Republic Naval Battles

Famous Naval Battles of the Republic of Texas

The Battle of Veracruz, 19 July 1864

On 18 July, 1864, a fleet of French and Imperial ships set sail from the Yucatan Naval Base, the primary Gulf port for the Imperial Mexican Navy. The Imperials intended to make a surprise assault landing at Brownsville. The fleet included the French frigate La Annabelle (36), two Mexican brigs (12 guns each), four schooners (6), and four unarmed transports. Aboard the transports were 2,000 men for the assault. Additional troops were expected to arrive by sea to reinforce the assault within six days.

Thanks to the efforts of several paid agents, the Republic was made aware of the attack two weeks prior to the sailing date, and managed to get a small fleet of their own into place for an interception. The ships of the Galveston Squadron intercepted the Imperial fleet sixty miles off the coast of Mexico, nearest to the port of Veracruz. The Galveston Squadron was made up of RTS Republic (46), Alamo (14), Zavala (6), San Bernard (6), Nacogdoches (21), and Archer (14).

Admiral Juan Trujillo, commanding the Galveston Squadron, ordered his ships to concentrate first on the transports, which were vital to the success of the Mexican mission. Republic engaged La Annabelle in close action. Nacogdoches and Alamo moved to cut off the line of retreat; meanwhile, the faster and lighter Zavala, San Bernard, and Archer slashed into the center of the Imperial formation to wreak havoc upon the transports. The three smaller Texican ships managed to severely damage all four transports. Unfortunately, their intense concentration on the transports allowed the Mexican brigs and schooners to lay courses athwart the Texican line. Raking fire from the Mexican vessels dismasted Archer in their first broadside. A fire started aboard Zavala, and San Bernard’s captain was killed instantly by a Mexican 12-pdr ball.

At about this point in the battle, marines and sailors from Republic boarded and captured La Annabelle. French Commodore Comte Louis Ragout l’Outrance was captured in his great cabins, having just dumped his weighted codebooks and orders out the stern windows. With their largest vessel taken, the remainder of the Imperial fleet began to break apart. Republic left a prize crew, disengaged from La Annabelle and chased the Mexican brigs into Nacogdoches and Alamo.

Nacogdoches hauled her wind across the bows of the lead brig, San Salvador, and fired a raking broadside, snapping the bowsprit and fouling the brig’s cutwater. Surrounded and severely slowed by her damage, the Mexican brig hauled down her colors. Alamo did not fare so well, firing into the sides of the second Mexican brig, Yucatan. Yucatan returned fire gamely and a broadside duel continued between the two ships until Republic arrived on the opposite side of Yucatan and fired a single broadside. At that point, Yucatan’s First Lieutenant (the captain had been wounded) ordered the colors lowered.

Aboard Zavala, in serious danger of explosion as the fire raged across her decks, Captain Angel Seguin y Navarro gave the order to abandon ship. Seven minutes after the order was given, flames reached the powder magazine on the orlop deck and Zavala suddenly ceased to exist in a flash of light and a roar so loud it was heard in Veracruz, more than sixty miles away. One of the men who survived the battle described the explosion as “an intensely painful light, followed by a rain of wood and canvas, iron and men.” Many of the battle’s survivors probably suffered hearing damage as a result of the explosion, though it was a point of pride for many who could claim they were at the battle.

Lacking an experienced captain, San Bernard continued to slug it out with the Mexican schooner La Sangria Real until both ships were little more than drifting hulks. Mexican sailors and marines from La Sangria attempted to board San Bernard, but were repelled with massive losses on both decks. Only twelve of San Bernard’s sailors and officers (full original complement: 82) survived the slaughter aboard their ship. The sole remaining officer, a midshipman by the name of Broward, ordered the men into the boats as the pumps could not keep up with the water pouring into San Bernard’s shattered hull. These men were taken aboard Republic at the end of the battle as San Bernard slowly settled beneath the waves. Broward would later face a Board of Inquiry for his decision to abandon the ship. Testimony from his remaining crew and Admiral Trujillo forced the Board to recommend no court-martial be held.

Archer was slightly better off than San Bernard and Zavala. Though dismasted, none of her guns had been dismounted and casualties amongst the gun-crews were light. Archer remained in the fight as sailors hurriedly hacked loose the remnants of both her fore- and mainmasts. Barely able to make steerage, Archer was quickly blown out of the fight, but did manage to fire several well-aimed broadsides into the Mexican ships. Unable to repair her damage, the majority of Archer’s crew was transferred into La Annabelle as reinforcement to the prize crew and Archer herself was towed into port at La Annabelle’s stern.

