Nuku Hiva Campaign
Encyclopedia
The Nuku Hiva Campaign refers to an armed conflict between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the Polynesian
French Polynesia
French Polynesia is an overseas country of the French Republic . It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory...

 inhabitants of Nuku Hiva
Nuku Hiva
Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as Île Marchand and Madison Island....

 during the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 theater of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

. It occurred in 1813 and following Captain
Captain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....

 David Porter
David Porter (naval officer)
David Porter was an officer in the United States Navy in a rank of commodore and later the commander-in-chief of the Mexican Navy.-Life:...

's decision to sail his fleet to the island for repairs before continuing his raid
Commerce raiding
Commerce raiding or guerre de course is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt the logistics of an enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them.Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by...

 against British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 shipping. Upon arrival, the Americans became involved in a tribal war and allied themselves with the Te I'i
Te I'i
Te I‘i is a traditional province of Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas Islands. The province covers slightly more than the western two-thirds of the island...

 people against the Happah and Tai Pi
Tai Pi (province)
Tai Pi is a province of Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas Islands, an administrative subdivsion of French Polynesia. The settlement follows the line of the valley and the stream that passes from its mountainous island surroundings....

 clans.

Background

Operations in the Pacific began in early 1813 when Captain Porter entered the Pacific, via Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...

, in the thirty-two gun frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 USS Essex
USS Essex (1799)
The first USS Essex of the United States Navy was a 36-gun or 32-gun sailing frigate that participated in the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War, and in the War of 1812, during which she was captured by the British in 1814 and served as HMS Essex until sold at public auction on 6 June...

. Originally Porter was assigned to rendezvous with two other warships but both encountered enemy resistance before the meet and Porter went around the horn alone. The mission was to harass the British whaling industry off South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 and around the Galapagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...

. For months the Americans cruised the South Seas
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 and they captured
Action off James Island
The Action off James Island was a naval battle of the War of 1812. In May 1813 an American sloop-of-war captured three British privateers off James Island in the South Pacific...

 several enemy ships which were armed and placed under navy command. By October 1813, the Essex was in serious need of repairs so Porter decided to head for Nuku Hiva, an island in the Marquesas, fearing that a British squadron would find him if he chose to take refuge in a South American port. The American fleet that went to the Marquesas included eleven vessels. Other than the flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 USS Essex, there was the twenty-two gun corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

 Seringapatam, a former whaler
Whaler
A whaler is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching and/or processing of whales. The former included the whale catcher, a steam or diesel-driven vessel with a harpoon gun mounted at its bows. The latter included such vessels as the sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early...

 and privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

, the ship Barclay, a liberated American whaler, and the sloops-of-war Greenwich of ten guns, the Montezuma of eighteen guns and the Essex Junior
Essex Junior
The sloop Essex Junior, formerly the British whaler Atlantic, was captured by the frigate Essex, Captain David Porter, off the Galapagos Islands on 29 April 1813...

of sixteen guns. There were also five other vessels which classified as gun-brigs according to the rating system
Rating system of the Royal Navy
The rating system of the Royal Navy and its predecessors was used by the British Royal Navy between the beginning of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century to categorise sailing warships, initially classing them according to their assigned complement of men, and later according to the...

, the Hector of eleven guns, the Charlton of ten guns, the Sir Andrew Hammond of unknown armament and the Catherine and New Zealander, both of eight guns. In total, Captain Porter had just over 200 United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 officers and sailors, accompanied by a small detachment of no more than twenty marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

 under the command of Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 John M. Gamble
John M. Gamble
Lieutenant Colonel John Marshall Gamble was an officer in the United States Marine Corps during the early 19th century. He was the first, and remains the only, U.S. Marine to command a U.S...

. Additionally, many of the prisoners from the prize enemy ships were Americans and they volunteered for service, including some of the British captives. One of the sailors was the young midshipman
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...

 David Farragut
David Farragut
David Glasgow Farragut was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased: "Damn the...

, the first United States Navy admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

 in history, Porter's son David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter was a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States Navy. Promoted as the second man to the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G...

 being the second.

Founding of Madisonville

Porter arrived off Nuku Hiva, on October 25, 1813 and he renamed it Madison's Island after President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...

. Then Porter began making preparations to establish the first American naval base in the Pacific, as well as a small colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

, named Madisonville, to house the sailors. The small Fort Madison
Fort Madison, Nuku Hiva
Fort Madison, on Nuku Hiva, was the first naval base of the United States in the Pacific Ocean. It was built by Captain David Porter in October and November of 1813, during the Anglo-American War, for protecting the village of Madisonville from British and Marquesan attacks. The fortification was...

