| The
Invincible, back from its piracy hearing in New
Orleans, was assigned to carry General Santa Anna back
to Mexico; the general had been a prisoner of war since
his defeat in the battle of San Jacinto. In an exciting
incident, the Invincible was intercepted by another
Texas vessel, the steamship Ocean, and prevented
from carrying out its mission by army officers who disagreed
with the treaty that ended the fighting. (Santa Anna eventually
made it home via Washington, D.C.)
The Mexican government did
not accept Santa Anna's treaty any more readily than the
Texans. President Burnet ordered the Brutus and
the Invincible to blockade Matamoros and prevent
the Mexicans from renewing the war by receiving supplies
and moving troops by sea. But soon the deteriorating ships
had to leave Texas to be refitted and repaired, and the
Texas coast once again become subject to a Mexican blockade.
In April 1837, the Independence
returned from New Orleans, where it encountered two Mexican
blockaders within view of the Texas seaport of Velasco.
After a six-hour battle, the Independence was
forced to surrender and was taken as a prize by the Mexicans.
The prisoners later escaped, but the Independence
was now in the service of the Mexican navy.
Commodore Henry Thompson
details his eventful cruise, August 1837
|
Letter releasing the
captured Eliza Russell, August 1837
|
District court decree
on the prize ship Correo de Tabasco, September
1837
|
Determined to do something
about the Mexican blockade, in June 1837 Secretary of
War S. Rhodes Fisher and his commodore, Henry L. Thompson,
left Texas on a cruise with the two remaining vessels,
the Invincible and the Brutus. In doing
so, they were in defiance of the wishes of President Sam
Houston. The cruise became quite an adventure. Over the
next several months, the ships bombarded the town of Sisal,
took and lost several prizes, claimed possession of several
Mexican islands, including Cozumel, and captured the British
merchantman Eliza Russell and sent the vessel
to Galveston as a prize. Upon returning to Galveston,
the ships did battle with two Mexican brigs that were
hunting a Texas merchantman. Both ships ran aground in
Galveston Harbor and were wrecked by storms before they
could be salvaged.
President Houston was furious
at Fisher, and the secretary was forced to resign. Commodore
Thompson was threatened with court-martial but died before
the proceedings could be instituted. The Texas Navy consisted
now only of unpaid bills.
Next
>>
|
Captain William S.
Brown's complaint against Commodore Hawkins, 1836
|
Charles E. Hawkins
(? - 1837)
First Commodore of the Texas Navy
Charles E. Hawkins served in both
the United States Navy and in the Mexican navy in the
1820s. He also worked as a river captain on the Chattahoochee
before becoming involved in the Tampico insurrection against
Santa Anna's government in 1835. Hawkins's seagoing experience
and revolutionary enthusiasm impressed Henry Smith, governor
of the rebellious Texans, and won Hawkins a commission
as captain of the Texas warship Independence.
By March 12, 1836, Hawkins had been promoted to commodore
and given command of the entire Texas Navy. He died of
smallpox in New Orleans in 1837 while overseeing the refitting
of the Independence. |
