USS BEAGLE and GREYHOUND (cont. from 11 JUL)
200th ANNIVERSARY
21-22 JULY 1823
USS BEAGLE AND GREYHOUND (cont. from 11 JUL)
The demise of Diabolito ten days earlier did not bring piracy along the coast of Spanish Cuba to an end. Far from it. Piracy remained rampant and American ships continued to fall victim. So too, were those of many other nations. Our West India Squadron, commanded by Commodore David Porter, included several small, fast schooners capable of operations in the shallow bays and coves of the region. On 21 July 1823 two of these schooners, USS BEAGLE, 3, and USS GREYHOUND, 3, were working along the southern coast of Cuba searching for pirate activities. Wishing to inspect the region about Cape Cruz more thoroughly, LT Lawrence Kearny, skipper of GREYHOUND, rowed ashore with his counterpart from BEAGLE, LT John T. Newton. They carried a couple muskets and a fowling piece that might add a tasty game bird to the dinner fare that evening.
Finding nothing initially, they rowed further around the Cape. As they did so they noted several huts sheltered between large rocks and high bushes. Then shots suddenly rang out in their direction! Indeed, the officers found themselves in a well-laid crossfire clearly planned by nefarious actors, probably pirates. Newton and Kearny beat a hasty retreat.
This following morning the officers returned, this time flying the American flag from their transom. They were again fired upon. Convinced they had stumbled into a pirate nest, the schooners were warped into position in the shallow bay near the ambush site. A shore party of seamen and Marines led by one of Kearny’s junior lieutenants, David G. Farragut, was quietly landed to work into the rear of the pirate position. Then a frontal assault began with the schooners opening fire and a second assault party hitting headforemost on the beach. The pirates found themselves trapped between two forces and briefly put up a fierce battle. Then as was so often the case, they fled into the jungle with their women and children. Farragut’s men chased the pirates to the point of exhaustion, their clothing torn by the undergrowth and their shoes shredded on the sharp rocks. But alas, the pirates’ knowledge of the trails and terrain allowed their escape.
Back on the beach, Farragut’s men discovered plundered goods in the huts. Eight pirate skiffs along with a swivel gun (a favorite pirate weapon) and small arms were discovered. A search of nearby caves revealed more plundered goods as well as human remains. Convinced a major pirate lair had been located, Kearny burned the buildings and carried off the weapons and boats. He returned to cruising until an outbreak of yellow fever gripped the area that autumn. As was Porter’s custom facing such disease, the Squadron waited out the epidemic to the north, in the States.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 25-28 JUL 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Allen, Gardner W., Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates. Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 53-54.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 107.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 158.
“Naval Register for the Year 1822.” AT: http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/USN/1822/NavReg1822.html, retrieved 1 April 2013.
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: “Commodore” was not an official Navy rank until the Civil War. Porter’s military rank was CAPT, though officers in charge of major squadrons were customarily permitted to use the informal title “Commodore.” No additional pay was authorized.
BEAGLE, GREYHOUND and several other similar schooners had been built or purchased specifically for duty chasing Caribbean pirates. After the area was secured in the latter 1820s, these schooners were sold.
Farragut was a brand new junior LT, having just been promoted the year before. Farragut’s full brother, William A.C. Farragut, was also serving as a LT in the Navy at this time, having also been taken in by the family of CDORE Porter after the Farraguts’ destitute father nursed Porter’s father in a critical illness. David G. Farragut was thereby step-brother to David Dixon Porter and William D. Porter, CDORE Porter’s natural children. Farragut’s step-uncle, Master Commandant John Porter, was also serving in our Navy at this time.
The Kearny surname is perhaps better known as that of Stephen W. Kearny, a US Army officer of the California campaign in the Mexican War. Stephen, the namesake of Kearny Mesa north of San Diego, was Lawrence’s 2nd cousin. KEARNY (DD-432) and WILLIAM D. PORTER (DD-579) remember (later) Commodores Lawrence Kearny and William Porter. Newton is not remembered with a warship (two WWI era ships bearing that name had their civilian names retained).
