War of Jenkins' Ear: A Pickled Ear, Too-Short Ladders at Cartagena

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In 1738 sea captain Robert Jenkins stood before the British Parliament holding a jar of pickling liquid with his own severed ear inside, claiming a Spanish coast guard captain had cut it off when his brig Rebecca was boarded for smuggling sugar in 1731. The real causes lay in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which gave Britain the Asiento, a monopoly to supply 5,000 enslaved people a year to Spanish colonies, and the Navío de Permiso, which allowed only two British ships a year to trade at ports such as Portobelo and Veracruz. Smugglers reloaded the legal ships at night to sell ten times the permitted cargo, and Spanish guardacostas boarded British vessels in response. Tory opponents of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, who wanted peace, revived Jenkins' seven-year-old grievance alongside Spanish pressure on the new colony of Georgia, and Britain declared war in late 1739.

In November 1739 Admiral Edward Vernon took Portobelo with six ships of the line in 24 hours, a triumph celebrated with Rule, Britannia and more medals than any other 18th century event. In 1741 he brought 186 ships and over 27,000 men against Cartagena de Indias, defended by Blas de Lezo, who had lost his left eye and left leg and the use of his right arm. Vernon announced victory early, but the night assault on Castillo San Felipe de Barajas failed and yellow fever swept the fleet, leaving about 6,000 British dead against roughly 1,000 Spanish. Walpole resigned, the conflict merged into the War of the Austrian Succession, and the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored the prewar status quo.

• London struck medals showing Blas de Lezo kneeling before Vernon for a victory that never happened.
• British scaling ladders fell several feet short because the Spanish had dug deep trenches at the base of the walls.
• Colonial survivor Lawrence Washington named his Virginia estate Mount Vernon after the admiral, and it later passed to his half-brother George.
• Commodore George Anson lost over 90 percent of about 1,900 men, mostly to scurvy, but captured a Manila galleon in 1743 and returned a hero after circling the globe.
• In 1750 Britain gave up the Asiento it had fought over in exchange for a one-time payment of 100,000 pounds.