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.”

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                                                   16 JULY 1863

                                        SHIMONOSEKI INCIDENT

Negotiated by Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1854, the Treaty of Kanagawa opened Japan to commerce with the western world.  It also polarized traditionalist Japanese factions who wished a return to economic isolationism.  One of the most militant traditionalists was the feudal lord Mori, Daimyo of Nagato, ruler of the Samurai clan of Choshiu, whose ships and forts controlled the heavily traveled Straits of Shimonoseki between the islands of Kyushu and Honshu.  Mori stirred up anti-Western sentiment throughout the Spring of 1863, unilaterally declaring June 25^th as the date by which all foreigners must vacate Japanese waters.  The US Navy screw-sloop WYOMING had been standing off Japan since May to protect American interests, but she proved no deterrent to Mori.  At 0100 on 26 June, the American merchantman Pembroke was fired upon and chased from the Straits by two of the daimyo’s ships.  Word of the event reached Yedo (Tokyo) in July, where the American ambassador Robert H. Pruyn and WYOMING’s captain, CDR David S. McDougal, demanded a meeting with the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs.  Failing an assurance that the central government would curb the renegade daimyo, Pruyn and McDougal planned their own answer for the insult to our Flag.

On this date, WYOMING closed the town of Shimonoseki, taking fire immediately from shore.  Three ships at anchor in the harbor began firing as well; a brig, a bark, and a steamer, presumably those that had harried Pembroke.  McDougal threaded these with his guns blazing, taking a shell under his starboard forward broadside gun.  Four more fortifications ashore joined, filling the air with shot.  Unluckily, as her able but outgunned crew worked, “as fast as the guns could be brought to bear,” WYOMING ran her bows upon an uncharted shoal.  McDougal worked her free, but the steamer now cut her cable and charged in an attempt to board.  American gunners turned their attention to the charging steamer; several well-placed rounds burst her boilers and sent her to the bottom.  Now free and ignoring the heated fire from shore, McDougal next methodically worked over the bark and the brig, completely wrecking both.  Satisfied he had taught “a lesson that will not soon be forgotten,” he departed.

WYOMING had been the first Western warship to challenge the daimyo’s declaration.  McDougal lost five killed and six wounded, and WYOMING was hulled 11 times.  Later a 17-ship multi-national force reduced the Shimonoseki forts to rubble, however we did not participate in this latter action.  Occupied by the Civil War, the only two Union warships in the Pacific at that moment were busy hunting down the Confederate raider Alabama.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  22 JUL 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Bulic, Ivan.  “Gunboat Diplomacy in Shogun Japan:  The Kagoshima & Shimonoseki Incidents.”  Sea Classics, Vol 27 (5), May 1994, pp. 10-15, 30-31.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 8 “W-Z”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, pp. 492-93.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.   Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, p. 384.

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, 1991, p. 72.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Wyoming Territory was not admitted as our 44^th State until 10 July 1890.  WYOMING above remembers the Wyoming Valley of eastern Pennsylvania through which the Susquehanna River courses.

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