BOMBSHIP INTREPID

One of the first missions assigned to our fledgling Navy around the turn of the 19^th century was the protection of US merchant shipping from the piracy of the southern Mediterranean Barbary States of Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco.  In October of 1803, CAPT William Bainbridge in the frigate USS PHILADELPHIA, 36, ran aground while chasing a corsair near Tripoli.  His ship and crew were captured; the Tripolitans anchored the frigate in that city’s harbor, under the guns of the fort.

When CDORE Edward Preble, in command of President Jefferson’s Mediterranean Squadron, learned of PHILADELPHIA’s capture he set out for Tripoli with the rest of his Squadron.  On the way, Preble encountered the Tripolitan ketch Mastico, one of the vessels that had participated in the capture of PHILADELPHIA.  Preble seized the ketch and on 23 December 1803, assumed her into the US Navy under the new name INTREPID.  Her Mediterranean rigging allowed INTREPID to blend unnoticed with the local sea traffic, a virtue that was to prove invaluable to Preble.  Unable to negotiate the release of the frigate, Preble sent LT Stephen Decatur on a daring raid to destroy her.  On the evening of 16 February 1804 Decatur dressed his crew in Arab garb and used INTREPID to slip into the harbor unobserved.  Here his crew massed upon PHILADELPHIA and set her ablaze.  She burned to the waterline.

Throughout the Summer of 1804 Preble made other efforts to force the release of Bainbridge, including several naval bombardments of Tripoli.  The Pasha, however, proved unrelenting, and with the approaching end of the good weather season, Preble approved one more daring plan.  INTREPID was packed to the gunwales with five tons of gunpowder, converting her to a floating bomb.  She would once again slip into the harbor after nightfall, where her crew would light the fuses and escape.  Her detonation would potentially breach the seaside wall of the Pasha’s fortification.  Ten volunteers led by Master Commandant Richard Somers, LT Henry Wadsworth and Midshipman Joseph Israel quietly sailed INTREPID toward the harbor on the evening of September 3^rd.

We will never know for certain what happened, but something went seriously amiss.  Before she had gained the inner harbor, INTREPID ignited prematurely in a fantastic blast.  All her hands were lost.  Her demise may have been accidental, or historians have suggested the crew may have intentionally detonated the ship when her capture seemed evident, an obvious act of selfless sacrifice.  The gallant memory of this brave ship and her 13 sailors has been perpetuated with the naming of five US Navy warships, most recently the planned Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, DDG-145

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  9 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Beach, Edward L.  The United States Navy:  200 Years.  New York, NY: Henry Holt Co., 1986, p. 47-48.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 548.

Maclay, Edgar Stanton.  A History of the United States Navy:  From 1775-1893, Vol I.  New York, NY: D. Appleton and Co., 1893, pp. 286-93.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 60.

Potter, E.B. and Chester W. Nimitz.  Sea Power:  A Naval History.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1960, pp. 202-03.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 22-23.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Somers was the author of the bombship scheme.  A Decatur protégé, at the time Somers was commanding the schooner NAUTILUS, 12.  His conduct earlier in the Tripolitan campaign earned him the promotion from Lieutenant to Master Commandant in May of 1804.  The heroism of the 13 men lost with INTREPID has been a continuing source of honor within the US Navy.  A total of six Navy warships have borne the name SOMERS, most recently the Hull-class destroyer DD-947, who saw significant action in the Vietnam War.

About this same time, Henry Wadsworth’s sister, Zilpah, married Stephen Longfellow of what is now Portland, Maine.  Their second child of eight, born in 1807, was named for his uncle—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Ironically the INTREPID ploy backfired.  Nothing in the harbor of consequence was damaged, and loss of the ketch weakened Preble’s blockading fleet.  No less damaging, the failed attempt caused Preble to lose “face” with the Pasha, who hardened his position and upped the ransom demand for Bainbridge’s release.

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                                         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.

