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Benbow  on 3 Nov., and proceeded by easy stages to Jamaica, where a French fleet was expected. For several months Benbow remained at Jamaica, and on 8 May was joined by Rear-admiral Whetstone. Thus strengthened, he shortly afterwards proceeded for a cruise on the coast of Hispaniola. In August he received news of the French squadron having gone to Cartagena and Porto Bello. On 19 Aug. he sighted it in the neighbourhood of Santa Marta. It consisted of four ships of from 60 to 70 guns; one of 30, a transport, and four small frigates, all under the command of M. du Casse. The English force consisted of seven ships of from 50 to 70 guns, but was much scattered, and the commanders showed no great alacrity in closing. It was late in the afternoon before the ships were in any collected order, and a partial engagement, lasting for about a couple of hours, was put an end to by nightfall. The admiral in the Breda, of 70 guns, closely followed by Captain Walton in the Ruby, of 50 guns, kept company with the French all night, and was well up with them at daybreak; but the other ships did not close during the whole day. The 21st and three following days brought, no more resolution to the different captains of the squadron. Walton only, and Vincent of the Falmouth, supported the admiral in his continued attempts to bring Du Casse to action, and for some time these three sustained the fire of the whole French squadron, while the other ships held aloof. The Ruby was disabled on the 23rd, and ordered to make the best of her way to Port Royal. Early on the morning of the 24th Benbow's right leg was shattered by a chain-shot. He was carried below, but as soon as the wound was dressed he had himself taken up on to the quarter-deck. Captain Kirkby of the Defiance came on board and urged him to give up the chase. All the other captains being summoned on board concurred in this; they even put their opinion on paper; and the admiral was thus compelled to return to Jamaica. There he ordered a court martial to be assembled. Captains Kirkby of the Defiance, and Wade of the Greenwich, were condemned to be shot, and Captain Constable of the Windsor to be cashiered. Captain Hudson of the Pendennis died before the trial; Captain Vincent of the Falmouth, and Captain Fogg of the flag-ship, who had signed the protest, were suspended during the queen's pleasure. Kirkby and Wade were shot on board the Bristol in Plymouth Sound, 16 April 1703 [see ]. The admiral had succumbed to his wound some months earlier. He died at Port Royal on 4 Nov. 1702, and was buried in the chancel of St. Andrew's Church, Kington, where a slab of blue slate still marks his grave (, Cruise of the St. George (1862), p. 95). The inscription on this is curiously inaccurate. It describes Benbow as admiral of the white—he was, in fact, at the time of his death vice-admiral of the blue; it overstates his age by two years, and it emblazons as his the arms of a family with which he had no connection ( and, ii. 391). There is no record of the author of this inscription, but the mistakes show that it must have been written, probably at a considerable time after the admiral's death, by some one ignorant of naval distinctions, not intimately acquainted with the admiral, and yet desirous of exalting his social status. All this seems to point to Mr. Calton, the husband of Benbows daughter, whose extraordinary misrepresentations to Dr. Campbell have been sufficiently exposed by the authors of the 'History of Shrewsbury.'

The exact narration of Benbow's history may cause some wonder as to his high reputation. For in no one instance where he commanded was any success over the enemy obtained, and his engagement with Du Casse was the most disgraceful event in our naval records. He fought indeed bravely; but in commander-in-chief mere personal bravery goes for very little, and it was pointed out at the time that it was the admiral's plain duty to have at once superseded and confined the false-hearted officers (, 598). Now is it clear that the mutiny — for it was nothing less — was not largely due to his own want of temper and tact. Kirkby and the others were officers of good repute, and of good service. There are very good grounds for believing that their disaffection was personal to Benbow. The admiral, who is described as 'an honest rough seaman,' is said to have treated 'Captain Kirkby, and the rest of the gentlemen, a little briskly at Jamaica, when he found them not quite so ready to obey his orders as he thought was their duty' (, ii. 34); and we may very well believe that this 'brisk treatment' administered by an 'honest rough seaman' meant a good deal of coarse language. This is the view which seems to meet the facts of the case; and though it does not lessen the guilt of the captains, it does check our sharing in the traditional admiration of the admiral who goaded them to crime.

Benbow appears to have married early : his wife's name was Martha, and he had several children; three sons and two daughters are named ( and, ii. 394), but the dates (1679, 1680, 1681) assigned to the birth of the three eldest correspond with the period of Benbow's service in the Mediterranean on 