Admiral Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta (3 February 1689 – 7 September 1741) was a Spanish Navy officer best known for his victory at the 1741 Battle of Cartagena de Indias, where forces under his command defeated a large British invasion force under Admiral Edward Vernon.
Throughout his naval career, Lezo sustained many severe wounds; he lost his left eye, complete mobility of the right arm, and had his left leg amputated in situ after being hit by the projectile of a cannon. He perceived his wounds and physical limitations as medals, refusing to wear an eye patch to hide his blind eye. Wearing his past battles’ history on his flesh won the respect of his peers and soldiers. Lezo used to say that the lack of a leg does not imply the lack of a brave heart. It is said that he sometimes recalled famous Dutch admiral Cornelis Jol, called "pegleg" because of his wooden prosthesis, as an example of a sailor who undertook great enterprises and achieved great renown, especially in piracy and privateering, despite his theoretical disability.
Lezo's defense of Cartagena de Indias against Vernon's vastly larger force consolidated his legacy as one of the most prominent military commanders in naval history and in the history of Spain. He is often recognized as one of Spain's finest naval officers.
Family Background and Early Life
Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta, son of Pedro de Lezo y Urrecho, and Agustina de Olavarrieta y Arnao was born on 3 February 1689 in Pasajes de San Pedro (then a district of San Sebastián, now part of Pasajes in the Basque Province of Gipuzkoa, Spain), a coastal town deeply tied to maritime trade and seafaring. He was baptized on 9 February 1689 in the Church of San Pedro Mártir. Both his parents were from minor nobility with a maritime tradition. Blas was the third of eight children, many of whom did not survive infancy.
Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta attended school in France and commenced his naval career in the Franco-Spanish fleets, then united by the Bourbon alliance of the War of Spanish Succession, in 1701 as a midshipman. In 1704, he fought in the War of the Spanish Succession as a crew member in the Franco-Spanish fleet against the combined forces of Great Britain and the Netherlands at the indecisive Battle of Vélez-Málaga. During the battle, his left leg was hit by cannon-shot and was amputated under the knee.
Promoted to ensign, de Lezo 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 actually just a 20-gun merchantman.
Thus, by age 25, depending on the sources, de Lezo had lost his left eye, his left leg below the knee, and the use of his right arm. Modern sources often focus on these salient features and refer to de Lezo with nicknames such as "Patapalo" (Pegleg) and "Mediohombre" (Half-man). There is no contemporary proof that these (or others) were actually used during de Lezo's lifetime.
De 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 he captured just two French frigates and not in the Pacific but in the Atlantic. He reached Callao in the Viceroyalty of Peru 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 separated from the expedition while sailing past Cape Horn). The prizes attributed to de Lezo were actually taken by Martinet, who reached Callao in June 1717 and left the Pacific in 1719 before de Lezo's arrival. de Lezo married in Peru in 1725.
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 Saint George. Deeming the honor of the Spanish flag to be at stake, 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. De Lezo returned to its aid with six ships and 5,000 men and managed to drive off the Algerian pirate after a difficult fight. Dissatisfied with this, de Lezo took his 60-gun flagship into the corsair's refuge of Mostaganem Bay, a bastion defended by two forts and 4,000 Moors, inflicting heavy damage on the forts and town. In the following months he established a naval blockade, preventing the Algerians from receiving reinforcements from Istanbul and thereby gaining valuable time for the securing of Oran's defense, until an epidemic forced him to return to Cádiz.
General Commander and Battle of Cartagena de Indias
In 1734 de Lezo was promoted by the king 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.
In the early stages of the conflict, the British Admiral Edward Vernon undertook attacks on various Spanish outposts in America. One such attack involved the capture of Portobelo (Panama), the dismantling of its fortifications and the subsequent withdrawal of British forces having left the place defenceless.
Admiral Vernon tested Cartagena de Indias on three separate occasions. Both Vernon and Edward Trelawny, the 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 the city's topography and troop strength and to provoke a response that might give him a better idea of the defensive capabilities of the Spanish.
In May, Vernon returned to Cartagena de Indias in charge of 13 warships, with the intention of probing the city's defences.
The actual attack on Cartagena de Indias took place March 13 through May 20, 1741. The British concentrated a fleet consisting of 196 ships, including 2,620 artillery pieces and more. There were 10,000 soldiers, 12,600 sailors, 1,000 Jamaican slaves (employed as pioneers) and 4,000 recruits from Virginia. The defences of Cartagena de Indias comprised between 3,000 and 6,000 combatants, including regular troops, militia, and native archers, and six Spanish ships of the line and their crews. Blas de Lezo's advantages consisted of a formidable primary fortress and numerous secondary fortifications.
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 but were unable to overcome de Lezo's defence. They withdrew to Jamaica in late May with substantial casualties from both combat and disease.