Edward Vernon | |
|---|---|
 Admiral Edward "Old Grog" Vernon.Portrait of Edward Vernon byThomas Gainsborough, 1753 | |
| Nickname(s) | "Old Grog" |
| Born | (1684-11-12)12 November 1684 Westminster,London,England |
| Died | 30 October 1757(1757-10-30) (aged 72) Nacton,Suffolk, England |
| Allegiance |  Kingdom of England Kingdom of Great Britain |
| Service |  Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1700–1746 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands |
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| Battles / wars | |
| Other work | |
AdmiralEdward Vernon (12 November 1684 – 30 October 1757) was aRoyal Navy officer and politician. He had a long and distinguished career, rising to the rank ofadmiral after 46 years service. As avice admiral during theWar of Jenkins' Ear, in 1739 he was responsible for the capture ofPortobelo, Panama, seen as expunging the failure ofAdmiral Hosier there in a previous conflict. However,his amphibious operation against the Spanish port ofCartagena de Indias was a disastrous defeat. Vernon also served as aMember of Parliament (MP) on three occasions and was outspoken on naval matters in Parliament, making him a controversial figure.
The origin of the name "grog" for rum diluted with water is attributed to Vernon. He was known for wearing coats made ofgrogram cloth, earning him the nickname of "Old Grog", which in turn came to mean the diluted rum that he first introduced into his naval squadron. He is also the eponym ofGeorge Washington's estateMount Vernon, and therebythe many places in the United States named after it.
Born inWestminster, London, Vernon was the second son ofJames Vernon,secretary of state toWilliam III. Edward had one other sibling,James who becameBritish envoy to Denmark and served as a member of parliament andClerk of the Privy Council. Vernon briefly attendedWestminster School, then joined theRoyal Navy on 10 May 1700 as aVolunteer per order on boardHMS Shrewsbury. Vernon's secondary education was sharply at odds with the norm for Royal Navy officers of his day, most of whom received an elementary education before they were sent to sea at about the age of twelve.
In March 1701, he was transferred toHMS Ipswich and three months later, joinedHMS Mary. On 16 September 1702, Vernon was promotedlieutenant and appointed toHMS Lennox serving in theChannel Squadron. The ship was later transferred to theMediterranean and finally paid off in March 1704. He was then appointed toHMS Barfleur, which at the time was the flagship of AdmiralCloudesley Shovell in the Mediterranean. The ship was present at thecapture of Gibraltar and theBattle of Málaga.
In December, with Shovell, he transferred toHMS Britannia and was present at thecapture ofBarcelona in 1705.
On 22 January 1706, he was promotedcaptain and appointed to HMSDolphin. However, he was moved ten days later intoHMS Rye and remained in the Mediterranean until 1707. With the rest of Shovell's fleet, he returned to England, but was fortunate to escape the disaster that befell Shovell's flagship,HMS Association at theIsles of Scilly. In November, he joinedHMS Jersey and in April 1708, took command of the West Indies station. In 1710, he successfully broke up a Spanish squadron off Cartagena. At the end of theWar of the Spanish Succession in 1712, he returned to Britain.
In March 1715, he was appointed toHMS Assistance, in which he served in theBaltic until 1717, when the ship was paid off. After this, he was put onhalf pay for the next eighteen months. In March 1719, he was appointed to HMSMary and returned to the Baltic. Vernon was thecommodore on theJamaica Station in 1720.[1]
In 1721, he again went on half pay for five years. During this period, he became theMember of Parliament forPenryn, a seat his father had represented,[2] and took a leading part in naval debates.
In 1726, he was re-appointed to active service inHMS Grafton. This ship served in the Baltic until the winter of 1727, when it was transferred to the fleet at Gibraltar afterSpain declared war on Britain. In May 1728, peace was made with Spain, and Vernon returned to Britain and resumed his Parliamentary duties. He took up the case of the WelshmanRobert Jenkins, amerchant seaman who claimed to have had his ear cut off after his vessel was boarded by Spanish privateersCoast guards or privateers guardacostas in 1731.
