Below is the historical genesis of The Decatur Armada and noted
by TDA Historian Lieutenant ObiQuiet
Historical Background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embargo_Act_of_1807
Robert J. Allison. Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero, 1779-1820, p. 100: (screenshot included at the end of this document)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Decatur#Command_of_USS_Chesapeake
The following story takes place after the events of the section titled “Command of USS Chesapeake” in the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Decatur#Command_of_USS_Chesapeake
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The Battle of Block Island (1808) and the Decatur Armada
During the late summer and fall of 1808, Decatur took the Chesapeake on patrol along the coast of New England, from Long Island and north to Boston and Gloucester.
Without a strong personal commitment to Jefferson’s embargo policy, and with only the Chesapeake and a squadron of gunboats at his disposal, Decatur approached his enforcement task with a light hand. (Robert J. Allison. Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero, 1779-1820, p. 100) (cited page reproduced at the end of this document)
Molly’s Bad Day
Early on Saturday, August 27th, 1808, the Chesapeake intercepted the American merchant brig Molly. After a perfunctory inspection of her cargo, Decatur sent the Molly and her captain John Samuel back into New London with an admonishment to honor the embargo. The Chesapeake then continued north toward Charlestown, Rhode Island.
Later that evening as the Molly approached Fisher’s Island, she was seen and run down by the HMS Pomone, captained by William Lobb, who had intended to take up station behind the island to harass merchant ships leaving New London. With intimidation and promises of prize money should they join the Royal Navy and fight the French, Lobb took three of the Molly’s seamen before continuing south into Long Island Sound. The Americans saw these forced “board & recruit” techniques as merely one step short of impressment, especially with an outbreak of war with Britain likely in the near future.
Duncan’s Ruse and the Merchant Armada
The next day, news of the Molly’s treatment by both Decatur and Lobb spread quickly among the New London merchants. Three of the leading shipowners (Robert Duncan, James Ellsworth, and Edwin Holt) discussed the matter over Sunday dinner. While equally outraged by the embargo and by the British interference with their crews, the ship owners determined that they would rather be subject to Decatur’s patrols than to British capture and the threat of war. Ellsworth, facetiously and probably half-drunk, exclaimed “If only we could give Decatur an armada to drive the Brits off our shores!!”. After much discussion, the men decided that they might at least be able to drive the Pomone into Decatur’s hands with a ruse. (Later reports credit Robert Duncan as the chief advocate of the plan.)
Enlisting the help and patriotic spirit of their captains, the shipowners contrived to have four disguised merchant ships sail in a line formation with signals flying as a fake blockade patrol between the tip of Long Island and the southern end of Block Island. The ruse depended on Lobb making an error and choosing to take the northern route around Block Island (where the Chesapeake was cruising) rather than the more direct route straight out to the Atlantic.
The 1808 Battle of Block Island
Captain Lobb knew that Decatur was in the area and as he did not want Pomone to be trapped within Long Island Sound -- he naturally approached the passage carefully.
As hoped for by Duncan and the others, Captain Lobb did indeed see the merchant fleet in the distance and mistook it for a newly-arrived American naval squadron intending to enforce the embargo. Nervous about being inshore of such a squadron, Lobb chose to escape to the north before being seen. Lobb set course to pass just north of Block Island.
Forewarned of Lobb’s presence and of the planned “blockade” by the merchant’s ships, Decatur kept the Chesapeake hidden in the bay to the west of Block Island, judging a close rounding of the island to be Lobb’s most likely route.
As soon as Pomone could be seen rounding the northern bluffs of Block Island, Decatur brought Chesapeake out from the bay. Captain Lobb (who had his own impressive record of enemy captures in Europe) immediately engaged Decatur, and the two ships exchanged gunfire for over two hours. Ultimately, the Chesapeake gained the upper hand with a rolling broadside to the enemy’s forward quarter, which shattered the Pomone’s bowsprit, tore down the foremast topsails and bound the fore courses in debris. With little steerage way, HMS Pomone struck her colors.
Pomone was later taken into the US Navy as the USS Mohegan. Humiliated by the event but still a proud man, Captain William Lobb was eventually exchanged back to Britain. But not before seeing the squadron of “merchant warships” he had avoided so carefully come alongside the battered Chesapeake to soothe the navy sailors with wine, bandages, and care for their wounds.
Decatur, who had in 1807 served on the court-martial of Captain James Barron over Barron’s “unpreparedness” and “questionable handling” of the very same USS Chesapeake in the Chesapeake vs. Leopard affair, had every vested interest in meeting the Pomone with a decisive blow. Decatur’s victory at Block Island became yet another source of animosity between the two men, eventually leading to their duel and Decatur’s death in 1820.
Stephen Decatur may also have had in mind the “ill-conducted” Revolutionary War battle at Block Island (1776), where the continental fleet embarrassingly failed to capture the Glasgow.
In reporting the battle American newspapers embellished the scale of combat between the two ships, giving it the title “The Armada Battle of Block Island”. Justifiably, however, the press made a heyday of both Decatur’s victory and of Duncan’s ruse which had made it possible. “Join Decatur’s Armada!” became the rallying cry of American merchant seamen in their support of the US Navy against the British throughout the period and into the War of 1812.
Over time the phrase “Decatur’s Armada” came to represent any co-operation or joint effort between American merchant and naval fleets up to and including twentieth-century US Navy recruiting posters (last attached file) and the Atlantic convoys of World War II.
Upon repealing the Embargo Act in March 1809, President Jefferson reportedly made a conciliatory statement: “May this brother-on-brother embargo be no more, and let our Armada protect our country’s commerce, our shores and our men forever-more.”
The significance of Decatur’s victory in unifying public opinion in the maritime states towards the US Navy and against Britain cannot be understated. Not only did Decatur simultaneously reverse two national embarrassments (the 1776 battle and Barron’s poor command of the Chesapeake), but as retaliation for Captain Lobb’s “impressment” of American sailors from the Molly, the “Armada Battle of Block Island” became one of the contributing events leading to escalating tensions and the declaration of war with Britain in 1812.
Scroll down for reference Image, screenshot from Robert J. Allison. Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero, 1779-1820, p. 100:
Sir, if you or Admiral Caldwell would care to rewrite the SLVF entry so that it reads exactly as you would like it I will see that it is quickly updated.