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                                              FOXARDO AFFAIR

With a splash, the anchor of USS BEAGLE hit the water of Foxardo harbor (modern Fajardo), Spanish Puerto Rico.  The 3-gun US Navy schooner and her commander, LT Charles T. Platt, were in search of stolen property.  Several days earlier Mr. Stephen Cabot of Cabot, Bailey & Co., an American business operating in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, had reported the theft of $5000 worth of goods from their storehouse.  Those goods were thought to have been smuggled to Foxardo, a town on the eastern end of Puerto Rico where pirates enjoyed an active market for plundered goods.  Platt and Midshipman Robert Ritchie went ashore the following day, 27 October, to confer with the Captain of the Port and the local Alcalde, Francisco Caro, seeking redress.  Reasoning they would appear less threatening, Platt declined to wear his uniform.

Those ashore were immediately suspicious of civilian-clad sailors claiming to be officers in the American Navy.  After all, the sacking of coastal towns by pirates was not uncommon in the West Indies of this day.  Outwardly, both the Port Captain and Alcalde Caro were cordial and feigned sympathy for Platt’s mission.  But Platt’s subsequent breakfast in a local pub was cut short by an urgent call to the Alcalde’s office.  Here Platt was summarily arrested!  His protests went unheeded, though he was permitted to send to the ship for his uniform and a copy of his officer’s commission.  These were dismissed as forgeries, and Platt and Ritchie were thrown into jail as suspected pirates themselves!  Platt was later allowed to send to the ship for a copy of his orders from West India Squadron Commodore CAPT David Porter, which were received by local officials in a better light.  The two were released to BEAGLE after several hours confinement.  Platt immediately got underway for squadron headquarters in St. Thomas.

Porter was livid on 12 November when he learned of the incident.  The next day, in JOHN ADAMS, 28, BEAGLE, and GRAMPUS, 3, he anchored opposite a shore battery in Foxardo harbor.  BEAGLE positioned herself to cover a beach proposed as a landing site.  Porter then led 200 officers, bluejackets, and Marines ashore.  LT Cornelius K. Stribling was sent ahead to demand the Alcalde’s attention, and without hesitating further Porter stepped off toward the town.  Two gun batteries along the way were assaulted, their defenders running in panic.  Four Spanish 18-pounders were spiked.  Porter moved his landing force within 200 yards of the town gate where he came face-to-face with a hastily assembled mob of 70 militia and armed townspeople.  Tension gripped the scene until LT Stribling appeared under a white flag, with Caro.  During three hours of talks Porter demanded an apology, promising that otherwise, “the total destruction of Foxhardo will be the certain and immediate consequence.”  This prompted Spanish contrition, which Porter accepted.

Continued tomorrow…

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:  To this day, the wearing of the uniform of the day is required when executing all official duties of the United States Navy.

Charles T. Platt had fought in the War of 1812 at the battles of Lake Erie and Lake Champlain, being wounded at the latter.  He served on Active Duty until 1855 when he transferred to the inactive list.  CDR Platt died 12 December 1860 as the clouds of the Civil War were gathering.  Cornelius Stribling was also a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War.  During the Civil War he commanded the Philadelphia Navy Yard and the East Gulf Blockading Squadron from 1864 until the surrender.  RADM Stribling died 17 January 1880.  USS STRIBLING (DD-96, DD-867) remember Mr. Stribling.

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                                                 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 21^st 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, 3^rd 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 18^th 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.

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                                            200^th 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, 3^rd 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 2^nd 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).

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                                     200^th ANNIVERSARY

                          11 JULY 1823

                     THE DEATH OF DIABOLITO

Frank piracy reemerged in the Caribbean in the early 1800s with the sanctioning of privateering by newly independent former Spanish colonies.  One of the more notorious of such pirate cut-throats was Diabolito (“Little Devil”), a Spaniard by birth.  Diabolito operated from the coast of Spanish Cuba, often murdering the crews of plundered ships by lashing them to their masts, then setting the ship ablaze.  The sight of his schooner, Catalina, struck fear in all.

