Combat· Aegean Anti-Piracy Campaign
USS Porpoise vs pirates off Andros
A sharp action in the busiest stretch of the Aegean campaign.
The schooner USS Porpoise engaged and defeated several pirate vessels off the island of Andros in the Cyclades, the Marines aboard adding their musketry and forming the boarding force. The fight came amid a concentrated burst of operations in which the American squadron worked through the islands, intercepting the small craft that the collapse of order during the Greek revolution had turned loose on the sea lanes. The action was bloodless on the American side. The Porpoise, working alongside the larger Warren, was one of the two ships carrying the brunt of the 1827 effort, and her engagement off Andros was typical of the campaign's character: quick, close-quarters actions against lightly armed pirate boats that could be overwhelmed by a disciplined warship's gunnery and a determined boarding party.
Record no. 290