Blas de Lezo

Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta (born February 3, 1689 in Pasaia , Gipuzkoa , Spain ; † September 7, 1741 in Cartagena , Colombia ) was a Spanish officer who successfully fought in the War of the Spanish Succession , among other things . Because of his numerous wounds, he was known as " Patapalo " (wooden leg) and later as " Mediohombre " (half man) during his lifetime . Probably his greatest success was in 1741 when he defended the then Spanish city of Cartagena in what is now Colombia against the British .

Life

Blas de Lezo

Born in 1689, de Lezo began his military career in 1701 as a midshipman in the French Navy . In 1704 he fought in the Battle of Vélez-Málaga , in which a combined Franco-Spanish fleet succeeded in repelling a fleet consisting of Dutch and British ships. In this battle de Lezo lost his left leg. After his promotion to ensign , de Lezo was involved in the battles at Peñíscola and Palermo . Because of his services in these conflicts, he was promoted to lieutenant at sea . In 1707 he lost his left eye while defending Toulon . He later distinguished himself as the commander of various convoys when he succeeded in using clever maneuvers to deceive the British ships lying off the Catalan coast. From 1711 he served in the Spanish fleet under the command of Andrés Pez . In 1713 he was promoted to captain. The following year he lost his right arm during the siege of Barcelona . A little later, as the captain of a Spanish frigate , he brought up eleven British ships, including the Stanhope.

Towards the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, de Lezo was entrusted with the command of the Spanish flagship Lanfranco . On February 16, 1723 he was given command of the Spanish South Seas Fleet. With the ships left to him, he successfully fought the British and Dutch pirates who operated along the Pacific coast of America . In these battles he brought up a total of twelve ships. During this time he married in Peru in 1725 .

In 1730 de Lezo returned to Spain and was appointed commander in chief of the Spanish Mediterranean fleet. His first assignment in this capacity was a campaign against the Republic of Genoa , the aim of which was to collect twelve million pesos that a Genoese bank owed the Spanish. Once there, de Lezo reinforced his demands by threatening to bomb the city.

Blas de Lezos frigate with her prize, the British ship Stanhope in tow.

In 1732 de Lezo commanded an expedition against Oran on board the Santiago together with José Carrillo de Albornoz, Duke of Montemar . The armed forces, equipped with 54 ships and 30,000 men, managed to recapture the city from the Ottoman Empire . However, the opposing commander Bay Hassan managed to regroup his troops, which then went over to the siege of Oran. De Lezo hurried to the besieged city with six ships and 5000 men to the aid and dispersed the Ottoman forces, which consisted mainly of Berber pirates , after a hard fight. Then de Lezo went with his flagship, which was equipped with 60 cannons, to the main base of the Berber pirates in the Bay of Mostegan and severely damaged the bastion, which was defended by two forts and 4,000 men, with the defenders suffering heavy losses. In the months that followed, de Lezo set up a naval blockade that could keep Ottoman reinforcements out of Algeria. In this way valuable time was gained to develop the defenses of Oran. However, due to the outbreak of an epidemic, de Lezo eventually had to withdraw to Cádiz .

In 1734 de Lezo was appointed lieutenant general of the fleet by the Spanish king. In 1737 he returned to America with the ships Fuerte and Conquistador , where he took over the post of General Commander of Cartagena. De Lezo had to defend this city in 1741 during the War of Jenkins' Ear in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias against the British Admiral Edward Vernon .

The British invasion fleet commanded by Edward Vernon consisted of 186 ships (more than 60 ships more than the Spanish Armada of 1588), including ships of the line , frigates , fire engines and transporters, as well as 23,600 men and 2,000 cannons. To defend Cartagena, de Lezo only had 3000 regular soldiers, 600 Indian archers and the troops and men of six frigates available on the other side. Despite the numerical inferiority, de Lezo could, however, rely on the strong fortifications of Cartagena, which he had reinforced again as a precaution. Added to this was his experience of 22 battles. The Battle of Cartagena lasted 67 days and ended in the defeat of the British, who failed to drive the Spaniards out of the city. The failure of the British invasion ensured the continuation of Spanish rule in large parts of America.

De Lezo fell ill with the plague shortly after the fighting and died in Cartagena on September 7, 1741.

literature

• Pablo Victoria: El día que España derrotó a Inglaterra. De cómo Blas de Lezo, tuerto, manco y cojo, venció en Cartagena de Indias a la otra "Armada Invencible". Ediciones Áltera, Barcelona 2005, ISBN 84-89779-68-6 .
• Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia: Don Blas de Lezo. Defensor de Cartagena de Indias. Editorial Planeta Colombiana, Bogotá 2002, ISBN 958-42-0326-6 .
• Alfonso Meisel Ujueta: Blas de Lezo. Vida legendaria del marino Vasco. Litografía Dovel, Barranquilla 1982, OCLC 27881652 .
• Domingo Manfredi Cano: Blas de Lezo. Publicaciones Españolas, Madrid 1956, OCLC 17273075 .
• José Javier de Barcaiztequi y Manso Llobregat: Un general español cojo, manco y tuerto, don Blas de Lezo, natural de Pasajes. B. Valverde, Irun 1927, OCLC 32539491 .

Web links

Commons : Blas de Lezo  - collection of images, videos and audio files