A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the first, largest, fastest, most heavily armed, or best known.
The Texas Navy was the official navy of the Republic of Texas. It was created to protect and defend the coastline of Texas and offer protection for the shipping and trade that was desperately needed for the growing republic.
Edwin Ward Moore, was an American naval officer who also served as Commander-in-chief of the Navy of the Republic of Texas.
The Texas Navy was officially formed in January 1836, with the purchase of four schooners: Invincible, Brutus, Independence, and Liberty. These ships, under the command of Commodore Charles Hawkins, helped Texas win independence by preventing a Mexican blockade of the Texas coast, seizing Mexican ships carrying reinforcements and supplies to its army, and sending their cargoes to the Texas volunteer army. Nevertheless, Mexico refused to recognize Texas as an independent country. By the middle of 1837, all of the ships had been lost at sea, run aground, captured, or sold. With no ships to impede a possible invasion by Mexico, Texas was vulnerable to attack.
A schooner is a type of sailing ship, as defined by its rig configuration. Typically it has two or more masts, the foremast being slightly shorter than the mainmast.
The Texas schooner Invincible was one of the four schooners of the Revolutionary Texas Navy (1836-1837). She began her service in January 1836 and immediately began attacking ships supplying the Mexican army in Texas, including capturing the United States merchant vessel Pocket and later the British ship Eliza Russell. Both of these actions caused diplomatic incidents between the Republic of Texas and the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Texan schooner Brutus was one of the four ships of the First Texas Navy (1836–1838) that during the Texas Revolution wreaked havoc on towns along the coast of Mexico, blockaded Mexican ports, and captured ships bound for Mexico with goods and munitions of war.
In 1838, President Mirabeau B. Lamar responded to this threat by forming a second Texas Navy. Unlike Sam Houston, Lamar was an ardent supporter of the Texas Navy and saw the urgent need for its continuation. The second Texas Navy was placed under the command of Commodore Edwin Ward Moore, an Alexandria Academy graduate recruited from the United States Navy.[1] One of the ships of this second navy was the Austin, which served as the flagship of the navy.
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was an attorney born in Georgia, who became a Texas politician, poet, diplomat, and soldier. He was a leading Texas political figure during the Texas Republic era. He was elected as the second President of the Republic of Texas after Sam Houston. He was known for waging war against bands of Cherokee and Comanche peoples to push them out of Texas, and for establishing a fund to support public education.
Samuel Houston was an American soldier and politician. An important leader of the Texas Revolution, Houston served as the 1st and 3rd president of the Republic of Texas, and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the 6th Governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only American to be elected governor of two different states in the United States.
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the U.S. military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of June 2019, making it the third-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force and the United States Army.
History of the Austin
The Austin, named after Stephen F. Austin, was originally slated to be named the Texas. Built in the Baltimore shipyard of William and George Gardner in 1839, Austin was referred to as a sloop-of-war and had a full ship rig.[2]
Stephen Fuller Austin was an American empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas", and the founder of Texas, he led the second, and ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families from the United States to the region in 1825.
In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term sloop-of-war encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialized functions.
Stephen F. Austin, the namesake of the flagship of the Second Texas Navy
Austin was 125 feet in length and 31 feet across the beam, with a displacement of 600 tons and a draft of 12½ feet. She carried a crew of twenty-three officers and warrant officers and 151 sailors and marines and was armed with sixteen medium twenty-four-pound cannons, two eighteen-pound medium cannons, and two eighteen-pound long cannons.[2]
Career
Upon arrival in Galveston, the Austin's crew underwent months of training before the ship was dispatched in June 1840 to the Yucatán Peninsula, where a rebellion had broken out by the short-lived Republic of Yucatán against the central government in Mexico City. Commodore Moore was ordered to confer with the rebel leaders, but not to commence hostilities against Mexico until a delegation of Texas diplomats had completed a mission to secure recognition of Texas' independence.[3] Thus Austin spent her time cruising around the gulf coast of Mexico and Yucatán gathering intelligence and investigating ports and suitable anchorages. When a large storm blew up near Lobos Island on 14 October 1840, Austin came upon a Mexican ship in distress. Austin recovered all of the crew of the stricken ship Fama, delivering them to Tampico to great local acclaim.[3] This did not deter a Mexican shore battery from opening fire a few days later on the flagship as she was close to the Mexican shore looking to replenish her water stores. Concluding that hostilities had recommenced, Commodore Moore hastened to rejoin his flotilla near Campeche.