The accumulation of Spanish-British conflicts led to theWar of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, in which Vice Admiral Vernon led a fleet along withMajor GeneralThomas Wentworth. Vernon capturedPortobelo, Panama, a Spanish colonial possession, as a result of which he was granted theFreedom of the City of London. However, Vernon's next campaign against the Spanish, a large-scaleassault on Cartagena de Indias in 1741, ended in disaster. After initial success, the British fleet of 186 ships and around 12,000 infantry was defeated by a garrison of 3,500 men and the sailors disembarked from the sixships of the line commanded by the one-eyed, one-legged and one-armed Spanish admiralBlas de Lezo. As disease spread among the British troops, delaying tactics by the Spaniards and a failed assault on the last fortification defending the city led a council of war to decide to abandon the siege and withdraw toJamaica. The assault was further marred by bitter quarrels with Wentworth. After a further year and a half ineffectually campaigning in the Caribbean, Vernon was recalled back to England to find he had been elected MP forIpswich.
During theWar of Jenkins' Ear, Vernon was promotedvice admiral of the blue on 9 July 1739 and, as he had prominently spoken for both the war and the Navy, he was given the command of a squadron of six ships assigned to theJamaica Station.[1]The Gentleman's Magazine reported England's preparations for war against Spain in July 1739, noting that Vernon had been recalled to active duty and promoted; that, on 10 July King George II had instructed the Lords of the Admiralty to prepareLetters of Marque; and (a week after the fact) it reported Vernon and his squadron had sailed for theWest Indies on 20 July.[3]
Despite the unmistakable signs of Great Britain preparing for a naval war in the summer of 1739, the formal declaration of war against Spain was not announced in London until Saturday, 23 October 1739.[4]
On 21 November 1739 Vernon captured theSpanish colonial possession ofPortobelo, Panama (now inPanama) using just six ships (against the 90-man Spanish garrison). Vernon was subsequently granted theFreedom of the City of London and commemorative medals were produced. The Portobello areas inLondon,Dublin and Edinburgh (seePortobello Road andPortobello, Dublin) are named after this victory, and "Rule, Britannia!" was composed byThomas Arne during the celebrations in 1740. A tower commemorating his victory was erected by members of the Vernon family living atHilton Hall outsideWolverhampton.[5]
Vernon's action was seen by the "Patriots", or pro-war party opposed toRobert Walpole, as just vengeance forAdmiral Hosier's disastrousblockade of Porto Bello during 1726–1728, where with a greater force of 20 ships, and Portobelo inadequately defended, government orders forbade him from firing a shot, leaving him and some 4,000 sailors to linger ineffectually off the shore and to die of tropical disease. The ballad "Admiral Hosier's Ghost" was written byRichard Glover following Vernon's triumph as an attempt to remind Walpole of his previous failed policy of inaction and to check any basking in Vernon's glory on his part. In the ballad, the ghost of Hosier appears to Vernon as he rests at anchor following his successful engagement, and congratulates him:
Unrepining at thy glory
Thy successful arms we hail.
He then charges him tolet Hosier's wrongs prevail when he returns to England, upon which he and his fellow ghosts can finally rest, their reputations restored. The first half of verse 7 is thus:
For resistance I could fear none
But with twenty ships had done
What thou brave and happy Vernon
Hast atchiev'd with six alone.
In 1741 he commanded a great fleet formed by one hundred and ninety-five ships and around thirty thousand men whose objective was to take the Spanish port of Cartagena de Indias, main port of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, defended by the Spanish admiral Blas de Lezo. The British fleet totaled two thousand cannons arranged in almost one hundred and eighty ships, including three-bridge ships (eight), ships of the line (twenty-eight), frigates (twelve), bombards (two) and transport ships (one hundred and thirty), and around thirty thousand combatants including sailors (fifteen thousand), soldiers (nine thousand regulars and four thousand from the American militias) and black slaves from Jamaica (four thousand).
The defences of Cartagena included three thousand men among regular troops (about one thousand seven hundred and eighty), militiamen (five hundred), six hundred Indians brought from the interior, plus the seamen and landing troops of the six warships that the city had (one hundred and fifty men): theGalicia, which was the captain ship, theSan Felipe, theSan Carlos, theÁfrica, theDragón and theConquistador. After taking some of the city's defences, the British assault on the castle San Felipe de Barajas, the last important bastion defending it, failed on April 20; with a large part of the troops ill, heavy casualties suffered in the fighting and the arrival of the rainy season, the British opted to destroy the defences within their reach and abandon the siege.
British losses were very heavy: some four thousand five hundred dead, six ships lost and between seventeen and twenty badly damaged.4 The latter forced the British Government to concentrate its forces on the defence of the metropolis, the northern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and to discard new campaigns in the Spanish colonies in America.4 The defeat at Cartagena derailed British plans for the campaign and allowed Spanish rule in the region to continue for several more decades.5 The British, certain that they were going to take the victory, had rushed to mint coins and medals to celebrate it.6 These medals read on their obverse: "British heroes took Cartagena April 1, 1741" and "Spanish pride humiliated by Vernon. "76
Vernon's expedition continued its operations in the Caribbean without further success after the failed attack on Santiago de Cuba, thanks to the defence plan deployed by Governor Francisco Cagigal de la Vega and the French engineer Francisco de Langle.8 Vernon returned to England with the bulk of the fleet in 1742.
