Age of Sail, Anti-Piracy

                                 27 OCTOBER-14 NOVEMBER 1824

                                         FOXARDO AFFAIR (cont.)

So often in history, the similar actions of separate individuals are interpreted quite differently in light of the background circumstances.  In 1818, GEN Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida with US forces, capturing a Spanish fort and executing local citizens for inciting the Seminole Indians to cross-border raids into Georgia.  His actions were lauded by a thankful American administration at the time.  However, six years later the actions of Commodore David Porter at Foxardo, Spanish Puerto Rico, were not seen by US officials in an equally accepting vein.  Indeed, by 1824 US-Spanish relations were delicate.  Spain had recently been forced to sell Florida to the United States under what they perceived to be a threat of war, and Spanish ships were being pirated on the high seas by American mercenaries claiming to be privateers for the newly declared (former Spanish) nations of Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico.  In December 1824, Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard expressed his strong disapproval of Porter’s “extraordinary transactions at Foxardo.”  Southard recalled Porter, replacing him in January 1825 as Commodore of the West India Squadron with CAPT Lewis Warrington.  Porter, not a man of temperate disposition, was livid again.

A Court of Inquiry was convened, chaired by CAPT Isaac Chauncey, to review the events at Foxardo as well as Porter’s overall command of the Squadron.  They found that though Porter’s summary command was effectual, his actions at Foxardo warranted a Court Martial.  This was convened in July 1825 with CAPT James Barron as president.

Porter’s defense rested on a clause from his original orders of 1 February 1823 outlining the purpose of his command to be, “repressing piracy and affording effectual protection to the citizens and commerce of the United States.”  Public opinion largely favored Porter, an established naval hero for his stellar service in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812.  Nevertheless, the politically sensitive Court Martial found that his actions at Foxardo exceeded the authority of this orders and recommended a six-month suspension from duty (with pay).  Porter’s protests and appeals went for naught, and the bitter and disgruntled Captain resigned his commission in protest the following year.

Porter emigrated to Mexico where he became Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican Navy from 1826-29.  He returned to the United States but never again served with our Navy.  He acted instead, as US minister to the Barbary States under President Andrew Jackson’s tenure.  He died in 1843, still bitter over his treatment in this Foxardo affair. 

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  21 NOV 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Allen, Gardner W.,  Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates.  Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 66-72.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 111.

Pratt, Fletcher.  The Compact History of the United States Navy, 3rd ed.  New York, NY: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1967, pp. 106-07.

Reynolds, Clark G.  Famous American Admirals.  New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1978, pp. 254-55.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2001, p. 38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Puerto Rico remained a Spanish possession until the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War of 1898 ceded the island to the United States.

The subsequent US Navy warships PORTER (TB-6, DD-59, DD-356, DD-800, DDG-78); CHAUNCEY (DD-3, DD-296, DD-667) and WARRINGTON (DD-30, DD-383, DD-843) all remember individuals above.