Galveston is a coastal resort city and port off the southeast coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the American State of Texas. The community of 209.3 square miles (542 km2), with an estimated population of 50,180 in 2015, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel. The peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a northwestern geographic partition separating the region of Central America from the rest of North America. It is approximately 181,000 km2 (70,000 sq mi) in area, and is almost entirely composed of limestone.
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
Tabasco attack
Upon reaching the Cayos Arcas, where the rest of his flotilla had remained, Moore found that the San Jacinto had run aground on a sand bar and the rest of the ships were not to be seen.[4]Austin set out to find the rest of the ships, Zavala and San Bernard, touching at the port of Campeche on 8 November and Sisal on 10 November. The flagship finally caught up with the rest of the ships at Frontera on 14 November. In order to salvage the San Jacinto and provide fuel for the lone steamship, Zavala, Moore hatched a plan to gain money. The Zavala towed the other two ships 60 miles up the San Juan Bautista River to the capital of the Mexican state of Tabasco, Villahermosa. There the small flotilla pointed their guns at the city and then sent troops into the seemingly deserted capital. Commodore Moore encountered a man bearing a white flag on a tree branch, and when he ascertained that this was the Mayor, the Texas commodore demanded $25,000 or he would level the town. The Mayor asked if silver would be acceptable, and upon receiving an affirmative reply, delivered the ransom. The commodore set sail with the silver and used the money to repair and outfit his ships.[5]
Returning to the wreck of the San Jacinto, Austin picked up the sick sailors and returned to Galveston, crossing the bar on 1 February 1841. During Austin's absence, Texas had achieved a hard-won recognition from the United Kingdom. Moore wanted to repair and recruit quickly in New Orleans and then continue to press Mexico by sea. But President Lamar decided instead to pull back and allow Britain to try to negotiate a settlement between Texas and Mexico. Moore was ordered to put most of his ships "in ordinary" in Galveston. Austin's crew were placed in reduced commission with most seamen discharged, and the ship only serving on harbor patrol. She remained there through most of 1841 before returning to full commission early in December 1841.
Second cruise
Austin once again sailed for Yucatán on 13 December 1841, the day President Sam Houston was inaugurated for a second non-consecutive term. Houston's opposition to the navy may have played a role in the decision to sail that day. During this cruise, Yucatán rebels paid $8,000 a month toward the maintenance of the Texas Navy.[2]
Map of the Bay of Campeche, scene of most of the exploits of the Austin
After a re-provisioning stop in New Orleans, Austin arrived at Sisal on 6 January 1842 where she met up with San Bernard and the San Antonio. From there the flotilla, under the command of Commodore Moore, again cruised the Mexican coast in search of prizes. After a stop at the port of Campeche, they continued on to Veracruz where they took up station as close to shore as conditions permitted. On 6 February, Austin and San Bernard sighted, pursued, and captured the 180-ton Mexican brig Progreso which was sent to Galveston with a small prize crew. Throughout the month of February, bad weather plagued the two Texas ships and they captured no more ships.[3] On 17 February, Austin hoisted the United States flag and sailed into Veracruz harbor to get a first-hand look at the Mexican situation. In Veracruz, Moore saw with alarm an old commercial steamer undergoing naval conversion and a new schooner readying as well. Austin released her captives in Progreso's boats, exited the harbor, and set sail for Cayo Arcos and rendezvous with the San Antonio.[3]
Eventually, the three Texan ships reunited and stopped in Carmen for water and repairs, where they remained until 28 March 1842. Upon departure, the flotilla under command of Austin made for Veracruz and instituted a blockade of the port. While conducting the blockade, Austin captured the Mexican ships Dolorita and Dos Amigos, sending prize crews with them to Galveston. After sending Dos Amigos to Galveston accompanied by San Bernard, Austin headed for Sisal, arriving on 18 April. The following day, San Bernard arrived off Sisal with orders for Commodore Moore to return to Texas to confer with President Houston. The Texas squadron departed the Yucatán coast on 26 April and set a direct course for Galveston, arriving at the beginning of May 1842.[3]
A period of inactivity
In Galveston, Austin was at anchor while Commodore Moore met with President Houston and Secretary of War and Marine George Washington Hockley to make plans for the Texan fleet. Moore discovered that Houston would not release $20,000 in discretionary money recently appropriated by the Texas Congress for the navy, and thus the sailors and officers would not be paid for the second consecutive year; many sailors deserted.[4] Despite Houston's lack of support for the navy, he did not hesitate to use it when it suited his needs. He ordered a blockade of Mexico in July 1842 and released just over $18,000 for the repair and provisioning of the ships. However, the repairs took so long to complete that the blockade never materialized. Then, in September 1842, General Adrian Woll led a large force of Mexican regulars in an invasion of Texas, capturing San Antonio in what has become known as the Woll Invasion.
