a failed assault on the last fortification defending the city led a council of war to decide to abandon the siege and withdraw to Jamaica. The assault was further marred by bitter quarrels with Wentworth. After a further year and a half ineffectually campaigning in the Caribbean, Vernon was recalled back to England to find he had been elected MP for Ipswich. During the 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 assigned to the Jamaica Station. 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-man 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 after this victory, and "Rule, Britannia!" was composed by Thomas Arne during the celebrations in 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 Robert Walpole, as just vengeance for Admiral Hosier's disastrous blockade of Porto Bello during 1726–1728, 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 disease. 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