Capture of Portobello (1601)
Who Fought
English: 200 seamen aboard a flotilla of six vessels including the 100-ton Prudence and 60-ton Pearl; Spanish: approximately 100 troops dispatched by Governor Pedro Meléndez
History & Significance
The Capture of Portobello was a military event during the long ongoing Anglo–Spanish War of 1585-1604, in which an English naval expedition under the command of privateer William Parker (died 1618), of Plymouth, assaulted and took the seaport town of Portobelo at Colon on the eastern / northern coast of Panama / Isthmus of Panama in Central America, from the Spanish, captured some looted booty, and then sacked the place, an important site on the Spanish Main in the then world-wide Spanish Empire.
The war with the Kingdom of Spain and its then world-wide Spanish Empire, was continuing and English privateers were still roaming the Empire's Spanish Main in the Americas for prizes and attacking ports. In November 1600, English
privateer Captain William Parker, sailed from the seaport of Plymouth on the southwest coast of England, facing the English Channel.
He was in command of a modest venture consisting of a small fleet of the 100-ton Prudence, the 60-ton Pearl (commanded by Robert Rawlins), a pinnace, and two small shallops with the flotilla crew in all numbering 200 seamen. At Cubagua they were offered a ransom in exchange for a number of pearl boats they had seized. Near Cabo de le Veda they captured a Portuguese slaving ship. Captain Parker next guided what was now grown to a flotilla of six ships to the east of a recently abandoned Nombre de Dios and approached Portobello in pinnaces and shallops with the help of the black guides.
Under cover of darkness early in the morning of 6 February they employed a captured Portuguese to respond to a challenge from the newly completed fort of San Felipe on the North shore and after succeeding in this ruse were able to bypass the place without hindrance.
They then disembarked a vanguard of some forty men from the shallops. Parker and his men were then able to enter the city on the south shore unopposed since the castle of Santiago de la Gloria was positioned too far away to offer any protection. Whilst some of their party created as much noise and panic as possible in their attack on the barracks and crown buildings the remainder of the English took control of the harbour.
The 100 Spanish defenders which the Spanish Governor Pedro Meléndez had sent were too little too late. There was a bitter battle fought to seize the treasure house but it was captured after some forty Spaniards were surrounded, all being either killed or captured. The English were able to push the rest of the Spanish troops with ease inland and with only a few casualties. By the end of the day however Parker had secured the town and set about garrisoning the place. About 30 Spanish prisoners were taken among whom was the governor and several persons of importance. The English prepared for a Spanish counterattack but it never came.
The ground they fought on
The site of Capture of Portobello (1601) lies on Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Middle Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Moscovian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.
Under cover of darkness on 6 February 1601, Parker's men used a captured Portuguese captive to respond to a sentry challenge from the fort of San Felipe, and having deceived the garrison they slipped past unhindered; a vanguard of some forty men then entered Portobello from the south, and whilst one party stormed the barracks and crown buildings with as much noise and alarm as they could muster, the remainder took control of the harbour, after which a bitter fight for the treasure house ended with approximately forty Spanish defenders either killed or taken prisoner.
- Spanish: approximately 40 killed or captured at the treasure house; English: few casualties reported
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