In early summer of 1823, the US Navy 3-gun paddlewheel steamer SEA GULL was cruising the coast of Cuba under the capable command of LT William H. Watson.  To investigate smaller coves and shallow bays Watson would launch two 20-oared barges, GALLINIPPER and MOSQUITO.  Such was the case this day when LT Watson embarked GALLINIPPER in Siguampa Bay (near Cardenas) and LT William T. Inman in MOSQUITO with about 30 men.

Upon entering the bay, a large topsail schooner of lines similar to that of Catalina and a launch were sighted moving toward an anchorage of several merchant vessels.  Watson closed to within a musket shot and noted the schooner to be well armed and filled with about 75 men.  He ran up American colors, to which the schooner briefly hauled up Spanish colors before opening fire.  The suspect vessel surged ahead off the nearby village of Siguampa with the Americans in hot pursuit.  Both GALLINIPPER and MOSQUITO watched as the schooner anchored and her crew was seen to jump into a skiff.  A Yankee musket volley drove many into the water.  The escape of about 40 of these suspected pirates was cut-off by the barges, who laid about port and starboard of the swimmers.  Even in the water those fleeing resisted.  Watson’s sailors fought fiercely–at times difficult for their officers to restrain.  Fifteen escapees reached the beach, only five others dodged the musketry long enough to be taken captive, all wounded themselves.  Now the Americans pulled for shore.  A storming party rushed after the escaping suspects.  In a fierce running battle eleven more alleged pirates were killed.  The four remaining were captured by Spanish authorities.

The suspicious schooner indeed proved to be Catalina, and her crew wanted buccaneers.  Aboard was found a long 9-pounder pivot gun, four 4-pounders, with cutlasses, muskets, and pistols in numbers that clearly suggested a nefarious intent.  Among the dead in the water was found the body of Diabolito.  Watson was praised by West India Squadron Commodore CAPT David Porter and recommended for promotion.  However, Watson’s promising career was cut short later that fall in a yellow fever outbreak.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  16 JUL 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Allen, Gardner W.,  Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates.  Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 51-52.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 10.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 402.

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, 2002, p. 37, 38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  SEA GULL was a former Hudson River paddlewheel ferry, armed and pressed into service with our Navy as Commodore Porter’s flagship.  In fact, SEA GULL was the first steam powered vessel of any Navy to see combat.  The remainder of the newly formulated squadron consisted of the oared barges GNAT, MIDGE, and SANDFLY (to investigate shallow bays and ascend rivers);the 3-gun Chesapeake Bay schooners BEAGLE, FERRET, FOX, GREYHOUND, JACKAL, TERRIER, WEASEL, and WILDCAT (for littoral operations);and the 6-gun schooner DECOY.  The last operated as her name implies to attract pirate attention.

The exact date of this event is in question, however Watson’s letter to Commodore Porter reporting the incident is dated 11 July 1823.

A gallinipperR is a large, aggressive mosquito, Psorophora ciliata, about the size of a quarter and infamous for its painful bite.  It is native to North America from Texas and Nebraska eastward to southern Maine.  Of late it has become a particularly noxious pest in Florida and the Caribbean.

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                                                   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 24^th and proceeded south.  Arriving on May 13^th 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.

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                                           DEATH OF LT COCKE

Piracy was rampant in the Caribbean of the early 19^th century.  Independence movements in several Spanish New World colonies created the problem, as these new nations often sanctioned privateering against their former Spanish overlords.  In turn, the Spanish of Puerto Rico and Cuba commissioned privateering against the former colonies of Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.  Extending their official sanction, privateering captains often crossed into frank piracy, indiscriminately taking prizes of all ships, even American.  Spanish pirates operated from the many remote coves and bays of the Cuban and Puerto Rican coasts under this quasi-legitimacy–ironically, taking Spanish vessels as well!  So bad had the problem become, that on 26 March 1822 the US Navy established the West India Squadron to convoy American merchantmen and police the seas.  Surely, US officials thought, the Spanish authorities would be supportive of our actions against Caribbean piracy, as the Spanish would unavoidably benefit.  But enthusiasm for American operations in and around Cuba and Puerto Rico was never better than chilly, to say the least.

