The West Indies Anti-Piracy Operations were a series of military operations and engagements undertaken by the United States Navy against pirates in and around the Antilles. Between 1814 and 1825, the American West Indies Squadron hunted pirates on both sea and land, primarily around Cuba and Puerto Rico.[1] 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.[2]
During and after the Spanish American wars of independence, Spanish naval power in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico weakened, allowing for a resurgence of piracy along the Gulf Coast. Many of the pirates in the period were Latin Americans and doubled as privateers. Revolution against Spain was widespread and both the rebel governments and the Spanish issued letters of marque. Often the privateers captured American merchantmen and attacked their crews which resulted in them being branded as pirates.
Revenue Marine Service
Revenue cutters were dispatched to fight the pirates early on. The first anti-piracy action from the Revenue Marine Service happened back in 1793 the Cutter Diligence ran a pirate vessel ashore in the Chesapeake Bay. After the success, revenue cutters were charged with suppressing piracy and protecting the shores of America. In 1819, the one-gun schooners USRC Alabama and USRC Louisiana along with the two gunboats joined the first established anti-piracy U.S. Naval fleet. The ships fought major engagements with pirates, on the open sea, and a notable Battle of Breton Island. On 1818 June 22, Boarding parties from the Revenue cutter Dallas seized the privateer Young Spartan, her crew, and the privateer's prize, the Pastora, off Savannah, Georgia. The crew of the Pastora had been set adrift, and their fate remained unknown. The New York Evening Post noted that the crew of the privateer had committed offenses "that can only be expiated by making their exits on the gallows."[3]
The Revenue Cutter Active captured the pirate vessel India Libre in the Chesapeake Bay on July 18 in 1818. On 1819 August 31. The Capture of the schooner Bravo led by Pirate Captain Jean Le Farges’ vessel engaged cutters Louisiana and Alabama off the coast of Florida. The cutters’ crews boarded the enemy and took the ship in a hand-to-hand struggle. Le Farges, a lieutenant of Jean Lafitte, was later hanged from Louisianas yardarm.[3]
On 19 July 1820, Alabamacaptured four pirate ships off La Balize. USRCLouisiana and USSPeacock manned with several cutter men would engage HMSSpeedwell, Alabamaengaged pirates again, which resulted in the taking of five more pirate ships. This campaign was the beginning of the Anti-piracy, Coastal Defense, and Maritime law enforcement mission which is still practiced in the modern U.S. Coast Guard today.[3]
Navy engagements
The first American Navy vessels to serve against West Indies piracy were the schooners USS Enterprise, USSNonsuch and USSLynx were among the vessels deployed between 1817 and 1822. All of these ships operated independently and there was no commander of the squadron until its official establishment. In 1819 PresidentJames Monroe sent Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to Venezuela with the frigate USSConstellation, the corvette USS John Adams and USS Nonsuch. The commodore's orders were to demand restitution for the capture of American merchant ships by Venezuelan privateers and to receive an assurance that the privateers would be restrained from attacking again. Perry was successful in completing his mission initially and a treaty was signed on August 11, though on his cruise back to the United States, he died of yellow fever at Trinidad which caused the agreement to fail. On December 22, 1817, USS John Adams forced the filibusterLouis-Michel Aury to evacuate his base at Amelia Island, Florida. Later, John Adams was flagship of Commodore Biddle's squadron.[2]
By 1820, hostilities with the pirates and privateers started to increase, United States warships engaged in several naval actions that year and a total of twenty-seven American merchant ships were captured. In Between 1818 and 1821, USS Enterprise captured thirteen pirate and slave ships while serving with the New Orleans Squadron and later in the West Indies. On October 24, 1819, while under command of Lieutenant J. R. Madison, USS Lynx captured two pirate schooners and two boats in the Gulf of Mexico and on November 9, she captured another pirate boat in Galveston Bay. Lynx disappeared in January 1820 while sailing to Jamaica, she likely sank due to a storm, none of her crew were ever seen or heard from again. In October, 1821, while sailing off Cape Antonio, Cuba, USS Enterprise came to the assistance of three merchantmen which had been seized by four pirate craft. Boats were launched and attacked the brigands, in the end, over forty pirates were killed or captured and two of their vessels taken. A month later, Enterprise attacked a pirate base near Cape Antonio and cleared the area criminals. In September 1821, three American merchant ships were massacred off Matanzas, Cuba. The crew of one ship was tortured and the vessel was set on fire, survivors were able to escape to shore in a boat. Three men were killed on the second American ship and everyone on the third vessel which was also burned. This incident was one of the main reasons why the anti-piracy operation was continued. USS Hornet captured a privateer schooner named Moscow on October 29, 1821, and on December 21, she captured a pirate ship apparently without a fight and the crew escaped to shore.[2]
