Cartagena exposed the danger of leaving authority and succession unclear in a combined expedition. Later British practice paired the naval and land commanders within a joint structure instead of placing one service casually over the other. Every senior officer was meant to know the common plan and the order in which command would pass after a death or other loss. The model was not always followed, but it supplied a workable answer to the command vacuum that followed Cathcart and Spotswood's deaths.
Notable Point · 1:03:48-1:04:26
The later joint-command model answers Cartagena
Later British amphibious planning used a joint command with explicit seniority and a shared plan to avoid Cartagena's confused succession.