(Updated, February 2023) Small-sword, thought to have belonged to Don Juan Francisco de Garganta (active 1739) and Commodore Charles Brown (1678 - 1753).

The hilt, made in Paris, consists of a silver guard with a spiral fluted silver grip, a round silver pommel and a rudimentary silver pas d'ane. It bears the mark of the Paris assay office for the year 1737-38 and an unidentified silversmith's mark which may be a 'D'. The steel blade appears to be either German or Spanish. It is double-edged, the obverse engraved with a four-line inscription of which only the letters 'H' and 'GI' remain, and an eight-pointed star motif. There are also various marks along the spine, now almost obliterated. The reverse is engraved with a three- or four-line inscription of which only the letter 'F' is decipherable, and an eight-pointed star motif. Again there are also varied marks along the spine of which the most obvious is a circle with a spot in the centre, with a line below. The black leather scabbard has a silver chape and two lockets with rings.

This small-sword was reputedly surrendered on 22 November 1739 by Don Francisco de Garganta, Governor of the Iron Castle at Porto Bello, on its capture by the six-ship bombarding squadron led by Admiral Edward ('Grog') Vernon (1684-1757). The main seaward assault was led by Vernon's second-in-command, Commodore Charles Brown, and the story that followed is recounted by Brown's great-grandson, Edward Hawke Locker (1777-1849), in 'The Naval Gallery of Greenwich Hospital', (1831, p. 20):

'The Spanish Governor came off to his [Brown's] ship and presented his sword in token of submission. Brown very properly declined to receive it, saying, "he was but second in command", and accordingly took him in his boat to Admiral Vernon, to whom this surrender was due. But the Spaniard was obstinate, and declared that had it not been for the insupportable fire of the Commodore he never would have yielded, upon which Mr Vernon very handsomely turning to Brown presented the sword to him, which is now in the possession of the author of this memoir.'

While 'The Angry Admiral: the later career of Admiral Vernon...', by Cyril Hughes Hartmann (1953, p.27) identifies the sword as Garganta's and the direct circumstances make this most likely, the overall governor of Portobello at the time was Don Francisco Javier Martines de la Vega y Retes, so there is also a slight possibility it may have been his.

Commodore Brown's daughter Lucy married Admiral William Parry (1705-1799): their daughter in turn married Captain William Locker (1731-1800) who died as Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital. The most eminent of the Locker children was Edward Hawke Locker, Secretary and later a Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital, 1819-44, who in 1838 and 1839 presented first Brown's portrait (BHC2578) and then George Chambers's depiction of the Portobello action (BHC0355) to the Naval Gallery there to mark its centenary. His son Frederick (1821-95 and known as a poet) adopted the name Locker-Lampson in 1885 and it was from his family that the Museum purchased this sword (with another, WPN1249) in 1963.