On December 16, 1821, Lieutenant James Ramage in USS Porpoise was sailing off Cape Antonio and found five enemy vessels, including the merchant brig Bolina. Forty sailors were lowered into five boats and Ramage led the advance. Though some of the pirates fled to shore, many resisted and the five American boats destroyed the five pirate ships by burning them. They also freed the Bolina. Three pirates were captured and several killed according to reports. In autumn of 1821, USS Spark, under Lieutenant John Elton, departed Boston and joined the list of vessels assigned to counter piracy. In January 1822, Elton captured a Dutch flagged pirate sloop. Seven prisoners were taken to Charleston for trial, Spark then returned to the Caribbean and remained on station for the next three years by which time the official West Indies Squadron was formed.[2]
Three significant engagements occurred between the British and the pirates in 1822 and 1823. In March, boat crews from USS Enterprise captured two launches and four boats in a creek near Cape Antonio and on March 6, they seized eight more craft and over 150 pirates. A British merchantman under Captain William Smith was taken over by Spanish pirates of the schooner Emanuel in July 1822. The pirates made the British commander walk the plank and when he attempted to swim away, he was shot in the back. Also on the ship was the captain's fourteen-year-old son, the boy's head was crushed by the pirate captain when he could no longer stand to hear the crying child. USS Grampus encountered the brig Palyrma flying Spanish colors on August 15, 1822. Commanding Lieutenant Gregory suspected the ship to be a pirate so he approached to board but as Grampus drew near, Palyrma opened fire and a brief three and a half minute battle was fought. After boarding the wrecked vessel, the pirates were found to be from Puerto Rico and had a letter of marque that was intended to get the outlaws out of a situation like this. The letter was found to be fake so the pirates were detained and handed over to the Spanish in Cuba. At this time the usual procedure for dealing with captured pirates was turning them over to Spain because the United States didn't have the authority to imprison them.[2][4]
The United States Navy could not pursue the pirates on Spanish soil either so in April 1822, Commodore David Porter, in USS Macedonian, assumed command of the station and one of his first missions was to consult with GovernorCaptain GeneralDonNicholas Mahy of Cuba and the governor of Puerto Rico. Both governors denied Porter's request to allow American shore parties to land but at the same time the United States government permitted the West Indies Squadron to do so but only in remote areas. Commodore Porter then attacked and destroyed a pirate force at Funda Bay, Cuba between September 28 and 30, 1822. Also on September 28, Peacock captured a boat filled with pirates about sixty miles (97km) from Havana, and later that afternoon, USS Peacock encountered the merchant vessel Speedwell which had been attacked by pirates two hours before. In response, Captain Stephen Cassin launched a boat expedition which captured four schooners but again most of the pirates escaped. On September 30, 1822, the twenty-six gun HMSTyne was escorting a one-gun merchant sloop Eliza when attacked by a five-gun pirate felucca named Firme Union. During the engagement that ensued, the British boarded and captured the pirate ship. Ten pirates were killed and the rest abandoned ship and escaped. On November 2, 1822, USRCLouisiana along with USS Peacock and the Royal Navy schooner HMSSpeedwell captured five pirate vessels off Havana. On November 8, 1822, Lieutenant William Howard Allen of USS Alligator was killed in battle while leading an attack against three enemy schooners which were holding five merchantmen hostage. In the action, two of the schooners were captured and at least fourteen pirates were killed. Due to Lieutenant Allen's death, Secretary of the NavySmith Thompson authorized Commodore Porter to procure new vessels for the squadron.[2]
