Painting The Gallant Defense of Cutter Surveyor | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | Unknown |
Operator | Royal Navy |
Acquired | 1813 |
Out of service | By or before 1814 |
Fate | Unknown |
History | |
United States | |
Name | USRC Surveyor |
Operator | United States Revenue Marine |
Laid down | 1807 |
Commissioned | 1807 |
Homeport | Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
Captured | 1813, by United Kingdom |
General characteristics | |
Type | Schooner |
Length | 68 ft (21 m) |
Beam | 19 ft (5.8 m) |
Complement | 25 personnel |
Armament |
|
USRCSurveyor was a ship of the United States Revenue Marine captured by the United Kingdom during the War of 1812. Despite the vessel's loss, the "gallant and desperate" defense of her crew against a superior force of the Royal Navy and the Corps of Royal Marines is commemorated by the United States Coast Guard. Along with the Royal Navy frigate which bested her in battle, HMS Narcissus, Surveyor is among six legendary ships memorialized in the lyrics of the Coast Guard march "Semper Paratus".
USRC Surveyor was laid down in 1807 and commissioned the same year. [1] The 75 tonnes (74 long tons; 83 short tons) cutter was 7-foot (2.1 m) in draft and 68-foot (21 m) in length with a 19 foot (5.8 m) beam. [2] Home ported in Baltimore, Maryland, different sources report her as armed either with six 12-pound carronades, or six six-pound cannon. [1]
In 1809, according to U.S. Coast Guard records, Surveyor took the schooners Martha and Susan. [3] The following year, in 1810, she captured a French privateer. [3]
On the outbreak of hostilities with Britain in 1812, United States naval forces included 30 armed ships, 16 of which were sailed by the United States Navy with the remainder operated by the United States Revenue Marine, the maritime force of the United States Department of the Treasury. [4] The ships of the Revenue Marine suffered from poor provisioning - the Department of the Treasury took the position that the war was not its responsibility to fight, except in circumstances where the collection of taxes was threatened, and that the costs of prosecuting the conflict should be borne by the Department of War and Department of the Navy. [5]
In 1811, Surveyor's first mate, Samuel Travis, was promoted to ship's master. [6] Travis had served as first mate since the ship's commissioning. [6] [lower-alpha 1] Under his command, on 1 July 1812, Surveyor engaged and captured a British merchantman off the coast of Jamaica. [8]
In May 1813, the United Kingdom imposed a naval blockade of the United States; within the year, according to historian Melvin Jackson, the entire U.S. coast "lay all but deserted" to maritime traffic and the country was essentially cut-off from the rest of the world. [9]
On 12 June 1813, Surveyor – embarking a crew of 18 – anchored in Chesapeake Bay near Gloucester Point. [7] [10] Throughout the War of 1812, the Royal Navy was active in Chesapeake Bay, engaging in ship-to-shore raids and coastal blockades, with the objective of diverting U.S. forces from Canada. [11]
Prior to nightfall, Travis ordered the ship's boarding net raised and muskets and cutlasses placed in accessible locations on the deck. [7] A sentry boat manned by one officer and three crewmen was also launched. [7]
Travis' cautious preparations were vindicated when, a few hours later, Surveyor was attacked by a Royal Navy boarding party described by different sources as between 50 and 65 sailors and marines operating from the frigate HMS Narcissus . [1] [12] Narcissus had entered the bay under cover of darkness and her boarding party moved against Surveyor in two small boats using muffled oars to conceal their approach. [1] [7] [12]
At 150 yards from Surveyor, the American ship's picket spotted the approaching British boats and fired an alarm shot, alerting the vessel's crew and ruining the element of surprise. [1] [7] As the boarders approached the vessel, they navigated away from the cutter's deck guns to neutralize their utility to the defenders. [7] Travis ordered the crew of Surveyor to arm themselves with two muskets each and to man the rails. [1] [7] When the British boats were 50 yards out, he ordered his men to open fire. [7] Despite this, Royal Navy and Royal Marines boarders ultimately gained access to the ship's deck and a fierce effort by Surveyor's crew to repel them followed. [1] [10] During the engagement, Royal Marine Captain Thomas Ford was mortally wounded by Travis in a cutlass duel. [7] Nonetheless, his men outnumbered, Travis ultimately ordered the ship's surrender. [1] In tribute to the ferocity of Surveyor's resistance, Travis' sword was returned to him by the boarding party's commander, Lt John Crerie, with a commendation:
Your gallant and desperate attempt to defend your vessel against more than double your number excited such admiration on the part of your opponents as I have seldom witnessed, and induced me to return you the sword you had so ably used...I am at a loss which to admire most, the previous arrangement on board the Surveyor or the determined manner in which her deck was disputed inch-by-inch. [1]
