Security· Central America Operations
USS Cyane Marines ashore at San Juan del Norte
Another of the recurring protective landings at the troubled Atlantic end of the Nicaraguan transit route.
In March 1853 the Marine guard of the sloop USS Cyane went ashore at San Juan del Norte, Greytown, to protect American lives and commercial interests during the continuing instability there. The transit route across Nicaragua, carrying a stream of travelers between the American coasts, made Greytown a point of constant American concern, and the squadron put guards ashore whenever local disorder threatened the trade or the residents. The landing was brief and precautionary, and no fighting or casualties resulted. It was one in a string of such visits by American warships to the port through the early 1850s, the routine protective face of an American involvement at Greytown that would turn violent the following year when the Cyane herself, on a later occasion, bombarded the town in reprisal.
Record no. 382