Blas de Lezo

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is de Lezo and the second or maternal family name is de Olavarrieta.
Blas de Lezo

Statue of Blas de Lezo at Columbus Square in Madrid
Birth name Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta
Born (1689-02-03)February 3, 1689
Pasajes, Guipúzcoa, Spain
Died September 7, 1741(1741-09-07) (aged 52)
Cartagena de Indias, New Granada
Allegiance Kingdom of Spain
Service/branch Royal Spanish Navy
Years of service 1704–1741
Rank Admiral
Battles/wars War of the Spanish Succession
War of Jenkins' Ear

Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta (3 February 1689 – 7 September 1741) was a Spanish admiral best remembered for the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1741) in modern-day Colombia, where Spanish imperial forces under his command resisted a siege by a large British invasion fleet under Admiral Edward Vernon.

Starting in the mid-2000s, a number of publications and authors based in both Colombia and Spain have sought to establish a more prominent place in history for de Lezo, notably arguing that his feats are no smaller than those of more celebrated figures, viz. Lord Nelson.[1] In November 2014, a privately funded initiative erected a statue of de Lezo at Columbus Square in Madrid. It counted with the support of the City Council and the presence of then King Juan Carlos, but was condemned by Catalan nationalists because of Lezo's participation in the siege of Barcelona during the War of the Spanish Succession.[2][3][2] Scholars supporting a reassessment of the figure of de Lezo have warned against exaggerated (esp. nationalistic) claims associated with the recent upswell of interest in de Lezo's life.[4][5]

Biography

Early missions: becoming "Half-Man"

A 19th-century depiction of Blas de Lezo's frigate towing its prize, the Stanhope (ca. 1710).

Born in Pasajes, in the Basque Province of Guipúzcoa in Spain, Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta commenced his naval career in the French navy in 1701 as a midshipman. In 1704 he fought in the War of Spanish Succession as a crew member in the Franco-Spanish fleet which fought the combined forces of Great Britain and the Netherlands at the indecisive Battle of Vélez Málaga. At this time, his left leg was hit by cannon-shot and was later amputated under the knee.[6] Promoted to ensign, he was present at the relief of Peñíscola, Spain, and Palermo in Sicily; his service in these and other actions resulted in his promotion to ship lieutenant. Participating in the 1707 defence of the French naval base of Toulon cost him his left eye. In 1711 he served in the Spanish Navy under the orders of Andrés de Pez. In 1713 he was promoted to captain. In 1714 he lost use of his right arm in the Siege of Barcelona. Later in this campaign, his ship captured the Stanhope commanded by John Combes, sometimes claimed to be a 70-gun but more likely just a 20-gun frigate.[7]

Thus, by age 25 or 27, depending on the sources, de Lezo had lost his left eye, his left leg below the knee, and the use of his right arm.[8][9] Modern sources often focus on these salient features and refer to de Lezo with nicknames such as "Patapalo" (Pegleg) and "Mediohombre" (Half-man). It is hard to prove whether these (or others) were actually used during de Lezo's lifetime.

Portraits of de Lezo show the loss of his left eye, while hiding the limpness of his right arm and his amputated leg.

First posting to the Americas

Lezo served in the Pacific in 1720-1728. Although it has been claimed that he took many prizes during this period, documentary evidence indicates that in fact he took only two French frigates and not in the Pacific but in the Atlantic. He reached Callao with them in January 1720 although he had left Spain in 1716 as second-in-command of the Nuestra Señora del Carmen or Lanfranco as part of the expedition commanded by Juan Nicolás de Martinet. He was separated from the expedition while attempting to sail past Cape Horn. The prizes attributed to Lezo were taken by Martinet, who reached Callao in June 1717 and left the Pacific in 1719 before Lezo's arrival.[10] Lezo married in Peru in 1725.

Return to the Mediterranean

In 1730 he returned to Spain and was promoted to chief of the Mediterranean Fleet; with this force he went to the Republic of Genoa to enforce the payment of two million pesos owed to Spain that had been retained in the Bank of San Jorge. Deeming the honour of the Spanish flag to be at stake, Blas de Lezo threatened the city with bombardment.

In 1732, on board the Santiago, he and José Carrillo de Albornoz commanded the enormous expedition to Oran and Mers-el-Kébir with more than 300 ships and around 28,000 troops, comprising infantry, cavalry and artillery. In the Battle of Aïn-el-Turk they recaptured the cities lost to the Ottoman Empire in 1708. After the defeat, Bey Abu l-Hasan Ali I managed to reunite his troops and surrounded the city of Oran. Lezo returned to its aid with six ships and 5,000 men and managed to drive off the Algerian pirate after a hard fight. Dissatisfied with this he took his 60-gun flagship into the corsair's refuge of Mostaganem Bay, a bastion defended by two forts and 4,000 Moors. He inflicted heavy damage on the forts and town. In the following months he established a naval blockade, preventing the Algerians from receiving reinforcements from Istanbul, thereby gaining valuable time for the securing of Oran's defense, until an epidemic forced him to return to Cadiz.

