The invasion of Cuba took place between 4–5 August and 9 December 1741 during the War of Jenkins' Ear. A combined army and naval force under the command of Admiral Edward Vernon and Major-General Thomas Wentworth arrived off Cuba and fortified positions around their landing site at Cumberland Bay. Despite facing no serious opposition, neither commander felt prepared to advance on the Spanish settlement at Santiago de Cuba. Harassed by Spanish raids and with a mounting sick list, the British finally evacuated the island after several months of inactivity.
Background
Vernon had made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Cartagena in 1741, and after his repulse he directed the fragments of his sickly and dispirited followers against the island of Cuba. The south and east of Cuba were so little populated, and so far from the capital, Havana, that they might have made a permanent establishment there.
Vernon's expedition
The land forces consisted of the remnants of the troops from Cartagena, some 3,000 British and American troops augmented by 1,000 Jamaican soldiers.
Vernon left Port Royal to capture Santiago de Cuba with the following ships:
- HMS Boyne 80 guns (Flagship)
- HMS Cumberland 80 guns
- HMS Grafton 70 guns
- HMS Kent 70 guns
- HMS Montague 60 guns
- HMS Tilbury 60 guns
- HMS Worcester 60 guns
- HMS Chester 50 guns
- HMS Tiger 50 guns
- HMS Experiment 20 guns
- HMS Sheerness 20 guns
- HMS Shoreham 20 guns
- HMS Alderney (Bomb vessel)
- HMS Phaeton (Fireship)
- HMS Strombolo (Fireship)
- HMS Vesuvius (Fireship)
- HMS Bonetta (Sloop)
- HMS Tryton (Sloop)
- HMS Princess Royal (Hospital ship)
- HMS Scarborough (Hospital ship)
- HMS Pompey (Tender)
- 40 Transports carrying 4,000 troops under Major-General Thomas Wentworth
Battle
On the night of 4–5 August, the British force, bolstered by 1,000 reinforcements from Jamaica landed in three different beaches of the Guantanamo Bay. Without opposition, they marched against the village of La Catalina. However, the British, 105 kilometres (65 mi) short of their objective, slowed down three days later because of the growing concerns of their commander, Major-General Thomas Wentworth.
Santiago's Governor Francisco Caxigal de la Vega, garrison commander Carlos Riva Agüero, and local militia Captain Pedro Guerrero had only 350 regulars and 600 militia to hand and so retreated from the British. Nevertheless, Wentworth's army became paralyzed by fatigue and disease, spending the next four months encamped, being sporadically raided by Spanish forces. Vernon, disgusted at his colleague's inactivity, but unwilling to risk any part of the fleet against the town, sent warships to cruise independently until Wentworth's sick list grew so long—2,260 soldiers being struck with fever by 5 December—that the expedition was re-embarked, setting sail at dawn on 9 December and returning to Port Royal ten days later.
Aftermath
Admiral Vernon's enterprise accomplished nothing but the loss of many of his soldiers and his own disgrace. Vernon was forced to return to Britain in 1742.