|
The Action of 3 February 1812 was an unusual minor naval engagement off the western coast of Haiti between a British frigate and a large pirate ship manned by a loose collation of Haitian rebels. The battle was fought against the background of the Napoleonic Wars and the collapse of government in Haiti in the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution eight years earlier. After the French had been expelled from Haiti in 1804, the newly independent nation was first ruled by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who was murdered in 1806 and replaced by two of his advisors, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Pétion. These rulers divided the country between them and in the confused political situation that followed a number of minor fiefdoms appeared, including one led by Jérôme Maximilien Borgella in the south of the island called the Sud Department. The small Haitian Navy defected to Borgella, who crewed the vessels with a collection of sailors from various countries, led by a notorious privateer named Gaspard. Stationed off Haiti was the British frigate HMS ''Southampton'' under Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo, tasked with observing the political situation but with orders not to interfere in the intermittent conflict between Christophe and Pétion. Yeo's orders did not include Borgella's ships and Yeo reasoned that the Haitian flagship, the large frigate ''Heureuse Réunion'' (recently renamed from ''Améthyste'' and often reported under its former name), presented a serious threat to international trade in the region. Sailing to intercept the Haitian ship, Yeo discovered her in the Gulf of Léogane and ordered Gaspard to surrender. The Haitian refused, and the frigates exchanged shots at 06:30. The superior seamanship and discipline on ''Southampton'' prevented Gaspard from boarding the British ship with his greater numbers and within half an hour ''Heureuse Réunion'' was dismasted and battered. At 07:45 the Haitian ship surrendered, Yeo depositing the crew ashore and bringing ''Heureuse Réunion'' to Port Royal, Jamaica. At Jamaica, his actions were approved by his superiors and ''Heureuse Réunion'', renamed ''Améthyste'', was returned to Henri Christophe. ==Background== During the Napoleonic Wars, the Caribbean Sea was initially an important theatre of naval conflict, as ships operating from the various French, British, Spanish and Dutch colonies preyed on enemy trade. During 1809 and 1810 however, the Royal Navy launched a series of co-ordinated amphibious operations that eliminated the French and Dutch colonies and brought the conflict in the Caribbean to an end.〔 With the threat of attacks on British trade in the region significantly reduced, the Royal Navy correspondingly reduced their presence in the Caribbean and the remaining British ships were distributed to observe trouble spots in the region, which in 1812 included the independent nation of Haiti.〔Gardiner, p. 80〕 Haiti had won its independence from France in 1804, the first Caribbean nation to do so. The Haitians had fought a lengthy and bloody war against the French known as the Haitian Revolution, in which armies of former slaves led by Toussaint Louverture and then Jean-Jacques Dessalines succeeded in driving the French into their fortified ports and then systematically eliminating their enclaves.〔Chandler, p. 191〕 With the start of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803, French reinforcements for the garrison on Haiti were delayed and intercepted by the British Royal Navy, who blockaded the island and took the surrenders of the last garrisons in 1804, removing them and their dependents to prevent a massacre.〔James, Vol. 4, p. 209〕 Dessalines rapidly established himself as monarch of Haiti, but his reign was cut short in 1806 when his closest advisors, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Pétion organised his assassination. Assuming control of Haiti, Christophe laid claim to the northern part of the country and Pétion the south, the two sides waging a constant low-level civil war during the next decade.〔Woodman, p. 244〕 Many minor rulers sprang up during this period, especially in the south, where Pétion gave parcels of land for his followers to establish their own private fiefdoms. One such warlord was Jérôme Maximilien Borgella, who took over command of a small state in the region of Léogane following the death of its ruler, André Rigaud.〔 In early 1809, the French sent a number of reinforcement convoys to their blockaded colonies in the hope of strengthening the garrisons before the British invasions began. Many ships, including four frigates, were lost in these missions and few reached their destinations successfully. Among these failed attempts was Troude's expedition to the Caribbean, which arrived in April 1809 at the Îles des Saintes. Finding that Guadeloupe was the only surviving colony, Amable Troude intended to anchor at Basse-Terre and unload his supplies, but was blockaded in the Îles des Saintes by a British squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane.〔Gardiner, p. 79〕 Attempting to break out on 14 April, Troude led his main squadron northwest towards Puerto Rico while two ''en flûte'' frigates slipped out northeast to Basse-Terre, arriving safely. Troude's squadron was defeated on 17 April, but the frigates ''Félicité'' and ''Furieuse'' remained at Basse-Terre until 14 June, when they attempted to break out and return to France, laden with trade goods. The British blockade squadron were soon in pursuit and on 18 June the frigate HMS ''Latona'' captured ''Félicité'' without a fight.〔James, Vol. 5, p. 165〕 ''Furieuse'' was captured a month later in the North Atlantic. ''Félicité'' was 24 years old and was therefore considered too antiquated for commissioning in the Royal Navy; instead she was sold to Henri Christophe to form the nucleus of the new Haitian Navy under the name ''Améthyste''.〔Clowes, p. 500〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Action of 3 February 1812」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|