Blockade of Porto Bello

The Blockade of Porto Bello was a failed British military action against the Spanish port of Porto Bello in present day Panama between 1726 and 1727.

In 1726 an expedition was sent to the Spanish West Indies, under Rear-Admiral Francis Hosier, for the purpose of blocking up the Spanish galleons or seizing them should they venture out. On the first arrival of the squadron several Spanish ships were captured.

Hosier, following orders by Walpole to blockade Porto Bello but not to take it, remained before it, allowing no ships to go in or come out without strict examination. After remaining for six months, yellow fever made such havoc among his seamen that he was compelled to return to Jamaica. Two months later, he was again at sea and continued to cruise in the Caribbean Sea in front of Cartagena, still losing men to the disease.

Furthermore, this made the blockade ineffective, and in January 1727, Antonio de Gaztañeta slipped a Spanish treasure fleet with 31 million pesos worth on board through the British blockade and safely reached Spain on March 8, 1727.

A total of 4,000 British sailors lost their lives. Hosier himself also died from the deadly effects of the climate on August 23, 1727.

This disaster caused an outrage in Britain and Hosier became an easy scapegoat, being blamed lack of initiative. At the beginning of the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739 the disaster wasn't forgotten yet and Richard Glover wrote a spirited ballad, Hosier's Ghost, very popular in its day, exciting the nation against the Spaniards.

The conquest of Porto Bello on November 21 1739 by Edward Vernon was celebrated as a revenge for the 1726 failure.

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