General Commander and Battle of Cartagena de Indias

In 1734 the king promoted him to Lieutenant General of the Navy. He returned to South America with the ships Fuerte and Conquistador in 1737 as General Commander of the Spanish fleet stationed at Cartagena de Indias, in modern-day Colombia. He took up his new post just prior to the conflict between Great Britain and Spain that would become known as the War of Jenkins' Ear and that would later be subsumed into the War of Austrian Succession.

De Lezo as Lieutenant General of the Spanish Navy

In the early stages of the conflict, the British Admiral Edward Vernon undertook attacks on various Spanish outposts in America. One early victory involved the conquest of Portobelo (Panama).

Admiral Vernon tested Cartagena de Indias on three separate occasions. Both Vernon and Edward Trelawny, British governor of Jamaica, considered the Spanish gold shipping port to be a prime objective. The first attempt, in March 1740, was essentially a reconnaissance in force by a squadron including ships of the line, two fire ships, three bomb vessels, and transport ships. Vernon's intention was to gather information on topography and troop strength and to provoke a response that might give him a better idea of the defensive capabilities of the Spanish. Lezo countered by moving gun emplacements and concentrating his limited forces to mask the true disposition of his defences, and to thwart Vernon's attempt at an amphibious assault. In the face of strong resistance, Vernon's attempt to land 400 soldiers was unsuccessful. The British then undertook a three-day naval bombardment of the city, and withdrew.

In May, Vernon returned to Cartagena de Indias in charge of 13 warships, with the intention of probing the city's defences. Lezo reacted by deploying his six ships of the line so that the British fleet was forced into ranges where they could only make short or long shots that were of little value. Vernon subsequently withdrew.

The actual attack on Cartagena de Indias took place on March 13th-May 20th 1741. The British concentrated a large fleet consisting of 124 ships, including 2,620 artillery pieces and more than 27,000 men. Of that number, 10,000 were soldiers responsible for initiating a ground assault. There were also 12,600 sailors, 1,000 Jamaican slaves and macheteros, and 4000 recruits from Virginia led by Lawrence Washington (1718-1752), the elder half-brother of George Washington, future President of the United States. The defences of Cartagena de Indias comprised 3,000 soldiers between regular troops, Black & Afro-descendants militia,[11] 600 Indian archers, plus the crews and troops of six Spanish warships. Blas de Lezo's advantages consisted of a formidable primary fortress and numerous secondary fortifications.

Blas de Lezo Statue in Cartagena de Indias

On the evening of April 19, the British mounted an assault in force upon San Felipe. Three columns of grenadiers supported by Jamaicans and several British companies moved under cover of darkness, with the aid of an intense naval bombardment. The British fought their way to the base of the fort's ramparts where they discovered that the Spanish had dug deep trenches at the foot of the defensive walls. This effectively rendered the British scaling equipment too short for the task. This stymied the British advance, since the fort's walls had not been breached, and the ramparts could not be topped. Neither could the British easily withdraw, in the face of intense Spanish fire and under the weight of their own equipment. The Spanish seized on this opportunity, with devastating effect. Reversing the tide of battle, the Spanish initiated a fixed bayonet charge at first light, inflicting heavy casualties upon the British. The surviving British forces retreated to the safety of their ships. The British maintained a naval bombardment, sinking what remained of the small Spanish squadron (after Lezo's decision to scuttle some of his ships in an effort to block the harbor entrance). Nonetheless, the Spanish managed to thwart any attempt by the British to land another ground assault force. With supplies running low, and with the outbreak of disease (primarily yellow fever) that took the lives of many of those confined to the crowded ships, Vernon decided to raise the siege on May 9 and return to Jamaica. Six thousand British died. Spanish casualties are listed as just under one thousand dead.

Death and blame

Lezo died four months after the siege was raised and a contemporary source indicates that the cause of death was epidemic typhus: "unas calenturas, que en breves días se le declaró tabardillo".[12] The site of his grave is unknown.[13]

Blas de Lezo was blamed for not having used his naval forces to full effect and for having sunk his own ships to no gain and at an immense cost to the Crown. He was later honoured for his part in the siege of Cartagena de Indias as a square and an avenue in the city of Cartagena are named after him. A modern statue stands in front of the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. In 2011, during a conference on Blas de Lezo's place in history and honouring the 270th anniversary of Cartagena de Indias' defence, a plaque was placed on the wall at the Plaza de los Coches, by the Clock Tower portal.[14][15] And in November 2014, a 35,000 kilo statue of Lezo was erected in Madrid's Plaza Colón.[16]

Legacy

Several Spanish warships have been named Blas de Lezo in his honour including:

The Colombian Navy also had a ship named after Blas de Lezo

The British Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) conducted an Internet survey in March 2016 in which a name for their new research vessel could be chosen by Internet voters. The name Blas de Lezo was proposed, with the tongue-in-cheek comment that "he was one of the best sailors in the world and made great contributions to the British undersea research". The name, which was in second place with about 40,000 votes, was subsequently vetoed by the NERC, who deemed the name "liable to cause offence".[19]

Contemporary reviews

In 2005 a novel with the title "El día que España derrotó a Inglaterra" ("The day Spain defeated England"),[20] about the siege of Cartagena de Indias written by the Colombian senator Pablo Victoria, proved to be a publishing success in Spain.

