United States Navy and
U.S. Revenue Marine cutter ships had operated against piracy and the
slave trade in the Caribbean and
Gulf of Mexico for several years prior to 1822 when a permanent squadron was formed. After a September 1821 attack by pirates, in which three American merchant ships were captured,
Congress authorized
Commodore James Biddle to deploy a fleet to the Caribbean. This force consisted of two
frigates, and , two
corvettes, and , two
sloops-of-war, and , two
brigs, and , the
schooners , , and . Gun schooners from the revenue marine
USRC Alabama and
USRC Louisiana, as well as two other revenue marine
gunboats, and , also participated with a total of over 1,500 personnel. Before the fleet was sent, only single ship operations had been undertaken. Over the course of a few decades the American West Indies Squadron continually engaged
Spanish,
Venezuelan,
Cuban and
Puerto Rican pirates. Many of the actions ended with the sinking or capturing of pirate vessels though often the outlaws escaped to shore.
1817–1821 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 occurred back in 1793 when 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 cutter ships
USRC Alabama and
USRC Louisiana as well as 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."
Navy engagements The first American Navy vessels to serve against West Indies piracy were the schooners USS
Enterprise, and 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
President James Monroe sent Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry to Venezuela with the frigate , 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
filibuster Louis-Michel Aury to evacuate his base at
Amelia Island,
Florida. Later,
John Adams was
flagship of Commodore Biddle's squadron. 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
Governor Captain General Don Nicholas 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 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 was escorting a one-gun merchant sloop
Eliza when attacked by a five-gun pirate felucca named
Firme Union. During the
ensuing engagement, the British boarded and captured the pirate ship. Ten pirates were killed and the rest abandoned ship and escaped. On November 2, 1822, along with USS
Peacock and the Royal Navy schooner 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 Navy Smith Thompson authorized Commodore Porter to procure new vessels for the squadron. 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 , , , , , , , and the . The storeship was and the steamer became . 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. 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 of eighteen guns defeated the pirate
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, and ,
liberated an American merchant vessel on April 8. The navy sailors killed two of the pirates and arrested one other though most got away. 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
Ferrets 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. 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.
1824–1825 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 , 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
Peacocks 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. In March 1825,
Gallinipper was accompanied by the frigate and the schooners and 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. ==See also==