, of four guns, was also constructed on a hill next to Massachusetts Bay where an official flag raising ceremony took place on November 19, a seventeen gun salute was fired and some sort of message was buried in the ground for future Europeans to find, should they attempt to colonize the island after Porter's and his men left. The declaration stated that the Te I'is were subjects of the United States and that the latter had officially laid claim to the island which Porter hoped would become an important naval base. In this time the sailors also scraped the copper-bottom hull of the Essex and used smoke to drive out over 1,000 rats hiding in her works. The Americans described the native warriors as being tall and copper colored, with tattoos over their entire bodies. They wore loin cloths and some had capes made of tree bark; the warriors also carried large clubs or spears. The women were clothed in similar fashion to the men, mostly naked but very friendly to the sailors. A half-naked Englishman
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 named Wilson was found to be living on the island, and had been for many years. He was used as an interpreter for conversing with the native chiefs
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...

.

Downes Expedition

Nuku Hiva, at the time, was inhabited by many tribes of indigenous peoples, separated in villages by mountain peaks thousands of feet high. The area of land around Massachusetts Bay, which became the town of Madisonville, was controlled by Chief Gattanewa of the Te I'i and in return for rights to build the base, Gattanewa demanded that the Americans become his allies and help fight the war against the Happah. While the majority of the Americans were still building their settlement, Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 John Downes
John Downes (naval officer)
Commodore John Downes was an officer in the United States Navy, whose service covered the first half of the 19th century.-Early life and career:...

 and forty others with a cannon were ordered to proceed inland to an enemy held redoubt
Redoubt
A redoubt is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, though others are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldiers outside the main defensive line and can be a permanent structure or a...

, located high in the mountains. Several hundred Te I'i warriors accompanied Downes' expedition which left the coast in the first week of November. After a journey through the jungle Downes and his men found the fort occupied by 3,000 to 4,000 hostiles. An attack was made by the Te I'i and their American allies; during the fighting the lieutenant was hurt by a rock which hit him in the stomach. Another man was wounded by a spear, to the neck, but he apparently survived. The assault on the fort was successful though and Downes reported that five enemies were killed by his men and that the Te I'i massacred the wounded with clubs. Lieutenant Downes also said that he was very surprised that his allies did not eat the dead; instead they used their bones to make necklaces and fan handles. Over the next couple of days, the chiefs of the Happah arrived at the coast to settle a peace agreement. One of the stipulations required the Happah to fight alongside the Te I'i and Americans in another operation against the Tai Pi.

Porter Expedition

Not long after subduing the Happah, the Tai Pi declared war on the Te I'i, the Happah, and the Americans. Thus followed one of the most significant amphibious landings in the history of American operations in the Pacific during the 1800s. It was unopposed but Captain Porter's fleet, combined with around 5,000 friendly warriors, in at least 200 war-canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...

s, attacked the Tai Pi held coastline. After that, thirty-six officers and men with a cannon, personally commanded by Porter, led the expedition to a fortress with seven foot high walls. A battle began when the Tai Pis ambushed the column in the jungle near the fort. Porter wrote "We entered the bushes, and at every instant assailed by spears and stones, which came from different parties in the ambuscade. We could hear the snapping of the slings, the whistling of the stones, and the spears came quivering by us, but we could not percieve [sic] from whom they came." Skirmishing broke out and the expedition continued forward, encountering heavier resistance the farther they went. The column eventually made it to the fort where a pitched battle began that would last for hours. The Te I'is and Happahs provided the brunt of the attack while the Americans picked off enemy warriors with their muskets, the cannon was aimed at the fortifications. Thousands of Tai Pis occupied the heavily defended position and they managed to repel the attacks. Near the end of the engagement, the Te I'is and Happahs fled leaving the thirty-six Americans to fend for themselves and they were forced to retreat a little while later with a loss of one killed and two wounded. One of the casualties was Lieutenant Downes who suffered a badly broken leg. "We returned to the beach much fatigued and harassed with marching and fighting," said Porter, who then sailed back to Madisonville.

Battle of Typee Valley

Once word spread that Porter and his allies had been defeated, the Te I'i and the Happah warriors began to turn on the Americans which led them to fear that Madisonville would be overrun and the inhabitants massacred. Porter wrote; "I had now no alternative, but to prove our superiority by a successful attack upon the Typees." Porter organized and led most of his men on a second mission into enemy territory, this time overland to Typee Valley and with limited assistance from the Te I'i. The valley is a dense nine miles across by three miles and was the heartland of the Tai Pi where their villages were located and where they harvested coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

 and breadfruit
Breadfruit
Breadfruit is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry family, Moraceae, growing throughout Southeast Asia and most Pacific Ocean islands...

