Blas de Lezo
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Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta, also known as "Patapalo" (Pegleg), and later as "Mediohombre" (Half-man) for the many wounds suffered in his long military life (3 February 1689 – 7 September 1741), was a Spanish admiral and one of the greatest strategists and commanders in the history of the Spanish Navy.
[edit] Biography
Born in San Pedro, Pasajes, Guipuzcoa, Spain, Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta commenced his naval career in the French navy in 1701 as a midshipman. In 1704 he fought in the War of Spanish Succession as a crew member in the Franco-Spanish fleet which threw back the combined forces of England and Netherlands at the Battle of Vélez Málaga. There Lezo lost his left leg. Promoted to ensign, he was present at the battles off Peñíscola, Spain and Palermo in Sicily; his service in these and other actions resulted in his promotion to ship's lieutenant. The defence of Toulon cost him his left eye. He demonstrated a shrewd command in a number of convoys, deceiving the English Navy off the Catalan coast. In 1711 he served in the Navy under the orders of Andrés Pez. In 1713 he was promoted to captain. In 1714 he lost his right arm in the Siege of Barcelona. Later in this campaign, at the head of one frigate, he captured eleven British ships, including the emblematic Stanhope.
At the conclusion of the War of Spanish Succession he was entrusted with the command of the flagship Lanfranco and with it the control and generalship of the South Seas Fleet on February 16, 1723. He destroyed and drove out English and Dutch pirates from the Pacific coasts of the Americas, and captured twelve ships. He was 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 the payment of two million pesos owed to Spain that had been retained in the Bank of San Jorge. Deeming the honour of the Spanish flag to be at stake, Blas de Lezo menaced the city with bombardment.
In 1732, on board the Santiago, he commanded an expedition to Oran with 54 ships and 30,000 men and recaptured the city from the Ottoman Empire. Bay Hassan managed to reunite his troops and surrounded the city; Lezo returned to its aid with six ships and 5,000 men and managed to drive off the Algerian pirate after a hard fight. Dissatisfied with this he took his 60-gun flagship into the corsair's refuge of Mostagan's bay, a bastion defended by two fortified castles and 4,000 Moors. Braving the fire from the forts he turned his guns on the town and inflicted heavy damage on the castles. In the following months he established a naval blockade, preventing the Algerians from receiving reinforcements from Istanbul, thereby gaining valuable time for the securing of Oran's defences, until an epidemic forced him to return to Cadiz.
In 1734 the king promoted him to General Lieutenant of the Navy. He returned to America with the ships Fuerte and Conquistador in 1737 as General Commander of Cartagena de Indias, a city that he had to defend against the English admiral Edward Vernon in a famous siege during the War of Jenkins Ear.
The English invasion fleet was one of largest in history, numbering 186 vessels, including ships of the line, frigates, fireships, and transports, with a total complement of 23,600 combatants and some 2,000 cannons. To counter this Blas de Lezo had at his disposal just 3,000 regular soldiers, 600 Indian archers, and the crews and troops of six frigates: the flagship Galicia and the ships San Felipe, San Carlos, Africa Dragón and Conquistador. Nevertheless Blas de Lezo counted upon the sturdy defences of the city, his own careful preparations, and his experience in 22 battles.
The colossal battle lasted 67 days. The defeat of the British invasion assured the preservation of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Blas de Lezo was mortally wounded in the siege of Cartagena, the defence of which was his greatest victory. While he died in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, his burial site remains lost to history.
