USRC Surveyor

USRC Surveyor was a ship of the United States Revenue Marine captured by the United Kingdom during the War of 1812. Despite the vessel's loss, the "gallant and desperate" defense of her crew against a superior force of the Royal Navy and the Corps of Royal Marines is commemorated by the United States Coast Guard. Along with the Royal Navy frigate which bested her in battle, HMS Narcissus, Surveyor is among six legendary ships memorialized in the lyrics of the Coast Guard march "Semper Paratus".

Painting The Gallant Defense of Cutter Surveyor
History
United Kingdom
Name: Unknown
Operator: Royal Navy
Acquired: 1813
Out of service: By or before 1814
Fate: Unknown
History
United States
Name: USRC Surveyor
Operator: United States Revenue Marine
Laid down: 1807
Commissioned: 1807
Homeport: Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Captured: 1813, by United Kingdom
General characteristics
Type: Schooner
Length: 68 ft (21 m)
Beam: 19 ft (5.8 m)
Complement: 25 personnel
Armament:

Construction

USRC Surveyor was laid down in 1807 and commissioned the same year.[1] The 75 tonnes (74 long tons; 83 short tons) cutter was 7-foot (2.1 m) in draft and 68-foot (21 m) in length with a 19 foot (5.8 m) beam.[2] Home ported in Baltimore, Maryland, different sources report her as armed either with six 12-pound carronades, or six six-pound cannon.[1]

Surveyor carried a normal complement of 25.[1][2]

The defense of the cutter Surveyor occurred at the southern end of Chesapeake Bay (pictured) near Gloucester Point.
Members of the Historic Ship's Company, a ceremonial unit of the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, are pictured in 2012 attired in uniforms typical of Revenue Marine personnel during the War of 1812.

Service history

Pre-War

In 1809, according to U.S. Coast Guard records, Surveyor took the schooners Martha and Susan.[3] The following year, in 1810, she captured a French privateer.[3]

Early war

On the outbreak of hostilities with Britain in 1812, United States naval forces included 30 armed ships, 16 of which were sailed by the United States Navy with the remainder operated by the United States Revenue Marine, the maritime force of the United States Department of the Treasury.[4] The ships of the Revenue Marine suffered from poor provisioning - the Department of the Treasury took the position that the war was not its responsibility to fight, except in circumstances where the collection of taxes was threatened, and that the costs of prosecuting the conflict should be borne by the Department of War and Department of the Navy.[5]

In 1811, Surveyor's first mate, Samuel Travis, was promoted to ship's master.[6] Travis had served as first mate since the ship's commissioning.[6][lower-alpha 1] Under his command, on 1 July 1812, Surveyor engaged and captured a British merchantman off the coast of Jamaica.[8]

In May 1813, the United Kingdom imposed a naval blockade of the United States; within the year, according to historian Melvin Jackson, the entire U.S. coast "lay all but deserted" to maritime traffic and the country was essentially cut-off from the rest of the world.[9]

"The gallant and desperate" defense of Surveyor

On 12 June 1813, Surveyor – embarking a crew of 18 – anchored in Chesapeake Bay near Gloucester Point.[7][10] Throughout the War of 1812, the Royal Navy was active in Chesapeake Bay engaging in ship-to-shore raids and coastal blockades, with the objective of diverting U.S. forces from Canada.[11]

Prior to nightfall, Travis ordered the ship's boarding net raised and muskets and cutlasses placed in accessible locations on the deck.[7] A sentry boat manned by one officer and three crewmen was also launched.[7]

Travis' cautious preparations were vindicated when, a few hours later, Surveyor was attacked by a Royal Navy boarding party described by different sources as between 50 to 65 sailors and marines operating from the frigate HMS Narcissus.[1][12] Narcissus had entered the bay under cover of darkness and her boarding party moved against Surveyor in two small boats using muffled oars to conceal their approach.[1][7][12]

At 150 yards from Surveyor, the American ship's picket spotted the approaching British boats and fired an alarm shot, alerting the vessel's crew and ruining the element of surprise.[1][7] As the boarders approached the vessel, they navigated away from the cutter's deck guns to neutralize their utility to the defenders.[7] Travis ordered the crew of Surveyor to arm themselves with two muskets each and to man the rails.[1][7] When the British boats were 50 yards out, he ordered his men to open fire.[7] Despite this, Royal Navy and Royal Marines boarders ultimately gained access to the ship's deck and a fierce effort by Surveyor's crew to repel them followed.[1][10] During the engagement, Royal Marine Captain Thomas Ford was mortally wounded by Travis in a cutlass duel.[7] Nonetheless, his men outnumbered, Travis ultimately ordered the ship's surrender.[1] In tribute to the ferocity of Surveyor's resistance, Travis' sword was returned to him by the boarding party's commander, Lt John Crerie, with a commendation:

