Discusión:Charles Knowles

Batallas de La Guaira y Puerto Cabello

After the failure at Cartagena, Knowles was moved into the Lichfield, and in the course of 1742 into the Suffolk of 70 guns. In her he commanded a squadron, sent by Sir Chaloner Ogle in the beginning of 1743 to act against the Spanish settlements on the Caracas coast. No pains were taken to keep the expedition a secret; the Spaniards had two months' warning for their preparations; and the Dutch, though allies of the English, supplied them with powder. The result was that when the squadron attacked La Guayra on 18 Feb. 1742–3 it was beaten off with very heavy loss, and when, having refitted at Curaçoa, it attacked Porto Cabello on 15 April and again on the 24th, it had no better success. On 28 April a council of war decided that ‘the squadron was no longer in a condition to attempt any enterprise against the enemy,’ and Knowles, sending the ships and troops to their respective stations, returned to Jamaica.