At the end of May 1741, the British forces in the Caribbean decidedto attack Cuba. Vernon capturedGuantánamo Bay, briefly renaming it Cumberland Bay. He arrived with a force of eight warships and 4,000 soldiers with plans to march onSantiago de Cuba, but finally abandoned the half-hearted attempt in December after sickness broke out again. Vernon could no longer hold back his anger at what he perceived as Wentworth's ineptitude and a bitter quarrel ensued ending in the recall of both parties to Britain at the end of 1742.
While he had been away, Vernon had been elected MP forIpswich, after having purchased theOrwell Park estate inNacton,Suffolk. Vernon returned toParliament and continued to harass the government on naval affairs. In 1745, Vernon was promoted toadmiral and appointed to command the North Sea Fleet in response to the threat from the French forces in support ofCharles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"). This was his last operational command. When the Admiralty refused to grant him the status ofCommander-in-Chief, he asked to be relieved on 1 December 1745.[6] Vernon's naval career had, however, a controversial ending. He wrote two pamphlets about his disagreements with the Admiralty. The first was entitled "A Specimen of Naked Truth from a British Sailor" and the second "Some Seasonal Advice from an Honest Sailor". As a result, the Admiralty brought the matter to King George II who advised to have his name removed from the navy flag list. He was dismissed on 11 April 1746.[7] After this, his political career was seen to go into decline, although he held on to his Ipswich seat in the1754 general election despite a stiff challenge.[8]
Throughout his career, Vernon had tried to improve naval procedures and encouraged his captains to improve manoeuvres and gun drill. He introduced new instructions to improve the flexibility of handling fleets in battle and formed the basis of continuing improvement to Admiralty fighting instructions by subsequent naval commanders.[9] Vernon continued to serve in Parliament and remained active in the interest of naval affairs until his death atNacton on 30 October 1757.[10]
His enduring claim to fame was his 1740 order that his sailors'rum should be diluted with water. In 1740, supposedly calling the new drink "grog" after Vernon'snickname "Old Grog", attributed to his habitual wearing of agrogram coat.[11][12] Some writers have claimed that Vernon also added citrus juice to prevent spoilage and that it was found to preventscurvy. Scurvy is not mentioned in Vernon's order, in which he instructed his captains to dilute the sailors' daily allowance of rum with water, "which those that are good husbandmen may from the saving of their salt provisions and bread, purchase sugar and limes to make more palatable to them."][13]
Scurvy, a disease of long ocean voyages—not of squadrons operating among islands where there was an abundance of fruits and fresh foodstuffs—was seen by the medical establishment (incorrectly) as the consequence of poor digestion and internal putrefaction.[4] Standard medical remedies focused on 'gingering up' the system by imbibing a variety of (ineffective) fizzy or fermenting drinks.[14] Until an official daily issue of lemon juice was introduced into the Royal Navy in 1795, scurvy continued to be a debilitating disease which destroyed men and disabled ships and whole fleets. Practical seamen and surgeons, however, had known from practical experience that vitamin C, in the form of citrus juice, cured scurvy. In 1795, in defiance of medical opinion, the Admiralty and the admirals introduced lemon juice and sugar as a regular part of the naval diet.[15] When a few years later Spain allied itself with France and lemons became unobtainable, West Indian limes were substituted. It was from this time that British obtained the nicknamelimeys.[citation needed]
George Washington's elderhalf-brother,Lawrence Washington, served on Vernon'sflagship HMSPrincess Caroline (an 80-gunthree-decker) as acaptain ofRoyal Marines in 1741. He named his Virginia estateMount Vernon in honour of his former commander,[16] a name retained by George Washington.
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| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Vacant (Last held bySir Hovenden Walker) | Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station 1720 | Succeeded by Vacant (Next held byFrancis Hosier) |
| Preceded by | Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station 1739–1742 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPenryn 1722–1734 With:Sidney Meadows 1722–1727 Sir Cecil Bishopp 1727–1734 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPortsmouth February 1741 - April 1741 With:Philip Cavendish | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forIpswich 1741–1757 With:Samuel Kent | Succeeded by |