Other publications about the historical figure followed, including:

Spanish naval historian Hugo O’Donnell y Duque de Estrada has commented on the image that has been created of Blas de Lezo and expressed his concern over grossly exaggerated claims about Cartagena being England’s “greatest naval defeat” and that thanks to Lezo “Spanish is still spoken in America”.[21]

Similarly, the curators of the Blas de Lezo exhibition at Madrid's Naval Museum, Mariela Beltrán and Carolina Aguado, have called for the need to revise many of the statements made on the subject and repeated over the Internet and other media.[5]

Meanwhile, Francisco Hernando Muñoz Atuesta, Colombian author of Diarios de ofensa y defensa, notes that "while traditionally it has been stated that the English King forbade any writing on the failure of his armed forces at Cartagena de Indias, this is absolutely false. [Rather], British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, to suit his own political purposes, tried to prevent the defeat becoming widely known, and achieved this at the time."[22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Varona, David (2014-11-15). "Blas de Lezo: Medio hombre contra un imperio". RTVE. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 García Gallo, Bruno. "Una estatua reabre la Guerra de 1714" (24 November 2014). El País. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  3. ↑ Medialdea, Sara (12 November 2014). "Blas de Lezo aterriza en la Plaza de Colón de Madrid". ABC. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Nada distorsiona más el pasado que el nacionalismo ("Nothing distorts the past more than nationalism"), ABC, 10 December 2014
  5. 1 2 Mariela Beltrán & Carolina Aguado, Blas de Lezo, una revisión histórica ("Blas de Lezo, a historical revision"), ABC, 18 November 2014.
  6. ↑ Fernández de Navarrete, Francisco (1848). Colección de opúsculos, volume 1. Imprenta de la viuda de Calero. p. 261.
  7. ↑ Beltrán, Mariela; Aguado, Carolina (18 November 2014). "Blas de Lezo, una revisión histórica". Blogs ABC. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Ruiz Mantilla, Jesús (10 August 2013). "Cojo, tuerto y manco contra los ingleses". El País. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  9. ↑ Villatoro, Manuel (25 July 2014). "Blas de Lezo: el almirante español cojo, manco y tuerto que venció a Inglaterra". ABC. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  10. ↑ "Blas de Lezo, una revisión histórica | Espejo de navegantes". Abcblogs.abc.es. 2014-11-18. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  11. ↑ "Petro se ‘subleva’ ante el alcalde de Cartagena". Semana.com. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  12. ↑ Letter from Rodrigo Torres to Zenón de Somodevilla, Marqués de la Ensenada, 28 October 1741.
  13. ↑ Meisel Ujueta, Alfonso (1982). Blas de Lezo:vida legendaria del marino Vasco. Barranquilla, Colombia: Litografía Dovel,. p. 1982.
  14. ↑ "Última jornada de homenaje a Blas de Lezo" El Guarida de Goyix, in Spanish, accessed 21 May 2012
  15. ↑ Medallas, Mapas y Grabados: La Iconografía de la Defensa de Cartagena" Razon Cartografica, in Spanish
  16. ↑ "Blas de Lezo «aterriza» en la plaza de Colón de Madrid". ABC.es. 2014-11-12. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  17. ↑ "Destituido el comandante de una fragata que tocó fondo | Edición impresa | EL PAÍS". Elpais.com. 2007-10-06. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  18. ↑ "相続放棄の問題は弁護士にお任せ！｜期限内にパパっとスピード解決". Blasdelezoexposicion.com. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  19. ↑ "'NERC Deletes "Offensive" Spanish Admiral Blas De Lezo As Name For New British Ship". THE SPAIN REPORT. 29 March 2016.
  20. ↑ Victoria, José Pablo (2005). El día que España derrotó a Inglaterra (in Spanish). EDAF. ISBN 978-84-414-3511-7.
  21. ↑ Hugo O'Donnell, Nada distorsiona más el pasado que el nacionalismo ("Nothing distorts the past more than nationalism"), ABC, 10 December 2014.
  22. ↑ "Cartas cruzadas entre Blas de Lezo y Vernon | Un libro sobre Blas de Lezo y Vernon | EL UNIVERSAL - Cartagena" (in Spanish). El Universal. 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2016-05-06.

Bibliography

External links

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