Avenging Captain Perkins
200th ANNIVERSARY
22 MAY 1823
AVENGING CAPTAIN PERKINS
On 1 March 1823 the American merchant brig Belisarius of Kennebunk, Maine, departed Port au Prince, Haiti, bound for Mexico. The new-found independence of such former Spanish colonies as Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico had brought a boon to American commerce. But these same changes brought piracy. Nefarious cut-throats scoured the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean operating under the sham of privateering for these new republics but acting in fact as frank pirates. However, Captain Perkins, the master of Belisarius, was eternally optimistic.
All went well until the brig entered Campeche harbor and was accosted by a 40-ton schooner bearing 40 or so angry men. They forced their way aboard and began asking for money. Perkins refused, which brought a slashing blow from a cutlass that severed Perkins’ arm. Bleeding and stunned by the barbarity of the attack, Perkins relented. Two hundred Spanish doubloons were surrendered, the apparent signal for the remaining pirates to loose their venom. Perkins’ other arm was severed, then a leg was taken off at the knee. Now sprawled powerless on deck in a pool of his own blood, pitch-soaked oakum was packed around Perkins’ body and stuffed into his mouth. The oakum was then ignited with a torch, unmercifully ending Perkins’ life. The pirates proceeded to strip the brig of anchors, line, sails, quadrants, charts, and nearly all the provisions, as well as the ship’s books and papers. Cast adrift, the remaining crew of Belisarius struggled to make New Orleans and would not have done so without the help of several passing ships.
US Navy West India Squadron commodore CAPT David Porter dispatched LT Francis H. Gregory in the 12-gun topsail schooner USS GRAMPUS in response. Gregory cleared the balize at the mouth of the Mississippi River on April 24th and proceeded south. Arriving on May 13th in Campeche, Gregory consulted with the local authorities who admitted impotence in routing the many pirates operating in the area. These pirates seemed to concentrate around Cape Catouche, sortying in canoes, small vessels, and barges at the sight of a merchant ship. As a usual course, they stripped ships of all valuable items, murdered the crews, then set the ships adrift or ablaze.
Gregory worked toward the Cape, spotting two suspicious craft this day, both loaded with armed men. These were summarily taken, though it will never be known whether this action truly avenged Belisarius’ capture. Gregory lingered in the area until June, later saving the lives of Captain Perry and crew of Shibboleth, a schooner out of New York whom pirates had set ablaze after locking her crew in the fo’castle.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 26 MAY 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Allen, Gardner W., Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates. Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 48-50.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 38.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: A balize is a pole or frame, visible from sea, that marks the entrance to a river or waterway. Grampus is a species of porpoise.
Francis Hoyt Gregory (1789-1866) had served in heroic actions in the War of 1812 and by this date was a respected officer. He remained in the Navy throughout the Civil War, becoming one of the original 9 CAPTs promoted to RADM with the Navy Grade and Pay Regulations Act of 16 July 1862. Two Navy destroyers, Gregory (DD-82) and (DD-802), remember the officer and gentleman.
