Edward Vernon Edward Vernon ( " Old Grog " ) ( 12 November 1684 – 30 October 1757 ) was an English naval officer . Vernon was born in Westminster , England and went to Westminster School . He joined the Navy in 1700 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1702 and served on several different ships for the next five years . He was appointed Captain in 1706 , taking command of , part of the fleet of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell . With HMS " Rye " he narrowly escaped the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 in which Shovell and nearly 2 , 000 sailors were lost . In the next ten years Vernon was on half pay for half of this time . In May 1728 he took up parliamentary duties and the case of Robert Jenkins , who was alleged to have had his ear cut off by Spanish coastguards in the Caribbean . This led to the War of Jenkins ' Ear in 1739 in which Vice Admiral Vernon led a fleet along with Major General Thomas Wentworth . Vernon captured Porto Bello a Spanish colonial possession , as a result of which , he was granted the Freedom of the City of London . However , Vernon ' s next campaign against the Spanish , a large - scale assault on Cartagena de Indias in 1741 ended in disaster . This was the biggest amphibious attack until the Invasion of Normandy in 1944 : in Cartagena the British fleet of 186 ships and almost 27 , 000 men was defeated by a garrison of 3 , 500 men and 6 ships of the line commanded by the one - eyed , one - armed Spanish admiral Blas de Lezo . The strategic defense of the colonial port of Cartagena led to heavy British casualties and eventually a retreat to Jamaica . Following the disease outbreak and quarrels with Wentworth , Vernon returned to the UK to find he had been elected MP for Ipswich . However , the news of the Cartagena defeat eventually led to the collapse of Robert Walpole ' s government . Vernon maintained his Naval career for another four years before retiring in 1746 . In an active Parliamentary career Vernon advocated an improvement in naval procedures and he continued to hold an interest in naval affairs until his death in 1757 . Early life . Born in Westminster , London , Vernon was the second son of James Vernon , secretary of state to William III . Edward had one other sibling , James who became British envoy to Denmark and served as a member of parliament and Clerk of the Privy Council . Vernon briefly attended Westminster School , then joined the Royal Navy on 10 May 1700 as a " Volunteer per order " on board . It is important to note that Vernon ' s secondary education was sharply at odds with the norm for Royal Navy officers of his day , most of whom received only an elementary education before they were sent to sea at about the age of twelve . War of the Spanish Succession . In March 1701 , he was transferred to and three months later , joined . On 16 September 1702 , Vernon was promoted Lieutenant and appointed to serving in the Channel Squadron . The ship was later transferred to the Mediterranean and finally paid off in March 1704 . He was then appointed to , which at the time was the flagship of Admiral Cloudesley Shovell in the Mediterranean . The ship was present at the capture of Gibraltar and the Battle of Málaga . In December , with Shovell , he transferred to and was present at the capture of Barcelona in 1705 . On 22 January 1706 he was promoted Captain and appointed to HMS " Dolphin " . However , he was moved ten days later into and remained in the Mediterranean until 1707 . With the rest of Shovell ’ s fleet , he returned to England , but was fortunate to escape the disaster that befell Shovell ’ s flagship , at the Isles of Scilly . In November , he joined and in April 1708 , took command of the West Indies station . In 1710 , he successfully broke up a Spanish squadron off Cartegena . At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1712 , he returned to Britain . Peace , promotion and parliament . In March 1715 , he was appointed to , in which he served in the Baltic until 1717 when the ship was paid off . After this , he was put on half pay for the next eighteen months . In March 1719 , he was appointed to HMS " Mary " and returned to the Baltic . Vernon was the commodore of Port Royal in Jamaica in 1720 . In 1721 , he again went on half pay for five years . During this period , he became the member of Parliament for Penryn and took a leading part in naval debates . In 1726 , he was re - appointed to active service in . This ship served in the Baltic until the winter of 1727 when it was transferred to the fleet at Gibraltar , after Spain had declared war on Britain . In May 1728 , peace was made with Spain and Vernon returned to Britain and resumed his Parliamentary duties . He took up the case of Robert Jenkins , a merchant seaman who claimed to have had his ear cut off after his vessel was boarded by Spanish guardacostas in 1731 . War of Jenkins ' Ear . During the ensuing War of Jenkins ' Ear , Vernon was promoted Vice - Admiral ( of the Blue ) on 9 July 1739 and , as he had prominently spoken for both the war and the Navy , he was given the command of a squadron of six ships . " The Gentleman ' s Magazine " reported England ' s preparations for war against Spain in July 1739 , noting that : Vernon had been recalled to active duty and promoted ; that , on 10 July King George II had instructed the Lords of the Admiralty to prepare " Letters of Marque " ; and ( a week after the fact ) it reported Vernon and his squadron had sailed for the West Indies on 20 July . Despite the unmistakable signs of Great Britain preparing for a naval war in the summer of 1739 , the formal declaration of war against Spain was not announced in London until Saturday 23 October 1739 . Porto Bello . On 21 November 1739 Vernon captured the Spanish colonial possession of Porto Bello ( now in Panama ) using just six ships ( against the 90 men Spanish garrison ) . Vernon was subsequently granted the Freedom of the City of London and commemorative medals were produced . The Portobello areas in London , Dublin and Edinburgh ( see Portobello Road and Portobello , Dublin ) are named for his victory , and " Rule Britannia " was composed by Thomas Arne during the celebratory frenzy of 1740 . A tower commemorating his victory was erected by members of the Vernon family living at Hilton Hall outside Wolverhampton . Addressed by Hosier ' s Ghost . Vernon ' s action was seen by the " Patriots " , or pro - war party opposed to Walpole , as just vengeance for Admiral Hosier ' s disastrous Blockade of Porto Bello during 1726 - 28 where with a greater force of 20 ships , and Porto Bello inadequately defended , government orders forbade him from firing a shot , leaving him and some 4 , 000 sailors to linger ineffectually off the shore and to die of tropical diseases . The ballad " Admiral Hosier ' s Ghost " was written by Richard Glover following Vernon ' s triumph , as an attempt to remind Walpole of his previous failed policy of inaction , and to check any basking in Vernon ' s glory on his part . In the ballad , the Ghost of Hosier appears to Vernon as he rests at anchor following his successful engagement , and congratulates him : Unrepining at thy glory Thy successful arms we hail . He then charges him to " let Hosier ' s wrongs prevail " when he returns to England , upon which he and his fellow ghosts can finally rest , their reputations restored . The first half of verse 7 is thus : For resistance I could fear none But with twenty ships had done What thou brave and happy Vernon Hast atchiev ' d with six alone . Cartagena de Indias . In April 1741 , with a much larger fleet and land forces under Major General Thomas Wentworth , 26 , 600 men and 186 ships , Vernon turned his attention to Cartagena de Indias in Nueva Granada ( now Colombia ) . Vernon was so self - confident that he sent a message to his King assuring he had conquered the city , generating a euphoria in England bigger than the capture of " Portbelo " produced the year before . Previously he tried to bombard Cartagena with his huge squadron without success . Vernon and Wentworth did not get on and time was wasted in deciding where to land the army . When the army finally attacked at the battle of Cartagena , it was badly beaten and repelled by the garrison of less than 2 , 000 men and 6 ships commanded by the bravest Spanish commander , the one - eyed , one - armed and one - legged Blas de Lezo . An epidemic of yellow fever , typhus , scurvy and dysentery which ravaged the crews of the ships and the soldiers ashore , compounded the problems and the force returned to Port Royal . Great Britain still does not recognizes the defeat . George Washington ' s half - brother , Lawrence Washington , served on Vernon ' s flagship HMS " Princess Caroline " ( an 80 gun three - decker ) as a Captain of the Marines in 1741 and named his estate Mount Vernon in honour of his commander . At the end of May 1741 , the British forces in the Caribbean decided to attack Cuba . Vernon captured Guantánamo Bay , briefly renaming it " Cumberland Bay " . He arrived with a force of eight warships and 4 , 000 soldiers with plans to march on Santiago de Cuba , but was resisted by local guerilla forces and finally abandoned the attempt in December after sickness broke out again . Vernon could no longer hold back his anger at what he perceived as Wentworth ’ s ineptitude and a bitter quarrel ensued ending in the recall of both parties to Britain at the end of 1742 . Further political career . While he had been away , Vernon had been elected MP for Ipswich , after having purchased the Nacton estate in Suffolk . Vernon returned to Parliament and continued to harass the government on naval affairs . At this time , many anonymous pamphlets criticising the Admiralty appeared and although Vernon denied he was the author , some have been attributed to him . In 1745 , Vernon was promoted to Admiral and appointed to command the North Sea Fleet in response to the threat from the French forces in support of Charles Edward Stuart , " Bonnie Prince Charlie " . This was his last operational command . When the Admiralty refused to grant him the status of Commander - in - Chief , he asked to be relieved on 1 December 1745 , and the Admiralty removed him from the list of flag officers in 1746 . Naval innovation and health . Throughout his career , Vernon had tried to improve naval procedures and encouraged his captains to improve manoeuvres and gun drill . He introduced new instructions to aid the flexibility of handling fleets in battle and formed the basis of continuing improvement to Admiralty fighting instructions by subsequent naval commanders . Vernon continued to serve in Parliament and remained active in the interest of naval affairs until his death at Nacton on 30 October 1757 . Many of his proposals were subsequently adopted and contributed to Britain ' s victory in the Seven Years War . His enduring claim to fame was his 1740 order that his sailors ' rum should be diluted with water . In 1740 , citrus juice ( usually lemon or lime juice ) was added to the recipe of the traditional daily ration of watered - down rum known to cut down on the water ' s foulness . Although they did not know the reason at the time , Admiral Edward Vernon ' s sailors were healthier than the rest of the navy , due to the daily doses of vitamin C the sailors received . However , it was not until 1747 that James Lind formally proved that scurvy could be treated and prevented by supplementing the diet with citrus fruit such as limes or lemons . The rest of the Royal Navy rapidly followed Vernon ' s lead , supposedly calling the new drink " grog " after Vernon ' s nickname " Old Grog " , attributed to his habitual wearing of a grogram coat . The tradition of a provision to each seaman of a tot of rum per day continued until " " Black Tot Day " " on 31 July 1970 when the last pipe of " " Up Spirits " " was heard throughout the ships and shore establishments of the Royal Navy . Mount Vernon , the estate of George Washington , was named for the Admiral . Washington ' s older half - brother Lawrence Washington had served under Vernon in the War of Jenkins ' Ear , and named his estate for his former commander .