When the new commander of our West India Squadron, Commodore David Porter, arrived at St. Thomas (then Danish) on 3 March 1823, he sent a message to the Spanish governor, Don Miguel de la Torres, asking for a list of vessels legally commissioned to operate against the enemies of Spain.  Thus, Porter might know, “how and when to respect them.”  As the US was in the awkward position of having recognized the new governments in Colombia and Mexico, Porter further asked for details about actions the Puerto Ricans had sanctioned against Colombian and Mexican vessels trading with the United States.  Porter sent the 3-gun schooner USS GREYHOUND on March 4^th to deliver the note to San Juan.

Nothing was heard from GREYHOUND for two days.  On this day, LT W.H. Cocke, in the schooner FOX, 3, was sent into San Juan to inquire after GREYHOUND.  As Cocke approached the harbor entrance, a battery in the fortification of St. John opened fire.  Usually such warning shots passed harmlessly across the bows, but this time a groan was heard from the quarterdeck.  Blood streamed to the scuppers; the one-in-a-million shot had mortally cut down LT Cocke.

The commander of the garrison claimed he had been ordered to allow no American vessel into San Juan.  Calm did prevail, and an official apology was forthcoming.  This despite the Spanish authorities’ knowledge that at the same time Porter was combating true piracy, mercenary American civilians had sought privateering commissions from Venezuela and Colombia–and were legitimately plundering Spanish shipping!

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 MAR 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Allen, Gardner W.,  Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates.  Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 42-44.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 437.

“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, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 37.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The skipper of GREYHOUND was Master Commandant John Porter, brother of the Commodore.  Nothing ill had befallen GREYHOUND.  She had simply been detained awaiting a Puerto Rican response.

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               THE FIRST BATTLE OF QUALLAH BATTOO

His trading mission scrubbed, Captain Charles Endicott refitted Friendship for sea and departed 4 March 1831 for Salem.  His landfall on 16 July was preceded several days by the arrival of another trader to Boston bearing news of Friendship’s tragedy.  The public outcry was intense, and crowds lined the shores at the merchantman’s arrival.  Friendship’s owners boldly petitioned the US government for redress.  When news of the event reached Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Navy, John Branch, he demanded retribution.  The 44-gun frigate USS Potomac was ordered to be specially repainted and re-rigged to resemble a Danish trader.  Sailing under CAPT John Downes, USN, and embarking an extra complement of Marines, Potomac stood down from Sandy Hook bound for the South Seas on 28 August 1831.  When Downes asked the Navy Department to clarify what actions he might take in Sumatra he was answered simply, “Give the rascals a good thrashing.”  Downes’ “trader” dropped anchor in Quallah Battoo on February 5th, 1832, keeping her gunports deceptively closed.  The pirates failed to take the bait however, and the next morning Downes landed a scouting party of the ship’s officers dressed as merchant seamen.  They counted 500 Malays in three wooden stockades that protected the Rajah, Sultan Po Mohamet, and the village.  Po Mohamet had been a kingpin of pirate activity in the region for years.

Then at 0200 this morning a storming party of 282 Marines and bluejackets went ashore.  Divided into three sections, they attacked at dawn.  Two stockades fell within minutes, but the third was more tenaciously defended.  Two assaults were beaten back, the Marines finding their muskets nearly useless at such close quarters.  Shortly reinforced from the other sections, several more assaults were mounted.  Finally, after two hours of cutlass and pistol action the natives were routed.

The Malays regrouped into a fourth stockade that had been too well camouflaged to be noticed the day before.  Two American charges against this redoubt, now against native cannon and muskets, were also rebuffed.  But a third sent the remaining natives scurrying into the jungle.  Only two Americans were lost in the day’s fighting, but 150 natives, including Po Mohamet, lay dead.  While the shore party set about torching the village, Potomac slipped across the harbor to the site of another pirate den and reduced this with a fierce hour-long cannonade.

