Combat· West Indies Anti-Piracy Campaign
USS Sea Gull and barges vs pirate schooner off Cuba
Another of Porter's combined operations, and a notable one for the ship involved.
The Sea Gull, a small steam galliot, was among the first steam-powered vessels the U.S. Navy used in action, and her independence from the wind made her valuable for chasing pirates in the calms and shoals off Cuba. Working with the barges Gallinipper and Mosquito, she engaged a pirate schooner, the Marines aboard furnishing boarding and shipboard support. The action was bloodless. The use of a steamer alongside oared barges and sailing schooners shows how improvised and experimental Porter's Mosquito Fleet was, assembling whatever craft could operate in the inshore waters the pirates favored. The campaign off Cuba in 1823 was the proving ground for these methods, even as fever thinned the crews and made every cruise a gamble against disease as much as against the enemy.
Record no. 281