Your gallant and desperate attempt to defend your vessel against more than double your number excited such admiration on the part of your opponents as I have seldom witnessed, and induced me to return you the sword you had so ably used...I am at a loss which to admire most, the previous arrangement on board the Surveyor or the determined manner in which her deck was disputed inch-by-inch.[1]

According to the United States Coast Guard, the brief engagement resulted in ten British casualties, including three fatalities.[13] Five Americans were injured.[13]

Travis was paroled at Washington, North Carolina, on August 7, 1813, with the remainder of the crew transferred to a British prison camp in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[1][14]

Later war

Following her capture, Surveyor was re-flagged for Royal Navy use and, in June of 1813, participated in the British attack on Hampton, Virginia.[8] She was no longer in service by 1814 and her ultimate fate is unknown.[1][15]

Legacy

In 1927, the United States Coast Guard christened one of its Active-class patrol boats as USCGC Travis, in honor of Samuel Travis.[16]

In 2012, in conjunction with bicentennial anniversary events commemorating the War of 1812, the United States Coast Guard commissioned the oil on canvas painting The Gallant Defense of Cutter Surveyor from Patrick O'Brien. It depicts Surveyor with her boarding net raised and her crew armed at the rails as four Royal Navy small boats converge on the ship.[17] On June 15, 2014, the defense and capture of the Surveyor was reenacted at the Watermen's Museum in Yorktown, Virginia.[18]

Both Surveyor and Narcissus are among the six legendary ships from the Coast Guard's history mentioned in the second verse of its march "Semper Paratus", the others being USRC Eagle, USRC Hudson, USCGC Tampa, and HMS Dispatch.[19][lower-alpha 2]

See also

Notes
  1. A Virginian, during the American Revolution, the kitchen chimney on Travis' family home near Jamestown had been destroyed during a Royal Navy shelling.[7]
  2. "Surveyor and Narcissus, The Eagle and Dispatch, The Hudson and the Tampa, the names are hard to match."[19]

References
  1. Thiessen, William. "United States Coast Guard and the War of 1812" (PDF). dtic.mil. U.S. Coast Guard. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  2. Canney, Donald (1995). U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. p. 8. ISBN 1557501017.
  3. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, D.C.: United States Coast Guard. 1935. p. 119.
  4. Adams, Henry (1999). The War of 1812. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 119, 129–130. ISBN 0815410131.
  5. Wells, William (1998). "US Revenue Cutters Captured in the War of 1812" (PDF). American Neptune. 58 (3).
  6. Terrell, Connie. "The Long Blue Line: Samuel Travis, Cutter Surveyor and the Battle of Gloucester Point". coastguard.dodlive.mil. U.S. Coast Guard. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  7. St. John Erikson, Mark (June 12, 2018). "A storied battle erupted on the York River on this day 205 years ago". Daily Press. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  8. Allen, David (2018). United States Revenue and Coast Guard Cutters in Naval Warfare, 1790–1918. McFarland. p. 63. ISBN 1476630755.
  9. Jackson, Melvin (n.d.). The Defense of the Revenue Cutter Eagle, or a New View on Negro Head (PDF). Smithsonian Institution.
  10. Tucker, Spencer C. (2012). The Encyclopedia Of the War Of 1812: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 735. ISBN 9781851099573.
  11. Vergun, David. "War of 1812 Chesapeake Campaign: large-scale British feint". army.mil. U.S. Army. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  12. King, Irving (1989). The Coast Guard Under Sail: The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service 1789-1865. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 57. ISBN 0870212346.
  13. "US Revenue Cutter Surveyor". uscg.mil. United States Coast Guard. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  14. Nye, David (July 1, 2015). "That time the Coast Guard captured 18 ships, and 8 more surprising stories from its history". Business Insider. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  15. J. J. Colledge and Ben Warlow (2010). Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present, p. 390. Casemate.
  16. "Travis, 1927 (WPC 153)". history.uscg.mil. U.S. Coast Guard. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  17. Hamilton, Sherry (May 2, 2012). "Mathews resident heads up War of 1812 commemoration". Gazette-Journal. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  18. "War of 1812 on the Chesapeake Bay". watermens.org. The Watermen's Museum. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
  19. "Semper Paratus ("Always Ready")". nih.gov. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
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