In response to public outrage at the capture of San Antonio, Houston ordered the Austin and the brig Wharton to sail to Mexico and engage a Mexican fleet that contained new and larger ships, the Moctezuma and the Guadalupe, and to support another rebellion in the Yucatán in order to force Mexico to the bargaining table. The flotilla would not leave New Orleans until 15 April 1843.[4]
Naval Battle of Campeche
The Mexican fleet now possessed the steamersGuadalupe and Montezuma.[6]Guadalupe was a British-manned Laird-built iron hulled paddle frigate of 768 tons equipped with two 68-pound pivot guns that fired exploding shells.[7] Moore hoped to encounter the Guadalupe separate from her escort Montezuma.
Austin and Wharton made for the Yucatán coast and encountered the Mexican squadron on 30 April 1843 between Lerma and Campeche. Montezuma and Guadalupe, along with four smaller vessels, comprised the Mexican fleet. The Texans were augmented by two Yucatecan ships and five small gunboats, but were clearly the smaller fleet.
Seeing the Mexican fleet, Moore, on board the flagship Austin, exclaimed: "Damn them, give it to them!"[4] There was a two-hour running battle in which the Austin was struck once in the fighting and lost some of her mizzen rigging. The commander of the Montezuma and twenty of his crew were killed.[2] After a few hours, the Mexican sailing ships departed and only the two steamers remained. The Mexican blockade of the port of Campeche was lifted, however, and the Texan ships put into the port for repairs.[8] Moore was determined to upgrade his guns in Campeche; Austin received two long-range 18-pounders from the Yucatecans ashore and Wharton took on board a single, long-range 12-pounder.
The Texas fleet waited for an opening to leave port and engage the Mexican ships again. Eventually the winds and the Mexican fleet, desiring a confrontation with the smaller Texan squadron, lured the Austin and Wharton out of port on 16 May 1843.[3] With the wind pushing them forward, the two Texan ships engaged the larger Mexican adversaries despite heavy damage to the Austin and three dead. The Mexicans fared worse, losing 183 sailors, and were forced to leave the scene. This battle would represent the only time that steam-driven warships would be defeated by sail powered ships.[4] The scene was memorialized on the engraving on the cylinder of the famed Colt Navy Revolver.[2]
After Campeche
Austin under Moore returned victorious to Campeche only to discover that in March, President Houston had declared the ships and their men pirates. Moore wanted to return to Galveston and answer the charges, but hostile Mexican fleets delayed the Austin until 29 June 1843. Austin and Wharton arrived in Galveston on 14 July 1843 to a tumultuous welcome. The sailors of Austin were never court-martialed, but Moore and Lieutenant C.B. Snow were relieved of their commissions, and subsequently all but three officers of the Texas Navy resigned. With no officers or seamen, Austin remained in port in Galveston.[4]
USS Austin
After Texas was formally annexed into the United States in 1845, Austin was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on 11 May 1846 under the name USS Austin, the first ship of that name. She was in poor condition when towed to the Pensacola Navy Yard, where she was used as a receiving ship until, two years later in 1848, USS Austin was run aground and broken up. According to the commandant of the Pensacola Navy Yard, she was "unworthy of repairs."[2]
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References
↑ "The Texian Navy"(PDF). Sons of the Republic of Texas. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Austin". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2007-11-02.
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