USS LYNX

In modern times, the unexplained disappearance of a vessel at sea would raise much interest, concern, news coverage, and even sensationalist speculation.  Witness the loss of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in 2014.  In the 19^th century, however, losses due to act of God were a known risk of oceanic enterprise. 

When President James Madison received from Congress a declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, he found the US Navy woefully inadequate to the task.  Part of the subsequent build-up for that war included the creation two squadrons that could raid British shipping.  A contract was let to Mr. James Owner of Georgetown, DC, for the construction of a Baltimore Clipper-rigged schooner of 150 tons displacement and six guns.  Construction delays prevented her completion prior to the summer of 1815, six months after the end of the fighting.  Nevertheless, on 3 July 1815 she was commissioned into our Navy as USS LYNX, manned with 50 crewmen, and sent with Commodore William Bainbridge’s nine-ship squadron to the Mediterranean to police Barbary piracy.

Here, LYNX arrived too late for combat again.  Bainbridge took over command of our Mediterranean Squadron, and LYNX remained in the area for a year, showing the flag to insure Barbary peace.  Upon her return to the United States, her new skipper LT George W. Storer surveyed the northeastern coast, until piracy, that had started before the turn of the century. surfaced again along our Gulf coast.  LYNX was sent south to address this.

By 1819 LYNX had yet a new captain, LT John R. Madison, and experienced her first brush with combat.  On 24 October she overhauled and engaged two pirate schooners and two smaller boats loaded with booty off Louisiana.  LYNX departed subsequently for the coast of Texas, then part of Mexico.  Here, in Galveston Bay, she captured another pirate boat also loaded with stolen booty.

By early 1820, LYNX was operating out of St. Mary’s on Georgia’s Atlantic coast, from whence she received orders to Kingston, Jamaica.  Piracy had become rampant in the Caribbean, as newly independent former Spanish colonies such as Venezuela and Colombia commissioned privateers against Spanish shipping.  These privateers too often placed profit above patriotism and attacked ships of any nation.  American traders were falling victim, and LYNX was to be part of our Navy’s efforts against this affront.

On this day LYNX disappeared over the horizon, heading south.  Neither she nor Madison nor any of her crew were ever seen again.  The mythical Bermuda Triangle notwithstanding, a search by USS Nonsuch, 14, turned up nothing.  Months later some unidentifiable wreckage was found on Craysons Reef, off Florida, that is believed today to have been the remains of USS Lynx.  In the days before accurate weather forecasting, losses at sea were not uncommon.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  15 JAN 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 48.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 172-73.

Silverstone, Paul H.  The Sailing Navy, 1775-1854.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2001, p. 55.

The post USS LYNX appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                                 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.

The post USS WEASEL vs. Gallago Segunda (cont. from 22 JUL) 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.

                       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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