Blockade of Porto Bello

Blockade of Porto Bello
Part of the Anglo-Spanish War
View across Porto Bello harbour entrance, looking NW from Fort Santiago
Date 1726–1728 Location Porto Bello (present-day Panama) Result Spanish victory Spanish treasure fleet evades blockade.
Belligerents
Great Britain	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Francis Hosier † Edward St. Lo † Edward Hopson †	Antonio de Gaztañeta Gregorio Guazo † Juan de Andía
Strength
11 ships of line 1 frigate 2 sloops of war 1 snow 4,750 men	2,000 troops
Casualties and losses
4,000+ dead 1 ship wrecked
Most British casualties were due to yellow fever and other tropical diseases.

The Blockade of Porto Bello was a failed British naval action against the Spanish port of Porto Bello in present-day Panama between 1726 and 1727 as part of the Anglo-Spanish War. The British were attempting to blockade the port to stop valuable treasure convoys leaving for Spain. After months spent on the ineffective and costly operation, during which not a single British shot was fired, on Admiralty orders, the British finally withdrew, with the loss from tropical disease of some 3,000 to 4,000 men from a complement of 4,750.

Spain and Britain had come into conflict during the 1720s over a number of issues, and had recently been at war with each other during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. Disputes over trade were a major cause of aggravation to Anglo-Spanish relations, combined with a fear in Britain that Spain had made an alliance with Austria as the precursor to declaring war on Britain and its ally France. The British decided to try to weaken Spain and discourage them from pursuing the Austrian alliance by denying the Spanish the treasure fleets on which metropolitan Spain had become dependent.

In March 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. The former privateer and governor of the Bahamas Woodes Rogers, who was in London at the time, was consulted by the Government as to the probable means and route the Spaniards would adopt to get their treasure home. From past experience Rogers probably knew more than any other person then in England of the difficulties of the voyage, and in conjunction with Capt. Jonathan Denniss, he delivered a report dated 10 November 1726 to Viscount Townshend, Secretary of State, to prepare Hosier for his task:

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