Porter acquired eight new shallow draft schooners, five large barges, a steam powered riverboat and a storeship schooner. The schooners were each armed with three guns and became the USSBeagle, USSFerret, USSFox, USSGreyhound, USSJackal, USSTerrier, USSWeasel, and the USSWild Cat.[4] The storeship was USSDecoy and the steamer became USSSea Gull. The new squadron left the United States for Cuba on February 15, 1823. Commodore Biddle also received new orders of conduct: he was now able to land shore parties in populated areas as long as he informed the locals first. Biddle was also ordered to cooperate with any other sovereign naval forces operating against pirates. HMSGrecian of six guns captured the eight-gun schooner La Cata on March 1, 1823, south of Cuba. Thirty brigands were killed in action and only three were taken prisoner out of a force of over 100 men. USS Fox was sent to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in March 1823 to obtain a list of all legally commissioned privateers and a details of their instructions. When the American schooner entered San Juan Harbor on March 3, an artillery battery fired on the ship. A few shots hit the Fox which mortally wounded her commander, Lieutenant William H. Cocke. Commodore Porter later accepted an apology for the incident from Puerto Rico's governor. The British warships Tyne and HMSThracian of eighteen guns defeated the notorious pirate Captain Cayatano Aragonez's thirteen-gun ship Zaragozana on March 31, in a running battle, the two British ships chased Captain Aragonez into Mata Harbor where boats were lowered and captured the vessel. Ten pirates were killed and twenty eight were captured while the Royal Navy sustained only slight casualties. Two barges, USSGallinipper and USSMosquito, liberated an American merchant vessel on April 8. The navy sailors killed two of the pirates and arrested one other though most got away.[2]
On April 16, Mosquito, Gallinipper and USS Peacock, spotted a felucca off Colorados, Cuba. Peacock managed to capture the felucca though its crew fled to shore before scuttling three of their schooners.
Grampus rescued the crew of the American schooner Shiboleth after it was taken by pirates in June 1823. The brigands had boarded the merchantman silently, killed the guards, and then cornered the remainder of the crew within the ship. The pirates robbed the ship and set her on fire, Grampus arrived when Shiboleth was still burning and took off her surviving crew. A few days later, pirates attacked another merchant before being detected by the Spanish Army and captured. USS Ferret's crew skirmished with the brigands in June. During one incident, Ferret found a few pirate craft in shallow water off Matanzas. First Ferret attacked using her broadside guns and sank two of the boats which were fleeing along the coast. Due to the low depth, a boat was used to attack the remaining craft but when the Americans came within range, the pirates opened fire and shot a hole through their boat which returned to Ferret and sank. With their only boat destroyed, the Americans were forced to continue their patrol and the brigands got to shore. Later that day, Ferret commandeered a small vessel with a shallow draft and returned to where their boat was sunk, hoping to engage the pirates again but bad weather stopped the operation. The following morning the Americans encountered a British merchantman which gave them a boat. Again Ferret returned to Matanzas Bay but all that was there was the two sunken boats that she destroyed earlier.[2]
On July 5, 1823, USS Sea Gull, under the command of Lieutenant William H. Watson, with the barges Gallinipper and Mosquito, fought pirates off Matanzas, near where Lieutenant Allen was killed a year earlier. The three American vessels encountered a heavily armed schooner, with a crew of about seventy-five, near a Cuban village. The United States Navy attacked with their cannon and the schooner was hit so her captain began a retreat. When further hits struck the schooner, the pirates panicked and began to abandon ship by jumping into the water. The barges maneuvered in close to the schooner and the sailors and marines on board fired volleys into their fleeing enemy, shouting "Allen, Allen" in the process. Fifteen pirates made it ashore but were attacked by an American landing party. Eleven more were killed and the last four were captured by the Cuban villagers. In total about seventy pirates were killed while only five survived. On July 21, the commanders of Beagle and Greyhound were investigating Cape Cruz, Cuba in a boat when it was fired upon from the shore. The Americans withdrew to their ship and on the next morning they landed sailors and marines who attacked and destroyed a makeshift fort. The pirates evaded the American shore party but their base was dismantled and a few heavy artillery pieces were removed. USS Sea Gull, with Ralph Voorhees in command, recaptured the merchant schooner Pacification from pirates on March 30.[2]
1824–1825
A monument of Roberto Cofresi in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.
