USS WEASEL vs. Gallago Segunda (cont. from 22 JUL)
200th ANNIVERSARY
3 AUGUST 1823
USS WEASEL vs. GALLAGO SEGUNDA (cont. from 22 JUL)
Continental and US Navy warships had been cruising the Caribbean Sea since the earliest days of our Revolutionary War. Their initial mission was to suppress British and French predation on our merchant vessels in the lucrative rum and sugar trades. But with the struggles for independence of the Spanish New World colonies of Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico in the 1820s, these newly declared republics commissioned privateers to cruise against Spanish shipping. Unfortunately, privateers rarely distinguished Spanish vessels from those of other nations, and frank piracy devolved. In September 1821, three American traders fell victim–their crews murdered, and the ships plundered and burned. In response, President James Monroe turned to his Secretary of the Navy, Smith Thompson, with instructions to formulate a West India Squadron specifically to fight piracy. Our Navy, at the time, consisted largely of blue-water assets incapable of prosecuting the shallow bays and coves of Caribbean islands. Thus, in February 1823 a specialty squadron of eight shallow-draft, 3-gun schooners, augmented with large row barges and support ships–our West India Squadron–departed for the Caribbean under Commodore David Porter. These proved quite effective in anti-piracy operations as buccaneer havens along the Cuban coast (a favorite hideout) began falling to Porter’s force.
For the 30 or so crewmen aboard one of these schooners, USS WEASEL, duty was hard and unsung. Commonly they operated from open boats, sometimes days away from their parent ship. Enduring all manner of weather, sailors would search through the hundreds of coves and lagoons. Backbreaking days at the oars were punctuated by moments of intense hand-to-hand fighting. But more feared even than combat were the unseen and mysterious paludal and yellow fevers that claimed many more lives than combat. And not unlike the Vietnam conflict centuries later, it was perpetually difficult to distinguish legals from pirates.
In July 1823 a pirate haven at Sigaumpa Bay, Cuba, was attacked, killing 75 renegades and their leader, Diabolito. On the 21st BEAGLE, 3, and GREYHOUND, 3, attacked and defeated another stronghold at Cape Cruz. On this day WEASEL was cruising off Cuba when she sighted a suspect schooner moving along the shore. When LT Beverly Kennon moved his warship closer, the mysterious vessel opened fire. In light of July’s activities Kennon’s crew turned to, but upon noting WEASEL’s long gun and two carronades, the one-gun schooner quickly hove to. This time she turned out to be the skittish, but legitimate Spanish coaster Gallago Segunda. She was restored to her owners.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 9 AUG 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Cooney, David M. A Chronology of the U.S. Navy: 1775-1965. New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 50.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 8 “W-Z”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 181.
Roberts, W. Adolphe and Lowell Brentano. The Book of the Navy. Garden City, NY: Doubleday $ Co., 1944, pp. 76, 86.
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, pp. 24, 35, 38.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Boarding and inspection ops by the US Navy and Coast Guard continue even in today’s Caribbean. In modern times, such is usually for enforcement of anti-drug, anti-terrorism, or immigration laws.
Porter’s eight schooners were built originally for the Chesapeake Bay trade. They were purchased and armed with a single long 12- or 18-pounder on a circular mount amidships, often with two or three carronades and swivels. They departed Baltimore on 15 February 1823.
The West India Squadron (later “West Indies”) had a second mission. Since the late 18th century, the institution of slavery had become abhorrent to many Americans. In 1808 Congress banned American participation in the slave trade, then centered largely in the Caribbean. However, prosecution of slavers required blue-water assets, a capability unavailable to Porter. As such, anti-slavery laws stood unenforced for decades.
Beverly Kennon was a veteran of combat in the War of 1812 and the Barbary Wars. He was promoted to CAPT in the 1830s and headed the Bureau of Construction and Repair in 1943. He died in the accidental explosion of the experimental “Peacemaker” gun in 1844. His brother, George, was a Navy surgeon.
