caught unprepared. When some Spaniards began to flee from several parts of the fort, several landing parties were sent inshore.

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.

The British occupied the town for three weeks before withdrawing, destroying its fortifications, port, and warehouses.

The capture of Porto Bello was welcomed as an exceptionally popular triumph throughout Britain and America. The name of Portobello came to be used in commemoration at various locations, such as the Portobello Road in London, the Portobello district of Edinburgh, and Dublin, as well as Porto Bello in Virginia and Porto Bello in St. Mary's County, Maryland.

The victory was particularly well received in the North-American British colonies, where the Spanish had been preying on British shipping.

Admiral Vernon became a famous hero and was commemorated in several places, perhaps most famously Mount Vernon, later the estate of George Washington.

The town's economy did not recover fully until the construction of the Panama Canal nearly two centuries later.

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