A small and now-forgotten
punitive expedition in 1848 showed just how effectively the Royal Navy could
function as Britain’s 19th Century rapid-reaction force.
In the turmoil
that followed ending of Spanish rule in Central America in the 1820s, what was
later to emerge – in 1838 – as the independent Republic of Nicaragua was
initially a province of the so-called Federal Republic of Central America. The
young republic’s first decade, the 1840s, was to be marked by civil strife that
bordered on near-anarchy. The country was however a backwater in these years –
something which was to change after the discovery of gold in California in
1849. As the US Transcontinental Railroad had not been built, and would not be
for another two decades, citizens in the eastern United States had only four options
for joining the gold rush. The most obvious, and probably most hazardous, was
to travel westwards overland. The alternatives were little more attractive – either
passage by ship around Cape Horn or by taking ship to Panama, crossing the
fever-ridden isthmus there (no railway or canal there yet) and taking further
passage onward to San Francisco. The fourth alternative was to travel via
Nicaragua, passing up the San Juan river from the east and into Lake Nicaragua,
and making the short – 15 mile – overland journey to the Pacific from there and
taking ship to San Francisco. Control of this route, and involvement of United States
interests, most notably those of the shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, were
to dominate Nicaraguan politics through the 1850s and to make the country the focus
of attempts at outside control.
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| A later, promotional, view of the proposed Nicaragua canal (at left) which would have linked Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific. Note the San Juan River to the right and the Serapaqui entering it from the south |
All this was
still however in the future in 1848 and Nicaraguan conflicts were still
dominated by internal strife. The situation changed however when two British
traders, operating along the San Juan river, were subjected to “outrages and insults”
by a local warlord, a Colonel Salas, of the Nicaraguan army. This was the
age when any affront to British dignity was to be followed by swift
retaliation, and so it was to be in this case.
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| Francis Austen in 1796 |
The nearest British consul
contacted the Commander-in-chief on the North America and West India station — Admiral
Francis Austen (1774-1865), brother of the novelist Jane Austen – and requested
appropriate support. Austen’s attention was already focussed on Central America
as he was responsible for protecting British commercial interests during and
after the Mexican–American War, which had broken out in 1846.
Austen accordingly despatched two vessels, the 6th-rate
HMS Alarm and the steam paddle-sloop HMS
Vixen, to the mouth of the San Juan
in mid-February. Their quarry, Colonel Salas, was reported to be some thirty
miles upriver at the settlement of Serapaquí, where he was ensconced with a considerable body of troops in a makeshift fort. This was located where
the Serapaquí river joined the San Juan from the south and on a point
projecting into the water and rising to the height of fifty feet. The approach
upriver to the fort was a straight reach about a mile and a half long, with
thick forest on either bank, ideal cover for concealing enemy defenders.
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| Paddle-loop HMS Acheron - generally similar to HMS Vixen |
The fort’s
location was protected in the rear by dense forest, and in the front by an abattis, a form of defence that
consisted of large trees felled so that their upper branches extended towards
any attacking force. The defensive positions were formidable, composed of six
angular stockaded-entrenchments formed of very tough timber, eight feet high
and four feet thick, one side of each stockade looking across the river, and
the other down the reach. The principal stockade commanded the only
landing-place. Reaching this landing place necessitated passing the fort –
while coping with a five-knot adverse current – and being subject in the meantime
to fire from above.
Though Alarm and Vixen were heavily armed for their size, and probably well capable
of destroying the fort if they could reach it, the shallowness and rapids of the
San Juan river prevented their deployment. The only alternative was to send an attacking
party of seamen and marines upriver in the ships’ boats and to storm the defences
without any heavy covering fire. A force of some 260 men from both vessels, and
accommodated in twelve boats, set out accordingly under the command of Captain
Granville Loch of the Alarm.
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| A settlement on the San Juan |
It took three
days to cover the thirty miles upriver, the rapid current, shoals and rapids
making progress difficult and exhausting in the extreme. By the morning of 12th
February the fort was in sight and Captain Loch went on ahead of the main to
communicate with Colonel Salas, and to negotiate a settlement. No sooner,
however, was Loch seen from the fort than his craft was fired at by two guns,
and directly afterwards by musketry from both sides of the river. As this act
effectually prevented any peaceable arrangements, Loch immediately ordered his other
boats to move upriver and land his force to storm the fort. Moving very slowly –
under oars – against the fierce current, the boats and their occupants were
subjected to musket fire from the forest on either side. The thickness of the vegetation
made it impossible to see the enemy and to return fire.
During this slow crawl several men were wounded and two
killed. The boats were also almost riddled with shot, and nearly half the oars
were broken – it seems surprising, considering also their crowded state, with
the mill-stream rate of the current, that a greater number of casualties did
not occur. This can only have been a reflection on the competence and marksmanship
of the Nicaraguan troops. This last stage of the approach lasted one hour and
forty minutes and at times the boats were almost stationary against the current.
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| The Cutlass - the Royal Navy's fearsome close-range weapon |
The landing point was at last reached and Captain Loch gave
the order to land, leading the way himself. The boats’ crews followed and charged
upwards. Their sheer determination seems to have intimidated the enemy –
fighting was all but hand-to-hand and cutlasses and pistols proved devastating,
as so often, in the hands of well-trained and well-disciplined men. The Nicaraguans
withstood the assault for some ten minutes but they then broke and fled. Loch’s
force pursued them into the forest for some thirty minutes before being
recalled. Colonel Salas appears to have disappeared with his men. With a
counter-attack unlikely, attention was now focussed on destroying the
stockades. Their guns were spiked, their trunnions broken and thrown in the river
with the Nicaraguan garrison’s abandoned muskets and ammunition. The force was
next embarked, when the whole of the defences were set on fire. Whatever could
be burned was set alight. Loch’s force then dropped back downriver.
British honour had been avenged, British power asserted.
Britannia’s Wolf is available as an audio book
– listen to a sample
To listen to as sample go to the links below and click on the small arrow beneath the cover image there:
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