. By making a detour to avoid the heavily defended fort near the coast, Porter could make a surprise attack and use terrain and his superior weapons to their advantage. During one night the column marched to the top of a ridge overlooking the valley but because the Americans were exhausted from a long march, Porter decided to wait until the next morning to attack. The following day was rainy and windy according to reports, moisture had temporarily ruined the gunpowder, so the expedition spent another day resting and waiting for the powder to dry. Finally on November 30, the expedition launched their attack and soon after the Americans and Te I'is found themselves in another ambush which they fought off. After that Captain Porter sent the Tai Pi leaders a message advising them to cease hostilities at once or else their villages would be burned. The captain waited for some time and when it became apparent that the message had been ignored, the advance was continued. American forces and the Te I'is eventually won the day when night came and the enemy disengaged. There were no American casualties

Porter claimed he took no pleasure in conquering a "happy and heroic people" and he described the aftermath of the battle as "a scene of desolation and horror". The captain also wrote that he left behind a "line of smoking ruins" when he started the return march to Madisonville. Tai Pi emissaries were not far behind and they brought the Americans "countless" hogs as a peace offering. A British magazine later said that Porter was guilty of "wantonly murdering unoffending savages" to which the captain replied; "Many may censure my conduct as wanton and unjust.... But let such reflect on our peculiar situation--a handful of men residing among numerous war-like tribes, liable every moment to be attacked by them and all cut off; our only hopes on safety was in convincing them of our great superiority over them and from what we have already seen, we must either attack them or be attacked.... Wars are not always just, and are rarely free from excesses--my conscience acquits me of any injustice, and no excesses were committed but what the Typees had in their power to stop by ceasing hostilities."

Seringapatam Mutiny

By December 9 of 1813, the USS Essex was repaired and ready for sailing. The sailors were not happy about leaving their Marquesan girlfriends and Porter had to suppress one mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...

 by declaring that he "would at once put a match to the magazine, and blow them all to eternity." One man jumped ship but the rest remained loyal so the Essex made sail on December 9, 1813 to continue raiding. Most of the fleet went though the Sir Andrew Hammond, the Seringapatam and two other vessels remained at Nuku Hiva with Lieutenant John Gamble two midshipman, nineteen sailors and six prisoners, including British nationals. The situation was quiet until springtime when on May 7 of 1814, the British sailors among the garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....

 mutinied. First they released the six prisoners and then attacked Fort Madison before taking over the Seringapatam and getting away. Gamble was wounded in the foot and he was left adrift in a small boat with four others but they eventually made it to the Sir Andrew Hammond. Meanwhile the British interpreter Wilson was arousing trouble with the Te I'i by telling them that Porter would not come back. A few days later on May 9, six of the American sailors were attacked on the beach by the Te I'i, a sixteen-year-old midshipman was killed along with four sailors and two others escaped, one of whom was wounded. At the same time, Gamble was alone on his ship, recovering from his wounded foot, when two war-canoes approached for an attack. The cannon of the ship were pre-loaded so single handedly Gamble limped from gun to gun, firing them as fast as possible, until the enemy fell back. On the next morning the order was given to evacuate Madisonville, there being only eight men left on shore and all were either wounded or ill. Thus ended the existence of America's first naval base and colony in the Pacific Ocean. Captain Porter never returned to the island due to his capture by the British at the Battle of Valparaiso on March 28, 1814.

See also

  • Fort Astoria
    Fort Astoria
    Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...

  • First Sumatran Expedition
  • Second Sumatran Expedition
    Second Sumatran Expedition
    The Second Sumatran Expedition was a punitive expedition by the United States Navy against inhabitants of the island of Sumatra. After Malay warriors or pirates had massacred the crew of the American merchant ship Eclipse, an expedition of two American warships landed a force that defeated the...

  • First Fiji Expedition
    First Fiji Expedition
    The First Fiji Expedition undertaken by the United States Navy occurred in October 1855 during the civil war on the islands. In response to the alleged arson attacks on the American commercial agent in Lautoka, Viti Levu, the navy sent a warship to demand compensation for the attack from King Seru...

  • Second Fiji Expedition
    Second Fiji Expedition
    The Second Fiji Expedition was an 1858 United States Navy operation against the native warriors of Seru Epenisa Cakobau on the island of Waya in Fiji...

  • Formosan Expedition
    Formosan Expedition
    The Formosa Expedition, or the Taiwan Expedition of 1867 was a punitive expedition launched by the United States against Formosa. The expedition was undertaken in retaliation for the destruction of the Rover, an American bark which had been wrecked and massacred by native warriors in March 1867...

  • Nukapu Expedition
    Nukapu Expedition
    The Nukapu Expedition occurred between October of 1871 and February of 1872 and was a British punitive operation in response to the murder of Bishop John Coleridge Patteson by the natives of Nukapu...

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