Battle of Havana ( 1762 ) The Battle of Havana ( 1762 ) was a military action from March to August 1762 , as part of the Seven Years ' War . British forces besieged and captured the city of Havana , which at the time was an important Spanish naval base in the Caribbean , and dealt a serious blow to the Spanish navy . Havana was subsequently returned to Spain under the 1763 Treaty of Paris that formally ended the war . Spanish preparations . Before involving his country in the conflict raging in Europe and across the world , King Carlos III of Spain made provisions to defend the Spanish colonies against the British navy . For the defence of Cuba , he appointed Juan de Prado as commander - in - chief . De Prado arrived at Havana in February 1761 and began work to improve the fortifications of the city . In June 1761 , a flotilla of seven ships of the line under the command of Admiral Gutierre de Hevia arrived at Havana , transporting two regular infantry regiments ( España and Aragón ) totalling some 1 , 000 men . However , yellow fever quickly reduced the defending forces , and by the time of the siege , they had been reduced to 3 , 850 soldiers , 5 , 000 sailors and marines and 2 , 800 militia . The main garrison consisted of : Havana had one of the finest harbours in the West Indies . It could easily accommodate up to 100 ships of the line . A 180m wide and 800m long entrance channel gave access to the harbour , and Havana housed important shipyards capable of building first - rate men of war . Two strong fortress es defended the entrance channel ; on the north side of the channel stood the very strong " Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro " ( known in English as Morro Castle on the rocky Cavannos Ridge . It had 64 heavy guns and was garrisoned by 700 men . The south side was defended by the " Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta " . The channel could also be blocked by a boom chain extending from El Morro to La Punta . Havana itself lay on the south side along the channel and was surrounded by a wall long . British preparations . When war broke out with Spain plans were made in Great Britain for an amphibious attack on Havana . The expedition was under the command of George Keppel , 3rd Earl of Albemarle , with Vice - Admiral Sir George Pocock as naval commander . This plan also called for Jeffrey Amherst to embark 4 , 000 men from America to join Keppel and to assemble another force of 8 , 000 men for an attack on Louisiana . During the month of February , British troops embarked , they consisted of : On 5 March the British expedition sailed from Spithead , England , with 7 ships of the line and 4 , 365 men aboard 64 transports , and arrived in Barbados on 20 April . Five days later the expedition reached Fort Royal on the recently conquered island of Martinique where it picked up the remainder of Major - General Robert Monckton ' s expedition , still numbering 8 , 461 men . Rear Admiral George Rodney ' s squadron , amounting to 8 ships of the line also joined the expedition bringing the total number of ships of the line to 15 . On 23 May the expedition , now off the northwest corner of Saint - Domingue ( present - day Haiti ) , was further reinforced by Sir James Douglas ' squadron from Port Royal , Jamaica . The force under Albemarle now amounted to 21 ships of the line , 24 lesser warships , and 168 other vessels , carrying some 14 , 000 seamen and marines plus another 3 , 000 hired sailors and 12 , 826 regulars . Siege . On 6 June the British force came into sight of Havana . Immediately , 12 British ships of the line were sent to the mouth of the entrance channel to block in the Spanish fleet . The British planned to begin the operations by the reduction of the Morro fortress , on the north side of the channel , through a formal Vauban - style siege . The commanding position of this fort over the city would then force the Spanish commander to surrender . However , this plan did not take into account the fact that the fortress was located on a rocky promontory where it was impossible to dig approach trenches and that a large ditch cut into the rock protected the fort on the land side . The Spanish force under Prado and Admiral Hevia , surprised by the size of the attacking force , adopted a delaying defensive strategy , hoping for a relief force or for an epidemic of yellow fever among the besiegers or for a hurricane destroying the British fleet . Accordingly , the Spanish fleet was kept in the harbour while its sailors , gunners and marines were sent to garrison the fortresses of Morro and Punta which were placed under the command of naval officers . Most of the shot and powder of the fleet as well as its best guns were also transferred to these two fortresses . Meanwhile , regular troops were assigned to the defence of the city . The channel entrance was immediately closed with the boom chain . Furthermore , 3 ships of the line ( " Asia " ( 64 ) , " Europa " ( 64 ) and " Neptuno " ( 74 ) ) were selected among the fleet for their poor condition and sunk behind the boom chain . Realising the importance of the Morro , the Spanish commanders gave it top priority . On 7 June the British troops were landed northeast of Havana , and began advancing west the next day . They met a militia party that was easily pushed back . By the end of the day , British infantry had reached the vicinity of Havana . The defence of the Morro was assigned to Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla , a naval officer , who immediately took measures to prepare and provision the fortress for a siege . On 11 June a British party stormed a detached redoubt on the Cavannos heights . Only then did the British command realise how strong the Morro was , surrounded by brushwood and protected by a large ditch . With the arrival of their siege train the next day , the British began erecting batteries among the trees on La Cabana hill overlooking the Morro ( some higher ) as well as the city and the bay . Surprisingly , this hill had been left undefended by the Spanish army despite its well known strategic importance . The king of Spain had even instructed Prado to fortify this hill , a task that he considered the most urgent among those confided to his commander . On 13 June a British detachment landed at Torreón de la Chorrera , on the west side of the harbour . Meanwhile , Colonel Patrick Mackellar , an engineer , was overseeing the construction of the siege works against the Morro . Since digging trenches was impossible , he resolved to erect breastworks instead . He planned to mine towards a bastion of the Morro once his siege works would have reached the ditch and to create a runway across this ditch with the rubble produced by his mining activities . On 22 June , 4 British batteries totalling 12 heavy guns and 38 mortars opened fire on the Morro from La Cabana . Mackellar gradually advanced his breastworks towards the ditch under cover of these batteries . By 29 June , the British batteries had increased their daily direct hits on the Morro to 500 . Velasco was losing as many as 30 men each day , and the workload of repairing the fortress every night was so exhausting that men had to be rotated into the fort from the city every three days . Velasco finally managed to convince Prado that a raid was necessary against the British batteries . At dawn on 29 June 988 men ( a mixed company of grenadiers , marines , engineers , and slaves ) attacked the siege works . They reached the British batteries from the rear and started to spike guns , but British reaction was swift , and the attackers were repulsed before they caused any serious damage . On 1 July , the British launched a combined land and naval attack on the Morro . The fleet detached 4 ships of the line for this purpose : HMS " Stirling Castle " , HMS " Dragon " , HMS " Marlborough " and HMS " Cambridge " . The naval and land artilleries simultaneously opened fire on the Morro . However , naval guns were ineffective , the fort being located too high . Counter - fire from 30 guns of the Morro inflicted 192 casualties and seriously damaged the ships , three of which later sank , forcing them to withdraw . Meanwhile , the bombardment by the land artillery was far more effective . By the end of the day , only 3 Spanish guns were still effective on the side of the Morro facing the British batteries . On 2 July , the British breastworks around the Morro caught fire and the batteries were burned down , destroying the product of much of the work undertaken since mid June . Velasco immediately capitalized on this event , remounting many guns and repairing breaches in the fortifications of the Morro . Since its arrival at Havana , the British army had heavily suffered from yellow fever . It was now at half strength . Since the hurricane season was approaching , Albemarle was now engaged in a race against time . He ordered the batteries to be rebuilt with the help of men of the fleet . Many 32 - pdrs were taken from the lower deck of several ships to equip these new batteries . By 17 July the new British batteries had progressively silenced most of Velasco ' s guns , leaving only two of them operational . With the absence of artillery cover , it now became impossible for the Spanish troops to repair the damage being inflicted on the Morro . Mackellar was also able to resume construction of siege works to approach the fortress . With the army in such a bad condition , work progressed rather slowly . All hope of the British army now resided in the expected arrival of reinforcements from North America . On 20 July the progress of siege works allowed the British to begin the mining towards the right bastion of the Morro . Meanwhile , the now unopposed British artillery was daily hitting the Morro up to 600 times , causing some 60 casualties . Velasco had now no hope but to destroy British siege works . At 4 am on 22 July 1 , 300 regulars , seamen and militia