Mediohombre: Part 1 - The Life of Don Blas de Lezo

The 18th and 19th centuries were some of the most exciting times in the history of history. The world was one giant opportunity for swashbuckling adventure, and many men (and women) took advantage of it. This was a breeding ground for unquestionable badasses, but this time period was also notable for the developing power struggle between the Western European nation-states that vied for power over the rest of the world.

Today I would like to examine two of these things at once: the power struggle in a certain part of the world, and one of the greatest seafaring men ever produced. Vastly underrated and ignored in the English-speaking world, this man was not just an epic seaman and warrior, but a tough son of a bitch who managed to have a lasting effect on the way the map is drawn today. This is the story of Don Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta.

Blas de Lezo was born in 1689 in the shipbuilding port town of Pasajes in northern Spain. This sights and sounds of his hometown likely influenced his future, and fed a young affinity for the sea. Basque historian Conde de Llobregat wrote that "This background and the fantastic tales that he must have heard from the lips of the ships' captains, most certainly friends of his father and grandfather, like them gentlemen of the sea, influenced not a little the direction of the character of Don Blas, who soon began to show his [sea] leanings."

The young man was fueled not only by his surroundings: his aforementioned father and grandfather were men of the sea, his father a captain descended from a line of nobles and sailors. His Basque heritage is not to be ignored either. The people of the Steppe are known for their relationship with the horse, but northern Spain produced some of the greatest sailing men that ever lived. The Basques had documented whaling expeditions a 1300 years ago, and were some of the earliest cod-fishers off the coast of Newfoundland in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Basques were credited with the invention of the European rudder, and were the first people to circumnavigate the globe, as part of Magellan's expedition from 1519-1522. Blas de Lezo had sailing in his blood.

Don Blas was schooled in France as a child, then joined the Spanish Navy when he came of age. Of course, 'of age' meant 13 years old (some sources say 15, but he supposedly joined in 1702. I'm a historian, not a math whiz, but I think I can handle this one). In any case, Blas de Lezo joined up and was immediately baptized in fire in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Serving as a midshipman, de Lezo wasted no time earning a reputation as a skilled an valiant seaman. Early in his career, serving aboard the flagship of fleet commander Conde de Tolosa, de Lezo lost his leg fighting a squadron of Dutch warships near Malaga. According to legend, de Lezo neither received anesthetic nor made a soudn during the amputation, and his toughness combined with his aptitude and valor under fire earned him a recommendation from de Tolosa directly to King Phillip, which resulted in de Lezo promotion to sub-lieutenant. As mentioned, the dates are a bit hazy, but we do know that these things happened before the man had turned 16.

In 1706 de Lezo was pulled into French waters He lost an eye defending the fort of Sainte Catherine at the French port of Toulon in 1707, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1708. In 1710 he was granted his own frigate, and his defeat of the heavily-armed East India privateer Stanhope was a much-celebrated (and then-unheard-of) victory. Stanhope, besides being one of the funniest comedians working today, was one of just eleven ships de Lezo captured between 1710 and the end of the war four years later.

In a startling display of ability, de Lezo outmaneuvered the much more powerful Stanhope. Here is Cortellini's rendition of his frigate, 'crossing the T' and firing broadside into the larger ship's stern.

The great man finally lost a third part of his anatomy when his right arm was mangled by grapeshot while leading a successful amphibious assault on the long-besieged Barcelona, an attack that broke the back of
the Hapsburgs and essentially closed the war. Don Blas had entered the war a boy and left it a legend, still just 25 years old. Immediately after the war, his reward for outstanding service was the high honor of escorting newly-undisputed King Phillip's new bride, Elisabeth of Parma, to Spain.

Two years after the war, in 1716, de Lezo was given command of his first ship of the line, the 60-gun Lanfranco, and promoted the the rank of captain. Our hero then spent the next 14 years running missions for Hispanic Maerica, first as a convoy guard, then opposing pirate activities in the West Indies (modern Caribbean). In 1725 he married a Peruvian woman, Josepha Pacheco of Arica, and their first child, named for his father, was baptized early in 1726. De Lezo would remain active on the seas, despite his new family: when war broke out between Britain and Spain in 1727, within the first year de Lezo had captured six British and Dutch armed merchant ships, two of which he added to his own fleet, and took three million pesos's worth of loot.

The Anglo-Spanish war wound to a close in 1729, and the following year de Lezo requested that he be moved out of the Caribbean and closer to home. Once in Spain, he was granted his first leave in nearly thirty years of fighting, and King Phillip, who had always coveted Don Blas, personally promoted him to the rank of commodore.

De Lezo's leave would prove to be short-lived, as a special job called him back to action. In 1731 he was given command of the Mediterranean squadron and instructed to play the role of collector. Don Blas was dispatched to   Genoa to extract a sum of two million pesos owed to Spain, a debt long overdue. In December he arrived at Genoa with six ships, demanded the money in full, and, feeling that Spain had been insulted, called for a city-wide salute to the Spanish flag. When the leaders of Genoa balked at this request, de Lezo motioned toward his timepiece and said that they had mere hours to comply, and if they failed, he would 'raze the city, reducing it ashes.' The Genoans opted not to call him on this threat, producing the money immediately. Unfortunately, de Lezo sailed off after receiving the payment, and whether or not the salute happened has been lost to history.

De Lezo spent the rest of the 1730s doing what any good Christian would, fighting the Ottoman Corsairs. One of the highlights was his part in the massive assault on Oran in 1732, retaking the city for the Spanish. He played a pivotal role as fleet commander in the amphibious assault that included 30 000 Spanish troops and almost 600 ships. Though the city was retaken into Spanish custody, Bey Hussan (who had taken it for the Ottomans in 1708) managed to escape the city and return to besiege to Spanish garrison. De Lezo and his fleet drove off the assault, and, more than that, pursued the Algerian flagship, hit its powder stores and blew it up. JD Harbron suggests that de Lezo's experience at Oran would prove invaluable later in his career (hint, hint).

De Lezo spent the remainder of the decade battling pirates in the Mediterranean, then retired to Cartagena in 1740. The post was largely a cushy reward for 39 years of distinguished service, a high-paying, low-profile job "guarding" the city and nearby Fort San Lazaro. One would think that after a career of daring successes on the open seas, Don Blas would find his immortal moment at some point during his illustrious career, but it was during his retirement at Cartagena that de Lezo's name would pass into legend. It is also de Lezo's actions in Colombia that make him a relevant historical figure, and not just a fierce bane of pirates and Brits. In Cartagena, Blas de Lezo would change the course of history.

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This concludes Part 1 of the three-part series on Don Blas and his impact on the Mediterranean. Part 2 should be out shortly, so tune in. Thanks for reading.