‘Immediate redress’: USS Potomac and the pirates of Quallah Batoo

Abstract

Maritime interests in the twenty-first century are not immune to the growing number of irregular challenges and hybrid threats that have come to dominate land warfare. In order to better understand these challenges a study of naval history can help provide a vital foundation. In the early 1830s the United States Navy dispatched the frigate USS Potomac to Sumatra to investigate a pirate attack on the spice trader Friendship. Potomac's crew of sailors and Marines conducted a landing at the village Quallah Batoo and fought a pitched battle. As the navies of the world approach naval irregular warfare in the new century, studying past examples like Potomac's mission can help illuminate the principles of successful naval irregular warfare.

Keywords:

• piracy
• irregular warfare
• Quallah Batoo
• naval warfare
• amphibious operations
• Navy
• Marine Corps

Notes

 1. Martin, ‘The Magellan Star’.

 2. Endicott, ‘Narrative’, 17.

 3. Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 9.

 4. Endicott, ‘Narrative’, 19.

 5. Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 90.

 6. Statement of Captain Endicott, in American State Papers: Naval Affairs , Vol. 3 (Am. St. P.: Nav. 3), 155.

 7. Excerpt of Friendship Log Book, 7 February 1831 in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 154.

 8. Excerpt of Friendship Log Book, 7 February 1831 and Statement of Captain Endicott in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 154–5.

 9. Statement of Captain Endicott, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 155.

10. Excerpt of Friendship Log Book in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 154.

11. Endicott, ‘Narrative’, 24–5.

12. Statement of Captain Endicott, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 155.

13. Endicott, ‘Narrative’, 30.

14. Levi Woodbury to Nathaniel Silsbee, Dudley S. Peckman, and Robert Stone, 25 July 1831 in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 152.

15. For discussion of economic opportunity, see Hodge and Nolan, US Presidents and Foreign Policy, 69. For Jackson's assessment of the ‘pirates’, see Andrew Jackson, Third Annual Message, 6 December 1831, in Richardson, Messages of General Andrew Jackson, 137. Characterization of Jackson's naval policy in Hagan, This People's Navy, 102.

16. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships , available at www.history.navy.mil/. For further discussion of Jacksonian and Jeffersonian naval policy, see Sprout and Sprout, The Rise of American Naval Power.

17. Levi Woodbury to John Downes, 27 June 1831 in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 150.

18. Levi Woodbury to John Downes, 27 June 1831 in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 151.

19. ‘Character and Condition of the population and country at Quallah Batoo, in the Island of Sumatra’, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156.

20. Levi Woodbury to John Downes, 9 August 1831, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 153.

21. Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 12.

22. Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 61–2.

23. Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 62–3.

24. Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 65. Medical report from J.M. Foltz, ‘Medical Statistics of the Crew of the Frigate Potomac, during a voyage round the world,’ Washington, DC, 1835, in Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 539.

25. Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 65, 67.

26. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 17 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156. Details of changes to Potomac in Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 104.

27. Levi Woodbury to John Downes, 9 August 1831, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 153. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 17 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156. Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 77.

28. Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 78. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 17 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156.

29. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 17 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156.

30. Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 81.

31. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 17 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156.

32. Irvine Shubrick to John Downes, 6 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 157.

33. Irvine Shubrick to John Downes, 6 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 157

34. Irvine Shubrick to John Downes, 6 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 157

35. Irvine Shubrick to John Downes, 6 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 157

36. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 17 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156.

37. Irvine Shubrick to John Downes, 6 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 157.

38. J.M. Foltz, ‘Medical Statistics of the Crew of the Frigate Potomac, during a voyage round the world,’ Washington DC, 1835, in Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 539. Irvine Shubrick to John Downes, 6 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 158.

39. Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 111–12.

40. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 17 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156.

41. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 17 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 156.

42. Meacham, American Lion, 215–16.

43. Andrew Jackson, Fourth Annual Message, 4 December 1832 in Richardson, Messages of General Andrew Jackson, 176. Discussion of Downes's late career in Boot, The Savage Wars of Peace, 48, as well as Meacham, American Lion, 215. One of Downes's mentors, Commodore David Porter, was court-martialed during operations against pirates in the West Indies where he commanded the counter-piracy operations in the 1820s. See Hagan, This People's Navy, 98, 103. Other notable senior naval officers, including Captain Jesse Elliot, Captain James Barron, and Captain Charles Gordon were also court-martialed during their careers, while others including Captain Stephen Decatur and Captain William Bainbridge were the subjects of Courts of Inquiry.

44. The Army and Navy Chronicle , Vol. 8, No. 23 (6 June 1839).

45. Mahan, Naval Strategy, 5.

46. Mahan, The Life of Nelson, 230–2.

47. Mahan, Admiral Farragut, 64–5.

48. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power, vii.

49. Mahan, Armaments and Arbitration, 206.

50. For an excellent discussion of the relationship between Congressional politics and Naval policy, see Symonds, Navalists and Anti-Navalists; also see Sprout and Sprout, The Rise of American Naval Power, 86–108, for discussion of the post 1812 and Jacksonian Navy.

51. Endicott, American State Papers, 155; Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 11; and Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 122.

52. John Downes to Levi Woodbury, 13 February 1833, in Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 117.

53. Waterhouse and Smith, Marines in the Frigate Navy.

54. Irvine Shubrick to John Downes, 6 February 1832, in Am. St. P.: Nav. 3, 157.

55. Warriner, Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac, 112; and Reynolds, Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, 123.

56. Martin, ‘The Magellan Star’.

57. Mahan, Armaments and Arbitration, 206.

58. The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense, the US Navy, or any other agency.