Combat· West Indies Anti-Piracy Campaign
USS Peacock and barges land east of Havana
A textbook example of Commodore David Porter's new way of fighting the pirates.
Porter understood that the raiders sheltered in shoal water and along the shore where a deep-draft sloop could not follow, so he paired the sloop USS Peacock with his shallow-draft "Mosquito Fleet" barges, the Gallinipper and Mosquito. East of Havana, Marines and seamen from the three vessels landed to pursue pirates ashore, taking the fight onto the beach and into the inlets the raiders had thought safe. The operation was bloodless. It showed the doctrine that defined Porter's command: combine regular warships with oared barges that could chase pirates into the creeks and mangroves, then put landing parties of Marines and sailors ashore to break up the camps. This blending of blue-water and inshore operations was a forerunner of later Marine amphibious practice.
Record no. 279