“MY POST IS HERE!”

We remember 1787 as the year our founding fathers finalized our Constitution and sent it to the States for ratification.  Elsewhere that same year, a son was born to a prominent New Yorker, James Jarvis, Esq.  Imbued with an appropriate love of his new nation and undoubtedly inspired by the many ships bringing exotic goods to New York, the younger James Canon Jarvis was appointed a Midshipman in 1799.  Officer training in the day was conducted “on the job” at sea.  Jarvis was assigned to USS CONSTELLATION, 50, under the capable tutelage of CAPT Thomas Truxtun.  A brush with France was brewing that winter.  The ongoing Anglo/French war in Europe was subjecting American commercial shipping to harassment by Napoleon’s navy, even in the Caribbean.  CONSTELLATION was sent south in 1799 to protect our shipping there with the novice Midshipman Jarvis aboard.

On the first of February 1800, Truxtun spotted a French man-o-war cruising off Guadeloupe.  She proved to be the stronger French frigate LA VENGEANCE, 56, and Truxtun gave chase.  Not until after nightfall did CONSTELLATION gain the French weather quarter.  A furious cannonade ensued.  French doctrine of the day targeted an enemy’s rigging, preserving the hull for capture.  Truxtun’s gunners repeatedly holed the French hull, dismounting guns and disabling seamen.  By 0100, Truxtun’s masts and rigging were shredded, but not before damage to the adversary compelled her surrender.  Truxtun sent Midshipman Jarvis aloft in charge of a shoring party as the mainmast teetered.  When the wobbly mast threatened to tumble, sailors on deck pleaded with Jarvis to descend to safety.  “My post is here!” came the reply, “I can’t leave until ordered.”  Seconds later a deafening crack roared across the deck as the mainmast gave way, carrying Jarvis overboard to his death.

The 13-year-old was praised by Congress when word of the circumstances of his loss reached Philadelphia.  There being no medals of valor yet created to honor brave sailors, a Joint Session of Congress resolved nevertheless: That the conduct of James Jarvis, a midshipman in said frigate [CONSTELLATION], who gloriously preferred death to an abandonment of his post, is deserving of the highest praise, and that the loss of so promising an officer is a subject of national regret.” 

On 4 April 1912 our Navy launched the Paulding-class four-stack destroyer JARVIS (DD-38), who saw action in WWI.  Jarvis’ name was again remembered in 1937 with our second JARVIS (DD-393)–lost in the Pacific in WWII.  Our third JARVIS (DD-799) took to the seas in 1944 and served until 1960.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  8-10 FEB 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“A Resolution honoring CAPT Thomas Truxtun, U.S. Navy, and Midshipman James Jarvis, U.S. Navy, of the U.S. Frigate Constellation.” IN: Swanson, Claude A.  Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War between the United States and France:  Naval Operations from January 1800 to May 1800.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1937, pp. 173-74.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 171.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 504-06.

Extract from Captain Thomas Truxtun’s journal, U.S. Frigate Constellation, Sunday, 2 February 1800. IN: Swanson, Claude A.  Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War between the United States and France:  Naval Operations from January 1800 to May 1800.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1937, pp. 160-61.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  When dawn broke upon CONSTELLATION after this engagement LA VENGEANCE was nowhere to be seen–Truxtun assumed she had sunk.  In truth, she drifted away unseen and disabled.  With her crew bailing constantly, she made Curacao where repairs were affected.  Truxtun lost 14 killed and 25 wounded, French casualties were twice as high, a reflection of American gunnery–50 killed and 110 wounded.

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                       EL PIRATA COFRESI

Following the War of 1812, our Navy’s missions shifted to those of policing the slave trade off West Africa and combating piracy in the Caribbean.  By 1825, our West India Squadron had nearly completed this latter mission.  The wanton plundering of American merchant ships and the brutal murders of crewmen had largely been contained.  Only a few hold-outs remained, including the dreaded El Pirata (Roberto) Cofresi, known simply as “Cofrecinas,” who operated out of Spanish Puerto Rico.  When LT John D. Sloat of the 12-gun topsail schooner USS GRAMPUS in St. Thomas, learned that Cofrecinas had taken several vessels near Foxardo (modern Fajardo), Puerto Rico, and was employing two sloops in further piracy, Sloat set sail on 1 March 1825.  Accompanying GRAMPUS were two smaller sloops obtained from the governor of St. Thomas, who also wanted Cofrecinas’ reign of terror ended.  Reaching Ponce on March 3^rd, Sloat’s sailors spied a sloop fitting the pirate description slipping to sea to the eastward.  Sloat dispatched LT Garret J. Pendergrast with 23 men and two officers in one of the sloops in pursuit.  At 1500 on the 4^th Pendergrast reached Boca del Infierno, in which harbor they fell upon the suspicious sloop.  Pendergrast opened fire, and for 45 minutes a heated exchange ensued.  American gunnery proved accurate, the pirates beached their wrecked sloop and ran for the jungle.  Two fell dead on the shore, but eleven escaped into the forest.

Fortuitously, Spanish authorities were waiting in the jungle, and the pirates were captured, five of whom were wounded.  Both Americans and Spanish were heartened to find one of the captives to be none other than Cofrecinas, himself!  The pirate sloop was found to be armed with a 4-pounder gun and various muskets, cutlasses and knives.  Pendergrast was able to re-float her and take her into our Navy’s service as a tender.  His actions were praised by the Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Don Miguel de la Torres–laud that was remarkable in that Torres had not heretofore been particularly cooperative with US anti-piracy efforts.

On April 4^th Sloat returned to St. Thomas and there learned the fate of the eleven captured pirates.  Found guilty at a quick trial, they were promptly executed by firing squad.  When asked if he wanted to be blindfolded for his execution, Cofrecinas declined stating he had murdered 300-400 by his own hand and had certainly learned how to die properly by now.  From the confessions of these pirates, 28 others were captured, tried, and executed.  Their bodies were beheaded, quartered, and sent to all the corners of the island by the Spanish authorities.  Following this, piracy along the Puerto Rican coast came to a halt almost completely.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  9 MAR 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Allen, Gardner W.,  Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates.  Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 82-84.

Earle, Peter.  The Pirate Wars.  New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2003, p. 246.

Naval Register for the Year 1822.  AT: http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/usn/1822/navreg1822.html, retrieved 4 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.

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