Combat
Fajardo (Foxardo) Affair
Commodore David Porter's most controversial action, a punitive landing that ended his Navy career.
Foxardo, the small Puerto Rican port the Spanish called Fajardo, was a notorious haunt for receiving stolen goods, and when its authorities had earlier detained and insulted an American officer, Lieutenant Charles Platt, who came ashore to investigate a robbery, Porter resolved on redress. He brought the John Adams, Grampus, and Beagle to the harbor, landed a force of about 200 Marines and sailors, spiked the guns of a Spanish battery, and marched a flag-of-truce party to the town, extracting an apology from the local officials in little more than an hour, all without a shot fired in anger. The act was a flagrant violation of Spanish sovereignty. It provoked a diplomatic crisis, and Porter was court-martialed and soon resigned his commission. The affair marked the limits of unilateral American force against a neutral power.
Record no. 267