Throughout the history of the West Indies Squadron, tropical disease was common among the American warships which had to sail back to the United States when outbreaks occurred. By January 1824, most of the West Indies Squadron ships had been recalled, mainly because of illness though in February, the squadron under Commodore Porter, sailing in flagship USSFirefly, returned to operate for a few months before sailing north again in July. During this time, piracy in Puerto Rican waters began to briefly rise until mid-1825: between July and August, ten attacks on American merchant vessels were reported and only a few warships remained on station. By October the majority were back in home waters. Commodore Porter was relieved of duty in February 1825 and joined the Mexican Navy; this was after the Spanish authorities in Puerto Rico detained USS Peacock's commander Lieutenant Platt in October 1824. That month pirates raided Saint Thomas in the Danish Virgin Islands and returned to Fajardo with $5,000 worth of stolen merchandise from an American owned business. The stores owner requested that Lieutenant Platt help him recover his goods. Platt landed men in Fajardo on October 27. In order to not alert the pirates, the shore party wore civilian clothes and as a result, they were arrested by the Spanish Army and charged with piracy. Platt explained why he was out of uniform and later the Spanish allowed for one of his men to retrieve the lieutenant's uniform and commission. Upon seeing this, the Americans were released. When Commodore Porter heard of this he sailed to Fajardo with USS John Adams, Beagle and Grampus. There he landed a shore party on November 14 and demanded an apology from the Spanish. Eventually the Spaniards agreed to make a public apology so the expedition boarded their ships and sailed away. The United States government was not happy with Commodore Porter's actions and he was court martialed before resigning his commission. The American operation against West Indies pirates was declared a victory in 1825 though occasional outbreaks of piracy continued.[2]
In March 1825, Gallinipper was accompanied by the frigate HMSDartmouth and the schooners HMSLion and HMSUnion in an operation against Cuban pirates. United States Navy Lieutenant Isaac McKeever commanded and led an attack against a hostile schooner at the mouth of the Sagua la Grande. American and British forces took the ship, killed eight enemies and captured nineteen others, incurring only one man wounded. On the following day, another schooner was captured but the pirates escaped and the vessel was taken without bloodshed. El Mosquito, the ship of famed pirate Roberto Cofresí was disabled on March 5, by USS Grampus and two Spanish sloops off Boca del Infierno. With his crew scattered, the pirate captain fled inland, where a local by the name of Juan Garay recognized and ambushed him allowing the authorities to capture him. Cofresí was considered the last Caribbean pirate to be successful. After he was executed on March 29, 1825, piracy declined in the region for good. United States naval operations in the West Indies were eventually turned over to the Home Squadron and the Brazil Squadron by 1842.[2]
USS Grampus was a schooner in the United States Navy. She was the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for the Grampus griseus, also known as Risso's dolphin.
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.
USS Pickering was a topsail schooner in the United States Revenue Cutter Service and then the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France. She was named for Timothy Pickering, then the Secretary of State.
USS Nonsuch was a moderately successful privateer built in 1812 and then an armed schooner in the United States Navy during the War of 1812. She was sold for breaking up in 1826.
Diabolito or Little Devil was a 19th-century Cuban pirate. One of the more violent of the era, he engaged the United States Navy and Revenue Marine Service several times, being one of the main fugitives hunted and pursued later by American Naval forces during the West Indies anti-piracy operations of the United States in the Caribbean during the 1820s. He was also known for having a mixed-race crew, which included “English, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Mulattoes, and Negroes.”
USS Spitfire was the former Baltimore privateer Grampus that the United States Navy purchased. She was a heavily armed schooner built for service in the War of 1812, but did not see service until the Barbary Wars when she was sent with the American fleet to the Mediterranean to force an end to piracy of American ships.
HMS Spartan was a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate, launched at Rochester in 1806. During the Napoleonic Wars she was active in the Adriatic and in the Ionian Islands. She then moved to the American coast during the War of 1812, where she captured a number of small vessels, including a US Revenue Cutter and a privateer, the Dart. She then returned to the Mediterranean, where she remained for a few years. She went on to serve off the American coast again, and in the Caribbean, before being broken up in 1822.
USS Beagle was a schooner in the United States Navy during the 1820s. Beagle was purchased by the Navy on 20 December 1822 in Baltimore, Maryland, and commissioned early in 1823, Lieutenant John T. Newton in command.
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 Louisiana, was a wood hull topsail schooner designed by William Doughty that was commissioned in the United States Revenue Marine from 1819 to 1824. Assigned the homeport of New Orleans, Louisiana, she sailed the Caribbean extensively and was used mainly in anti-piracy activity.
