VIRGINIUS AFFAIR

Historically our Navy has been tasked with the protection of American citizens overseas, as witnessed by a nearly explosive brush with Spain in 1873.  Cuban rebels were well into their 40-year struggle for independence from Spain, and in an effort to intercept gun-running to these rebels, the Spanish navy began patrolling the Caribbean.  A few US Navy vessels were stationed in the area as well to prevent filibustering under our flag.  Despite this, the American-flagged civilian paddlewheel steamer Virginius, a swift former Confederate blockade runner, made several weapons runs to Cuba.  On October 31^st Virginius was sighted by the Spanish cruiser Tornado and chased for eight hours.  She was caught off Jamaica and impounded in Santiago de Cuba.

President Ulysses S. Grant lodged an immediate protest with Spanish president Emilio Castelar y Ripoll.  But local Cuban authorities acted on their own before Spain could intercede.  The crewmen were tried and convicted, and between 7-8 November, 16 passengers and 37 crewmen from Virginius were dragged from their cells and executed by firing squad.  Among the victims was the skipper, Joseph Fry, a Naval Academy graduate and veteran of the US and Confederate Navies.  The American public was outraged–the New York Times stating that if news of the executions be true, “there will be nothing left…but to declare war.”  Within days USS WYOMING steamed into Santiago harbor with her guns run out, her captain, William B. Cushing, declaring to the local authorities, “If you intend to shoot any more of the Virginius prisoners, you would better first have the women and children removed from Santiago, as I shall bombard the town.”  In further preparation Grant ordered RADM David Dixon Porter to assemble the bulk of the Atlantic Fleet at Key West, along with COL Charles Heywood’s US Marines, to await developments.

Heated negotiation ensued between Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and the Spanish ambassador in Washington.  In the end, reason prevailed.  On November 28^th an accord was signed under which Spain agreed to release the ship and the remaining crew and to render an apology in the form of an official salute to the American Flag.  Virginius was released (but ironically, on her way to the United States she wrecked off Cape Fear).

The promised salute was never rendered.  The affair took a queer twist later, when it was discovered that Virginius was actually Cuban-owned and had been illegitimately licensed at the New York customshouse.  Given this “out” Grant allowed the issue to die though Spain later paid indemnities to American and a few British families of the victims.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  10-11 NOV 25 

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Howarth, Stephen.  To Shining Sea:  A History of the United States Navy  1775-1991.  New York, NY: Random House, 1991, pp. 222-23.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 334-37.

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, p. 94.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Cuban civil war had broken out in 1868, and from the outset, US sentiments favored the Cubans.  Most of the filibustering (gun-running) was, in truth, being conducted by Americans.  President Grant asked Mr. Fish to formally recognize the rebels in 1869, in hopes of forcing the issue of Cuban independence with Spain.  But after it was discovered how very far the material readiness of our Navy had deteriorated since the Civil War, Congress had to revisit our forceful stance.

The Virginius affair stirred our Navy to conduct exercises off Key West two years later in 1875.  Five frigates, six monitors, and 20-odd smaller craft took part.  The event turned into an embarrassment as these few vessels were widely thought to be about the only seaworthy ones left in our Navy, and none could manage more than 4 ½ knots.  One newspaper pathetically complained, “They belong to a class of ships which other governments have sold or are selling for firewood.”  Indeed, it had taken only a decade for our Navy to slip from a position of world leader and innovator during the Civil War to that of a distant “also-ran.”

The post Virginius Affair appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                              MARIEL BOATLIFT

The Cuban economy took a nosedive in the 1970s.  Housing shortages and joblessness fueled popular dissent, yet Fidel Castro’s harsh restrictions on emigration appeared to condemn Cubans to a life of struggle.  Faced with possible civil unrest in the late 1970s, Castro loosened his grip.  In January 1979 he released several political prisoners and allowed Cuban exiles in foreign lands to visit relatives in Cuba.  Then in April 1980, Castro declared the port of Mariel 25 miles west of Havana to be “open.”

Overnight, hundreds of local watercraft, many unseaworthy, began shipping aboard refugees.  Hundreds more boats departed Miami bound for Mariel as a boatlift of those fleeing Communist Cuba developed.  US Coast Guard District 7 was quickly overwhelmed as scores of overloaded and questionably sound boats ran out of fuel or broke down in the seas between the island and Florida.  President Jimmy Carter called up 900 Coast Guard Reservists, but even these, coupled with re-deployed Guardsmen from other Atlantic areas, could not keep up with the struggles at sea.  Typical was the ocean-going tug Dr. Daniels, intercepted on this day by USCG CAPE GULL (WPB-95304).  She had been chartered by Cuban-Americans to transport relatives, but at Mariel, Cuban authorities ordered her (over)loaded with 447 of those immediately available.  Dr. Daniels had lifesaving equipment for about 150.

The US Navy responded as well on 5 May.  USS SAIPAN (LHA-2) and BOULDER (LST-1190), augmented by P-3 Orion patrol aircraft from NAS Jacksonville, joined the rescue now dubbed Operation “Freedom Flotilla.”  When civilian aircraft interfered with operation, the FAA declared a flight restriction over southern Florida, with F-4 Phantoms from VMFA-312 at MCAS Beaufort flying enforcement.  The 1^st Battalion, 8^th Marines, 2^nd MarDiv went ashore at Key West to help process the refugees.  The Orange Bowl stadium and decommissioned Cold War missile defense sites were converted to hold refugees.

