Combat· West Indies Anti-Piracy Campaign
USS Grampus vs pirate brig Palmyra
One of the sharper fights of the campaign, against an unusually well-armed opponent.
Most pirates ran rather than fight a warship, but the brig Palmyra, also called the Pancheta, was a substantial armed vessel sailing under a Puerto Rican privateering commission of doubtful validity, and the USS Grampus brought her to action off the coast. After an exchange of fire in which the Grampus's Marines added their musketry, the Palmyra was beaten and taken. The engagement stood out because it was a genuine ship-to-ship fight rather than the usual one-sided capture, reflecting the way some pirate and privateer operations had grown bold enough to deploy brigs that could trade broadsides. The capture was a notable success, though the legal status of the prize, privateer or pirate, was exactly the kind of question that bedeviled the whole campaign.
Record no. 276