According to the United States Coast Guard, the brief engagement resulted in ten British casualties, including three fatalities. [13] Five Americans were injured. [13]
Travis was paroled at Washington, North Carolina, on August 7, 1813, with the remainder of the crew transferred to a British prison camp in Halifax, Nova Scotia. [1] [14]
Following her capture, Surveyor was re-flagged for Royal Navy use and, in June of 1813, participated in the British attack on Hampton, Virginia. [8] She was no longer in service by 1814 and her ultimate fate is unknown. [1] [15]
In 1927, the United States Coast Guard christened one of its Active-class patrol boats as USCGC Travis , in honor of Samuel Travis. [16]
In 2012, in conjunction with bicentennial anniversary events commemorating the War of 1812, the United States Coast Guard commissioned the oil on canvas painting The Gallant Defense of Cutter Surveyor from Patrick O'Brien. It depicts Surveyor with her boarding net raised and her crew armed at the rails as four Royal Navy small boats converge on the ship. [17] On June 15, 2014, the defense and capture of the Surveyor was reenacted at the Watermen's Museum in Yorktown, Virginia. [18]
Both Surveyor and Narcissus are among the six legendary ships from the Coast Guard's history mentioned in the second verse of its march "Semper Paratus", the others being USRC Eagle , USRC Hudson , USCGC Tampa , and HMS Dispatch. [19] [lower-alpha 2]
The United States Revenue Cutter Service was established by an act of Congress on 4 August 1790 as the Revenue-Marine upon the recommendation of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton to serve as an armed customs enforcement service. As time passed, the service gradually gained missions either voluntarily or by legislation, including those of a military nature. It was generally referred to as the Revenue-Marine until 31 July 1894, when it was officially renamed the Revenue Cutter Service. The Revenue Cutter Service operated under the authority of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. On 28 January 1915, the service was merged by an act of Congress with the United States Life-Saving Service to form the United States Coast Guard.
Frank Hamilton Newcomb was a United States Revenue Cutter Service commodore, best known for his actions at the Battle of Cárdenas during the Spanish–American War.
Harriet Lane was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service and, on the outbreak of the American Civil War, a ship of the United States Navy and later Confederate States Navy. The craft was named after the niece of senator and later United States President, James Buchanan; during his presidency, she acted as First Lady. The cutter was christened and entered the water for the Revenue Service in 1859 out of New York City, and saw action during the Civil War at Fort Sumter, New Orleans, Galveston, Texas, and Virginia Point. The Confederates captured her in 1863, whereupon she was converted to mercantile service. Union forces recaptured her at the end of war. The U.S. Navy declared her unfit for service and sold her. New owners out of Philadelphia renamed her Elliot Ritchie. Her crew abandoned her at sea in 1881.
"Semper Paratus" is a 1928 song and the official march of the United States Coast Guard, having been composed in 1927 by U.S. Coast Guard Captain Francis Saltus Van Boskerck.
The history of the United States Coast Guard goes back to the United States Revenue Cutter Service, which was founded on 4 August 1790 as part of the Department of the Treasury. The Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Life-Saving Service were merged to become the Coast Guard per 14 U.S.C. § 1 which states: "The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times." In 1939, the United States Lighthouse Service was merged into the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard itself was moved to the Department of Transportation in 1967, and on 1 March 2003 it became part of the Department of Homeland Security. However, under 14 U.S.C. § 3 as amended by section 211 of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006, upon the declaration of war and when Congress so directs in the declaration, or when the President directs, the Coast Guard operates as a service in the Department of the Navy.
United States Coast Guard Cutter is the term used by the U.S. Coast Guard for its commissioned vessels. They are 65 feet (19.8 m) or greater in length and have a permanently assigned crew with accommodations aboard. They carry the ship prefix USCGC.
USS Bancroft was a United States Navy steel gunboat in commission from 1893 to 1898 and again from 1902 to 1905. She saw service during the Spanish–American War. After her U.S. Navy career, she was in commission in the United States Revenue Cutter Service from 1907 to 1915 as the revenue cutter USRC Itasca, and in the Revenue Cutter Service's successor service, the United States Coast Guard, as the cutter USCGC Itasca from 1915 to 1922. During her Coast Guard career, she saw service during World War I.
