George Washington's Maritime World

George Washington was supposed to be an admiral. Not just any admiral — he was going to be an officer in the global maritime power that dominated the world's oceans, the British Royal Navy. When he was 14, about the right age for a young man in the colonies to determine what he was going to do with his life, George packed his bags to head to sea. His older brother Lawrence had served as a company commander in the British infantry regiment raised in the colonies and served under the British commander of Jamaica Station, Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, during the Siege of Cartagena in 1741. The regiment then fought through expeditionary operations on the coast of Cuba at Guantanamo Bay and in Panama. After the survivors returned to Virginia, Lawrence named the family estate after his favorite commander. The name stuck. As young George approached adulthood, a Royal Navy ship arrived in the Chesapeake and Lawrence used the connections from his service to obtain his younger brother an appointment as a midshipman in the Royal Navy.