Shortly a promise was received that the Stars and Stripes would be respected in the future.  Potomac weighed anchor, continuing on a diplomatic mission to China.  But alas, the pirates honored their promise only until Downes faded over the horizon.

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”

CAPT James Bloom

Rehabilitation Medicine

Corn, Charles.  The Scents of Eden:  A History of the Spice Trade.  New York, NY: Kodansha International, 1998, pp. 291-98.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, pp. 362-63.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 155-58.

Metcalf, Clyde H.  A History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939, p. 90.

Nalty, Bernard.  “Pirates and Pepper”.  IN:  Schuon, Karl.  The Leathernecks.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1963, pp. 67-70.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 44, 46.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In the same manner as America’s 21st century War on Terrorism, an organized national military operating at distance from its shores can find it difficult to sustain gains won against local terrorist cells.  Within weeks of Potomac’s departure, piracy against American traders resumed in Sumatra.  Our Navy was forced to make a second foray to this same location in December 1838–but that’s another story for another time.

The gallant actions of the Leathernecks at Quallah Battoo have become legendary in USMC heritage.  Noted artist Charles Waterhouse has rendered a depiction of the Marines this day, reprints of which are often seen hanging in modern USMC facilities.

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              FRIENDSHIP AND THE SUMATRAN PIRATES

Salem, Massachusetts, was one of our busiest seaports in the early days of our young nation.  In fact, it was the major port through which the American spice trade was conducted.  About the turn of the 19th century Salem shipping firms learned of the handsome profits to be made trading for pepper, then grown only in the Far East.  Salem’s merchant fleet was soon calling regularly on several Javanese and Sumatran villages where local rajahs would collect pepper from the interior for sale to the white men.  Thus, it was that the American merchantman Friendship anchored off on the village of Quallah Battoo in what is now Indonesia in January of 1831.

Piracy was a clear risk that pepper traders assumed, for along this western coast of Sumatra the practice had thrived for centuries.  So was Captain Charles Endicott suspicious when a native prahu pulled near the ship on a dark January night.  Its occupants confessed to be smuggling pepper and were cautiously permitted to board.  In truth they were reconnoitering Friendship.

Days later the local rajah lured Endicott and his officers ashore with promises of more pepper recently transhipped from the interior.  While the officers were thus engaged, a party of natives outnumbering Friendship’s remaining crew boarded.  Within minutes the 1st Mate, Mr. Knight, the steward, and several crewmen fell to the native’s krises.  Four crewmen jumped overboard and managed to swim away as the natives became distracted by the booty for which they had attacked.  Ashore, Endicott observed his crewmen jumping from Friendship and discerned the ruse.  He quietly mustered his officers and pushed-off in the ship’s pinnacle.

Correctly judging his remaining strength to be less than necessary to challenge the natives, Endicott’s men began rowing for the port of Muckie, 25 miles distant.  Through the day they labored, reaching the mouth of the Soo Soo River after nightfall.  Here they were able to obtain fresh water but dared not make a landfall.  Braving a sudden squall, they struggled onward, passing several hostile villages along the way.  With a makeshift sail of gunny sacks, Endicott’s men safely reached Muckie at 0100 that night.  They were sheltered by three American traders lying at anchor.  They were eventually reunited with the haggard four who had swum for their lives only to endure mosquitos, crocodiles, starvation, and exposure before reaching friendly natives.

The sympathetic captain of James Monroe, one of the traders, mounted a successful effort to re-take Friendship in the days that followed, but she was found to have been stripped of her specie, cargo, and $12,000 worth of spars and rigging the pirates could re-sell to future traders.  Endicott further observed many natives bedecked in red, white, and blue striped finery, clearly cut from Western cloth.  Even the wardroom’s gingham tablecloth was noted to be gracing the shoulders of a native warrior.

Continued tomorrow…

Corn, Charles.  The Scents of Eden:  A History of the Spice Trade.  New York, NY: Kodansha International, 1998, pp. 280-92.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 114.

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