USRC Walter Forward was a schooner constructed for service with the United States Revenue Marine. She was more commonly known as USRC Forward. Forward served with the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy in Mexican waters during the Mexican–American War and was commended for her actions during the Tabasco River landings by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, U.S. Navy. After the war, she was transferred to the U.S. Coast Survey for a short time as USCS Walter Forward before being returned to the Revenue Marine for service during the 1850s and the American Civil War.
The first ten Revenue Service cutters were ten oceangoing cutters built at the behest of the 1st United States Congress in the early 1790s to crack down on smuggling. Since the United States Navy had at the time not yet been formed, these ten cutters of the newly formed Revenue Marine therefore represent the United States Government's first official "armed force afloat", as well as being the first seagoing vessels to operate with what would later become the United States Coast Guard.
USRC Mohawk, was a steel steam powered revenue cutter built for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service by William R. Trigg Company at Richmond, Virginia. Her primary duties in the Revenue Cutter Service and Coast Guard were assisting vessels in distress and enforcing navigational laws as well as a derelict destroyer. Mohawk was sunk after a collision with another vessel in October 1917.
USRC Mackinac, later USCGC Mackinac, was a patrol boat that served in the United States Revenue Cutter Service from 1903 to 1915 and in the United States Coast Guard from 1915 to 1917 and from 1919 to 1939.
USRC Forward was a revenue cutter constructed for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service in 1882 by Pusey & Jones shipyard in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the second Revenue Cutter Service vessel named Forward and was named for Walter Forward, the fifteenth United States Secretary of the Treasury. The iron-hulled vessel originally cost US$72,750 and was powered by a two-cylinder steam engine with a topsail schooner brigantine sail pattern. Although Forward was considered a model ship at the time of its construction, it was severely underpowered and had unreliable machinery. The cost of repairs in the first fifteen years of operation was US$52,000.
The capture of the schooner Bravo was a naval battle fought in 1819 between United States Revenue Cutter Service cutters and one of Jean Lafitte's pirate ships.
USRC Yamacraw, was a steel-hull flush-deck cutter that served in the United States Revenue Cutter Service from 1909 to 1937 and was the sister ship to the USRC Tahoma.
The West Indies Anti-Piracy Operations refer to the United States Navy presence in the Antilles, and surrounding waters, which fought against pirates. Between 1817 and 1825, the American West Indies Squadron constantly pursued pirates on sea and land, primarily around Cuba and Puerto Rico. After the capture of Roberto Cofresi in 1825, acts of piracy became rare, and the operation was considered a success, although limited occurrences went on until slightly after the start of the 20th century.
The Ingham Incident, or the Montezuma Affair, was a naval battle fought in 1835, the first between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican warship Montezuma patrolled the coast of Texas to prevent the smuggling of contraband into the territory. During the cruise, the Mexicans captured the American merchant ship Martha and later the Texan ship Columbia which led to a response by the United States Revenue-Marine revenue cutter USRC Ingham. A bloodless engagement was fought on June 14, and ended when the Montezuma was purposely run aground to prevent capture.
USRC Pamlico was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service that served from 1907 to 1946 designed specifically to cruise inland waters and did so while stationed at New Bern, North Carolina her entire career.
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The defense of the cutter Eagle was a battle on and around Long Island New York, that took place from October 10 to 13, 1814, between the British Royal Navy and the United States' Revenue Marine. Early on in the engagement, the United States' only involved vessel, USRC Eagle, was beached near Negro Head. Despite the loss of their ship, her crew continued fighting the Royal Navy vessels from shore using cannon recovered from their wrecked vessel. Eagle's crew was ultimately able to repair and refloat her, but unsuccessful in their attempts to drive the British ships away. Once more she was beached, but after exhausting their ammunition over three days of fighting, the Eagle's crew was unable to prevent her from being towed off by the Royal Navy, which then sailed her back past the shoreline for a victory lap. Though there were no fatalities on either side in the battle, a cow grazing in the area died after being hit by a 32-pound (15 kg) round shot fired by one of the Royal Navy ships.
HMS Narcissus was the lead ship of the Royal Navy Narcissus-class 32-gun fifth-rate frigate, launched in 1801. She participated in the War of 1812.