In the aftermath, none of the Mexican troops reached Texas’ shores. The transports managed to limp back into Veracruz. A third of the invasion force had been killed while packed uselessly aboard the unarmed vessels. The Republic had taken the largest Imperial vessel in the Gulf. Two brigs were taken as prize as well, although the damage to Yucatan was severe, and she had to be scuttled prior to making port. Two of the Mexican schooners were sunk by fire from Nacogdoches as they fled, and two managed to escape by sailing closer to the wind than any of the Republic’s ships. Texican losses were heavy as well. Virtually the entire crews of two ships had been killed, and their ships lost. Severe damage to Alamo and Archer caused them to be stripped, decommissioned, and scuttled as breakwaters rather than attempting repairs.

The Battle of Galveston, 27 May 1916

While the Gulf Fleet steamed to Europe in support of their British allies, a small force consisting of five ships of the Imperial Mexican Navy (IMN Coyote [CL] and Tlaloc, Chipotle, Habanero, and Ciudad de Aguascalientes [all DD’s]), slipped through the blockade of Veracruz and steamed silently towards the Gulf Coast of the Republic. Their goal: Galveston Naval Base and the Goose Creek Navy Yards. With victory there, the flotilla could cruise out into the Atlantic or continue along the coast, attacking either Corpus Christi or New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, in the United States.

Fortunately, a Texican fishing vessel (TMV Sweet Josey) in the Gulf sighted the flotilla while it was still nine hours away. Fitted with a radio (unusual in a civilian craft of its size at the time), it sent a message to the Galveston Maritime Monitoring Station. This warning cost the crew of the Sweet Josey their lives, their small vessel destroyed without a single shot fired – IMN Tlaloc rammed and sank the small wooden vessel. A bronze statue of Captain Gregory Hill of the Sweet Josey is located at the entrance to Fort Hill.

The warning was received, but it seemed to no avail. The only armed vessel in the Galveston Bay was a Coast Guard cutter, armed with a single turreted 3” gun. Into this void stepped LCdr Edward Roemer, an instructor at the Texas Naval College and weapons engineer for the Goose Creek Navy Yard. The Academy owned eight 60’ motorboats, made of local pine, and used for cadet seamanship training in the Galveston Bay. Their only armament was a small 1.5” gun in a forward mount. He proposed arming the small boats with torpedo tubes from the nearby Navy Yard. Eager cadets volunteered to command and crew the boats. The Commandant of the Naval College, Vice Commodore Robert Ranen, approved the measure and the boats were rushed to the yard, where each was fitted with a pair of fixed torpedo cradles. A Cadet Senior, seconded by a Cadet Junior, commanded each of the Torpedo Boats (nicknamed ‘pine boxes’). An active-duty CPO assisted with weapons, and a P/O ran the three-man engine crew. In addition, each boat had ten underclassmen cadets armed with small arms and boarded as marines.

LCdr Roemer took command of the cutter, TCG Deaf Smith, as flagship of the makeshift fleet. As none of his ships were armored in any way, Roemer knew that speed and surprise would serve him best. Fortunately for the Texicans, a hazy fog had arisen over night. Attacking from the east, with the rising sun at their backs, the tiny Texican flotilla attacked the Mexican fleet at top speed.

Coyote was taken by surprise. A pair of Texican boats converged on her from both port and starboard. PBT 4, commanded by Cadet Senior Alberto Mondragon of Chihuahua, fired two torpedoes at the port side of Coyote’s stern. Both struck, destroying the rudder and one screw, and flooding the engine spaces. Coyote returned fire with an aft 5” gun, which struck PBT 4, destroying it instantly. [Mondragon and his fellow cadets were posthumously commissioned as Commander and Lieutenants, j.g., respectively. Mondragon was also awarded the Lone Star Cross. The other cadets received Houston Stars] PBT 2, commanded by Cadet Senior Patrick Fitzgerald of Dallas, drove towards Coyote, jinking at high speed to avoid the fire of the cruiser’s secondary batteries. At near point blank range, Fitzgerald fired both torpedoes. One missed forward due to PBT 2’s erratic course, but the second struck the already crippled Coyote in her forward magazine. The resultant explosion tore the bow off Coyote, which sank rapidly. Fitzgerald was immediately promoted to Ensign for his part in the battle, and awarded the LSC.

The remaining pine boxes and the cutter seriously damaged one Mexican destroyer (IMN Tlaloc) as well, at the cost of an additional three PBTs sunk and serious damage to Deaf Smith. The remaining three destroyers, upon seeing the Coyote slip beneath the waves and unaware that the Texans had no submarines present, considered the better part of valor, and withdrew. Submarine-launched torpedoes subsequently destroyed two of them as they attempted to re-enter Veracruz. The Tlaloc struck her colors and was taken in tow to Galveston, her crew interned for the remainder of the war.

Three classes of ships have been named for participants in this battle, in commemoration of their bravery: the Fitzgerald- and Roemer-class torpedo boats and the Mondragon-class destroyer. In addition, a stone memorial was placed at the Navy College docks, listing the names of each officer, cadet, and enlisted man that took part in the battle. The Tlaloc’s ensign is encased within the memorial.