The capture of the sloop Anne was the result of a naval campaign carried out by an alliance between the Spanish Empire forces in Puerto Rico, the Danish government in Saint Thomas and the United States Navy. The powers pursued Roberto Cofresí's pirate flotilla in March 1825 because of the economic losses suffered by the parties to the pirates, as well as diplomatic concerns caused by their use of the flags of Spain and Gran Colombia which menaced the fragile peace between the naval powers. Several of those involved had been attacked by the freebooters. Among the diplomatic concerns caused by Cofresí was a robbery carried out by several of his subordinates, the catalyst of an incident that threatened war between Spain and the United States known as "The Foxardo Affair", eventually leading to the resignation of his rival, pirate hunter David Porter.
The action of 9 November 1822 was a naval battle fought between the United States Navy schooner USS Alligator and a squadron of three pirate schooners off the coast of Cuba during the Navy's West Indies anti-piracy operation. Fifteen leagues from Matanzas, Cuba, a large band of pirates captured several vessels and held them for ransom. Upon hearing of the pirate attacks, Alligator under Lieutenant William Howard Allen rushed to the scene to rescue the vessels and seize the pirates.
The West Indies Squadron, or the West Indies Station, was a United States Navy squadron that operated in the West Indies in the early nineteenth century. It was formed due to the need to suppress piracy in the Caribbean Sea, the Antilles and the Gulf of Mexico region of the Atlantic Ocean. This unit later engaged in the Second Seminole War until being combined with the Home Squadron in 1842. From 1822 to 1826 the squadron was based out of Saint Thomas Island until the Pensacola Naval Yard was constructed.
The New Orleans Squadron or the New Orleans Station was a United States Navy squadron raised out of the growing threat the United Kingdom posed to Louisiana during the War of 1812. The first squadron consisted of over a dozen vessels and was mostly defeated during the war. Afterward, new ships were stationed at New Orleans which engaged in counter-piracy operations for over twenty years. The New Orleans Squadron was eventually merged with the Home Squadron.
The first USS Greyhound was a U.S. Navy, two-masted schooner in commission from 1822 to 1824.
Aegean Sea anti-piracy operations began in 1825 when the United States government dispatched a squadron of ships to suppress Greek piracy in the Aegean Sea. The Greek civil wars of 1824–1825 and the decline of the Hellenic Navy made the Aegean quickly become a haven for pirates who sometimes doubled as privateers.
The first USS Terrier was a United States Navy schooner in commission from 1823 to 1825. It was part of the West Indies squadron and served transporting U.S. sailors, marines and supplies to the pirate infested waters of the Caribbean and was used to search out and attack pirate ships and pirate strongholds.
USS Ferret was a two masted schooner, the third U.S. Navy vessel to bear this name, and was purchased 20 December 1822 at Baltimore, Maryland and commissioned early in 1823, with Lieutenant R. Henley in command. It was the first U.S. naval ship commanded by the famous naval hero David Farragut. Ferret served transporting U.S. sailors, marines and supplies to the pirate infested waters of the Caribbean and was used to search out and attack pirate ships and pirate strongholds for a little more than two years when her career was cut short when the vessel capsized in a gale force storm off the coast of Cuba.
USS Wildcat was a two masted schooner of 48 tons and was part of a U.S. naval fleet, and part of the West Indies Squadron, that sailed to the Caribbean to subdue the occurrence of pirate raids on merchant ships that had increased to almost 3,000 by the early 1820s. She was armed with three guns and had a crew of 31. Wildcat was commanded by Lieutenant Legare' who sailed her to Washington with a dispatch regarding the disposition of the squadron and other matters concerning the war against piracy in the Caribbean. On 28 October 1824 Wildcat was lost in a gale with all hands while sailing between Cuba and Thompson's Island, West Indies. Approximately 31 drowned.
HMS Speedwell was the mercantile Royal George, which the Royal Navy purchased in 1815 and converted to a 5-gun schooner. During her career in the West Indies, she helped capture or destroy a number of pirate vessels, and capture several slave ships transporting enslaved people. The Royal Navy sold her at Jamaica in 1834.
Wombwell, A. James (2010). The Long War Against Piracy: Historical Trends. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press. p.204. ISBN978-0-9823283-6-1., Book
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