Among the 125,000 Cubans and detained Canadians who reached Florida were Pulitzer Prize winning writer Mirta Ojito, opera singer Elizabeth Caballero and TV actor Rene Lavan.  Then Castro, seeing an opportunity, began emptying Havana’s jails and mental hospitals.  This now ramped up a requirement for intensified screening–complicating an already chaotic scene.  An estimated 1000+ violent criminals entered Florida, including arsonist and mass-murder Julio Gonzalez and convicted murderer and gang leader Luis Felipe.  The exodus lasted until Castro re-closed Mariel that autumn.  In a testament to American seapower, only 27 refugees died at sea from the more than 1700 boats of the Mariel Boatlift.

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

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Lazelere, Alex.  The 1980 Cuban Boatlift.  Washington, DC: National Defense Univ. Press, 1988.

“Mariel Boatlift”  Global Security website.  AT: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mariel-boatlift.htm, retrieved 16 October 2015.

“Mariel Boatlift.” US Nook Website.  AT: http://usnook.com/ english/politics/history/diplomacy/2013/0924/61491.html, retrieved 16 October 2015.

“Mariel Boatlift, 1980.”  USCG History Center.  AT: http:// www.uscg.mil/history/articles/uscg_mariel_history_1980.asp, retrieved 16 October 2015.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  This was one in a series of humanitarian operations in the Caribbean and Central America in the latter 20^th century in which the Navy and Marine Corps participated.  VMFA-312 and the 8^th Marines received the Humanitarian Service Medal for their actions in this operation.

The post Mariel Boatlift appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                         QUARANTINE OF CUBA

On the 14^th of October, 1962, a high-flying Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane photographed what appeared to be a missile base under construction at San Cristobal, Cuba.  Shortly it was learned that Soviet Il-28 “Beagle” attack bombers were being assembled in Cuba as well.  President Kennedy rushed into emergency session with his closest advisors to address this obvious threat, and after five days of marathon deliberation the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously recommended a surgical airstrike against the Cuban base.  Kennedy however, opted to confront the Soviets with the more open and flexible choice–a naval blockade, making a careful choice of the less militant term “quarantine.” 

On the 22^nd Kennedy went on national TV to announce the situation and his plans to the American public.  Task Force 135 centered around USS ESSEX (CVS-9), the heavy cruisers CANBERRA (CAG-2) and NEWPORT NEWS (CA-148), and a squadron of destroyers was deployed under VADM Alfred G. Ward on a perimeter line 500 miles off the eastern tip of Cuba.  The ENTERPRISE (CVAN-65) and INDEPENDENCE (CVA-62) carrier groups stood by.  The quarantine went into effect this morning.  An anxious public held its breath as Soviet ships already at sea steamed toward the quarantine line, shadowed by US reconnaissance planes.  But hours later, 24 of 25 Soviet ships had reportedly stopped well outside the 500-mile limit.  Several freighters did approach the line in subsequent days, the tanker Bucharest was stopped by GEARING (DD-710), and Marucla was stopped by JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JR. (DD-850) and JOHN R. PIERCE (DD-753).  Both freighters were allowed to proceed after inspections revealed no contraband.

On October 26^th Kennedy received an impassioned letter from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev justifying the missiles for the defense of Cuba.  The Premier cracked the door of compromise by offering to remove the weapons from Cuba if Kennedy pledged not to invade that nation, a reference to the botched Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961.  Before Kennedy had a chance to respond, a second angry communiqué arrived from the Kremlin adding another demand–the withdrawal of American missiles from Turkey.  In a calculated move Kennedy decided to respond affirmatively to Khrushchev’s first letter and ignore his second.

Moscow backed down.  In November the Soviet freighter Volgoles, with missiles plainly visible on her deck, was tracked back across the Atlantic.  The embarrassment proved fatal to Khrushchev’s career and resulted in an abrupt change in Soviet naval strategy.  Their previous emphasis on the submarine waned as Russia re-recognized the value of a strong surface force.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  28 OCT 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Abel, Elie.  The Missile Crisis.  Philadelphia, PA: J.P. Lippincott, 1966.

Allison, Graham T.  Essence of Decision:  Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis.  New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1971.

Blight, James G. and David A. Welch.  On the Brink:  Americans and Soviets Reexamine the Cuban Missile Crisis.  New York, NY: Noonday Press, 1990.

Brugioni, Dino A.  Eyeball to Eyeball:  The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  New York, NY: Random House, 1991.

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. 216-17.

Thompson, Robert Smith.  The Missiles of October:  The Declassified Story of John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.  New York, NY: Simon & Shuster, 1992.

Utz, Curtis A.  Cordon of Steel: The U.S. Navy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC: GPO, 1993.

The post Quarantine of Cuba appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                            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).

The post USS BEAGLE and GREYHOUND (cont. from 11 JUL) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                     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.

The post The Death of Diabolito appeared first on Today in Naval History.