sallied from Havana in three columns and attacked the siege works surrounding the Morro . The sortie did not succeed and the siege works were left relatively intact . On 24 July Albemarle offered Velasco the opportunity to surrender , allowing him to write his own terms of capitulation . Velasco answered that the issue would rather be settled by force of arms . On 27 July the reinforcements from North America led by Colonel Burton finally arrived . During their journey , they had been attacked by the French , who captured some 500 men . These reinforcements consisted of : On 29 July the mine near the right bastion of the Morro fort was completed and ready to explode . Albemarle vainly feigned an assault , hoping that Velasco would finally decide to surrender . On the contrary , Velasco decided to launched a desperate attack from the sea upon the British miners in the ditch . At 2 : 00 am on 30 July two Spanish schooners attacked the miners from the sea . Their attack was unsuccessful and they had to withdraw . At 1 : 00 pm the British finally detonated the mine . The debris of the explosion partly filled the ditch but Albemarle judged it passable , and launched an assault , sending 699 picked men against the right bastion . Before the Spanish could react , 16 men gained a foothold on the bastion . Velasco then rushed to the breach with his troops . He was mortally wounded during the ensuing hand - to - hand fighting . Once the British were in control of the Morro fort Velasco was transported to Havana . At 9 : 00 pm on 31 July , Velasco died of his wound . The British now occupied a position commanding the city as well as the bay . They built batteries along the north side of the entrance channel from the Morro fort to La Cabana hill . On 11 August , after Prado had rejected the demand for surrender sent to him by Albermarle , the British batteries opened fire on Havana . A total of 47 guns ( 15 x 32 - pdrs , 32 x 24 - pdrs ) , 10 mortars and 5 howitzers pounded the city from a distance of 500 - 800m . By the end of the day Fort la Punta was silenced . Prado had no other choice left but to surrender . Surrender . On 12 and 13 August negotiations of the articles of capitulation went on , and Prado and his army obtained the honours of war . Hevia neglected to burn his fleet which fell intact in the hands of the British . On 14 August the British entered the city . They had obtained possession of the most important harbour in the Spanish West Indies along with military equipment , 1 , 828 , 116 Spanish pesos and merchandise valued around 1 , 000 , 000 Spanish pesos . Furthermore , they had seized 20 % of the ships of the line of the Spanish Navy , namely " Aquilón " ( 74 ) , " Conquistador " ( 74 ) , " Reina " ( 70 ) , " San Antonio " ( 64 ) , " Tigre " ( 70 ) , " San Jenaro " ( 60 ) , " África " ( 70 ) , " América " ( 60 ) , " Infante " ( 74 ) and " Soberano " ( 74 ) , together with 3 frigates , 9 smaller vessels and some armed vessels belonging to trading companies ( Compañía de La Habana and Compañía de Caracas ) . Furthermore , two new almost - completed ships of the line were seized in the dockyards - " San Carlos " ( 80 ) and " Santiago " ( 60 or 80 ) . During the siege the British had lost 2 , 764 killed , wounded , captured or deserted , but by 18 October also had lost 4 , 708 dead from sickness . One of the most depleted brigades was transferred to North America where it lost a further 360 men within a month of arrival . Three ships of line lost were lost either as a direct result of the Spanish gunfire or severe damage received which would cause their demise later . Shortly after the siege was declared unserviceable and was stripped and scuttled , HMS " Marlborough " sank in the Atlantic due the extensive damage received during the siege . was lost while returning to Britain for repairs . On their return to Spain Prado and Hevia were court - martialed and convicted . Aftermath . The loss of Havana and Western Cuba was a serious blow for Spain . Not only were the financial losses considerable , the loss in prestige was even greater . This defeat , together with the conquest of Manila by the British one and a half months later , meant the loss of both the capitals of the Spanish West Indies and the Spanish East Indies . This confirmed British naval supremacy , and showed the fragility of the Spanish Empire . Just as the earlier War of Jenkins ' Ear had forced the British government into a thorough review of its military , this war forced the Spanish government into undertaking a similar process . Havana and Manila were returned to Spain as a result of the 1763 Treaty of Paris , but Spain was required to cede Florida and Minorca to Great Britain and pay the Manila Ransom . Spain received French Louisiana as a payment for intervening in the war on the side of the French and as compensation for having lost Florida . Gallery . Numerous paintings and drawings of the battle were made , notably by Dominic Serres :