Hola from Cartagena de Indias, Colombia,
The premature announcement of triumph, only to find the fortunes are reversed, are among the great embarrassments.
The Americas have produced their fair share of such embarrassing claims of victory.
The 1948 election pitted Harry S. Truman against the heavily backed Thomas Dewey. The Chicago Tribune ran with the bold headline
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN
only to find that Truman’s 303 Electoral votes put him in the White House. Truman gleefully help up the front page for photographs.
Owner of the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic, the White Star Line announced to reporters that all of the passengers had been rescued and were on their way to Halifax. They even cited the fact that they had organised special trains to transport the passengers.
Then, George W. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” during the Gulf War, only to field questions in the following days about the continuing violence.
Perhaps, the most far-reaching embarrassment was occurred during the Siege of Cartagena in 1741. Cartagena de Indias had long been in the sights of the British. They gambled heavily on a weakened Spanish empire in Central and South America. Cartagena was a strategic port since all of the imports from Spain to the Indies – including all of the slaves slated for auction – arrived there, and all of the treasures exported from the South American mines (like the silver from Potosi) left from there.
The British assault on Cartagena was by land and sea. It was led by Admiral Edward Vernon, with a formidable fleet of 156 ships and upwarsd of 27 000 men. They were up against six ships and 3600 men. The Spanish were led by Blas de Lezo. It looked a lost cause and all of the defenders retreated to the fortress of San Felipe after abandoning the Bocagrande fortress. Believing that victory was inevitable, Vernon sent a message to the home country announcing the victory.
The defenders dug a huge trench which meant that the ladders built by the British attackers were insufficient. The Spanish were able to repel the invaders, causing the British to evacuate. On their way, they set fire to five of their own ships, not having the manpower to sail them. The humiliation on the water was matched with the mockery assigned all of the 11 coins and medallions minted to commemorate Vernon’s victory.
This one even has Lezo kneeling in deference, surrendering his sword. Coins like this one were ridiculed for some time in Spain in the ensuing years. Not only was it embarrassing, it being the decisive battle of the War of the Seat, it ended hostilities in the Caribbean, and allowed the Spanish to hold onto their empirical assets for another 70 years.
This embarrassment had greater implications for the people of South America who continued under Spanish rule until liberation in the 19th century.
Adios from Colombia
Gregorio