The poet Richard Glover (1712–85) penned ‘Hosier’s Ghost’ in 1739. The rhyme was designed to rouse British sympathies against the Spanish. Hosier had been involved in the blockade of the Caribbean port of Porto Bello in 1726, hoping to stop South American silver being shipped to Spain. The blockade was not particularly successful and Hosier and more than 3000 of his men died from tropical disease.