Item ref: 5193
Private collection, United Kingdom
The heavily fortified Cuban port city of Havana was the hub of the valuable sugar trade essential to the 18th century Spanish economy. The royal shipyard in Havana was also the source of hardwood suitable for the maintenance of Spain’s powerful Caribbean naval and merchant fleets, again essential to the security of her central American and Caribbean economic interests. Havana was therefore a significant strategic prize when Britain, provoked by Spanish trade embargos, declared war on Spain in January 17On 6th June 1762 a force of 160 transports carrying 12,826 troops and 21 ships-of-the-line, 11 Frigates and 13 other vessels of war manned by 17,000 sailors and royal marines arrived outside of Havana, the transports already having mistakenly been allowed to disembark troops unchallenged. The invading force was made up of both British and Colonial American troops, of which the latter were reinforced on 27th July by the addition of 3,000 American Provincials and a Ranger Corps 253 strong.
So began the siege of the port and its environs which was to last until it eventually fell to the British on 13th August, costly to both sides in lives lost in combat and to disease (British losses were 2,764 killed, wounded, captured and deserted, with 4,708 dead from disease), but overwhelmingly so to the Cuban and Spanish defenders. The Spanish and Cuban defence relied on its fortified positions, after early losses to disease the defenders numbering only 1,900 regular troops, 750 marines, 2,000-3,000 militia, 5,000 sailors and a force of poorly-armed slaves and guajiros.
The engraving on the powderhorn under discussion was certainly the work of a British or American serviceman present during the siege and his work exhibits the detail of those landmark parts of Havana with which he would have been personally familiar. This personal quality results in a work which is both informative as a record but highly characterful also. This contrasts markedly with another engraved powderhorn, also of the siege period, which records the port and city of Havana in less graphic grid-like detail and which is preserved in The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia (2003.00.0116).
The engraver of the present horn has titled his work ‘THE CITY OF HAVANA ILUMINATED IMBARKATION OF THE BRITISH TROOPS JULY 1763’ (sic.). The many small architectural sketches are numbered to correspond with a panel of tabulated captions, in the manner of mapmakers of the period. On the opposite side are Masonic and other personal devices, a small area has been deliberately erased. Of additional interest, the name of the owner of this horn ‘NEWHALL’ (perhaps the engraver) is preserved in original paint on the lacquered wooden base plug.
Engraved details include the formidable Castillo de los tres Reyes del Moro (aka Moro Castle), which with its armament of 164 artillery pieces and 700 men formed the mainstay of the defence of the harbour mouth. By late June the castle was receiving about 500 British artillery hits a day, rising to 600 by late July, for the most part from a heavy battery firing from an overlooking hill foolishly neglected in the Spanish planned defences. Moro castle eventually fell to a concerted hand-to-hand assault on 30th July. Thereafter, the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta (here captioned PUNTO) briefly held out on the south side of the harbour mouth until overcome by bombardment.
Also portrayed on the powderhorn, H.M.S. Cambridge lies at anchor in the harbour, an 80-gun third rate ship-of-the-line she had been one of four royal naval vessels pouring concentrated gunfire onto Moro castle on 1st July, during which action her captain, William Goostrey had been killed by a bullet from the castle. The Cambridge lost 24 killed and 94 wounded.
Also recorded on this flask are the Spanish ships selected to be sunk across the 180metre wide mouth of the harbour channel in their successful effort to reinforce the chain boom and deny the British entry. In so doing they naturally blockaded their own flotilla of 11 ships -of-the-line, lesser naval vessels and their merchant fleet, most all of which were ultimately taken as prizes.
On 13th August 1762 the British entered the city. The British and American occupation of Havana was formally concluded under the peace terms of the Treaty of Paris signed on February 10th 1763, which ended the globally fought Seven Years War, of which the war with Spain had been a late addition. Under the treaty, Havana was returned to Spain in exchange for West Florida (East Florida was to be ceded to Britain in 1783). As is recorded by the date on the powderhorn, a British military presence lingered in Havana over the period during which a suitably favourable new governor could be installed.