Nuku Hiva Campaign

Nuku Hiva Campaign
Part of the War of 1812
The American fleet off Nuku Hiva in 1813.
Date October 1813 - May 1814 Location Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands Result American victory Tai Pis and Happahs defeated Madisonville abandoned in May 1814
Belligerents
United States Te I'i (1813-May 1814) Happah (November 1813)	Tai Pi Happah (October 1813) Te I'i (May 1814)  United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
David Porter John Downes John M. Gamble Gattanewa	unknown
Strength
Land: ~5,000 warriors ~250 sailors ~40+ marines 5 artillery pieces 1 fort Sea: 1 frigate 1 ship 1 corvette 3 sloops-of-war 5 gun-brigs ~200 war-canoes	~4,000 warriors 2 forts
Casualties and losses
American: 5 killed ~12 wounded 1 corvette captured	Estimated in the hundreds

American victory

The Nuku Hiva Campaign was an armed conflict between the United States and the Polynesian inhabitants of Nuku Hiva during the War of 1812. It occurred in 1813, following Captain David Porter's decision to sail his fleet to the island for repairs before continuing his raid against British shipping. Upon arrival, the Americans became involved in a tribal war and allied themselves with the Te I'i people against the Happah and Tai Pi clans.

Operations in the Pacific began in early 1813 when Captain Porter entered the Pacific, via Cape Horn, in the thirty-two gun frigate USS Essex. Originally Porter was assigned to rendezvous with two other warships but both encountered enemy resistance before their meeting and Porter went around the horn alone. The mission was to harass the British whaling industry off South America and around the Galapagos Islands. For months the Americans cruised the South Seas and they captured several enemy ships which were armed and placed under navy command. By October 1813, Essex was in serious need of repairs so Porter decided to head for Nuku Hiva, an island in the Marquesas, fearing that a British squadron would find him if he chose to take refuge in a South American port. The American fleet that went to the Marquesas included eleven vessels. Other than the flagship USS Essex, there was the twenty-two gun Seringapatam, a former whaler and letter of marque, the ship Barclay, a liberated American whaler, and the sloops-of-war Greenwich of ten guns, Montezuma of 18 guns and Essex Junior, of 16 guns. There were also five other vessels which classified as gun-brigs according to the rating system, Hector of 11 guns, Charlton of ten guns, Sir Andrew Hammond of 12 guns, and Catherine and New Zealander, both of eight guns. In total, Captain Porter had just over 200 United States Navy officers and sailors, accompanied by a small detachment of no more than twenty marines under the command of Lieutenant John M. Gamble. Additionally, many of the prisoners from the prize enemy ships were Americans and they volunteered for service, including some of the British captives. One of the sailors was the young midshipman David Farragut, later the first United States Navy admiral. (Porter's son David Dixon Porter was the second U.S. Navy admiral.)

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Wikipedia