The US Navy's Sumatran Expeditions 1832 & 1838

The US Navy’s role in the suppression of Barbary piracy in the Mediterranean is deservedly well known but few today are aware that in the 1830s two American expeditions were launched against pirates in what is now Indonesia. The scene was to be the then semi-independent Sultanate of Ache (Atjeh in Dutch) in Sumatra and the interventions were to be the precursor to an intense and bloody series of conflicts from 1873 to 1904 in which the Netherlands’ colonial army struggled to bring the area under Dutch rule. (These campaigns will be the subject of a later blog).

European spheres of influence in South East Asia were still fluid in the early 1830s. Britain had taken its first steps to control of Malaya by creating the “Straits Settlements” of Penang, Singapore and Malacca in the 1820s but lying directly to its west was the gigantic island of Sumatra. Though part of the “East Indies” which were for the Dutch as the most important part of their overseas empire, Dutch power in Sumatra was still limited and would be for decades to come.  The Ache sultanate in the island’s north was to all practical purposes an independent entity and free to engage with trade with all comers. Among these comers were American traders, who were building up a great commercial and shipping empire in the Far East. One of the most prominent of these was Joseph Peabody (1757 –1844) of Salem, Massachusetts. Beginning his seagoing career on privateers during the American War of Independence he was to establish himself as a major ship-owner, building as many as 83 ships during his career and achieving great wealth in the process.

Ache’s most valuable trading commodity was pepper – a commodity high in value for a small volume – and it was pepper that brought Peabody’s trading vessel Friendship to the Sumatra’s North West coast, close to settlement of Kuala Batee, in February 1831. The area was under the control of several local chieftains who appear to have had loose but cordial contacts with the sultanate. The Friendship’s captain, Charles Endicott, landed with a small group of sailors 7^th February to bargain for pepper. While this party was on shore a group of local thugs in small prahus– outrigger sailing craft – boarded the Friendship, killed the first officer and two of the crew members and captured the ship. Four other men escaped from the Friendshipby swimming two miles down the coast and hiding in the forest.

With the support of a local leader called Pak Adam, Captain Endicott managed to make contact with three other American trading vessels in the area, the James Monroe, the Governor Endicott and the Palmer. All carried guns – a necessity in this pirate-infested area – and the Friendshipwas recovered only after the criminals leaped overboard and when fire had been opened on the nearby village.

The Friendship’sreturn to Salem with news of the outrage aroused widespread anger – the more so since this was during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, not a man to accept insult or injury meekly. The upshot was that orders were sent to Commodore John Downes, captain of the American Frigate Potomac, then cruising off Brazil. He was to proceed to Kuala Batee, assess the situation and take any measures he deemed necessary to ensure future safety of American traders in the area. This was the start of what became known as “The First Sumatran Expedition”.

Like other “frigates” of the US Navy in the early 19^th century the Potomac, completed in 1831, was more heavily armed than any of European vessel of the same designation. Her 32 carronades and 35 long guns (including two bow and three stern-chasers) gave her fearsome firepower for her size. Her crew of 480 – trained as were all crews of the era in the use of cutlass and small arms – added the potential of a powerful landing force.

The Potomacarrived off Kuala Batee in early February 1832, almost an exact year since the Friendship’s ordeal. Downes disguised his ship as a Dutch merchant vessel, with her guns pulled back behind the decks and all ports shut. Unsuspecting locals came on board and, when questioned about the village’s defences, provided useful information. The attack that followed commenced at dawn on 6^th February 1832 with a bombardment to cover landing of 282 American marines and seamen to the north of the settlement. Several “forts” – small stockades – were damaged by naval gunfire and stormed and by midday the Sumatran defenders had retreated inland, leaving the Americans to burn buildings and boats in reprisal.  American losses amounted to two killed and some half-dozen wounded while somewhere between 80 and 100 (estimates differ) Sumatrans were killed and many more wounded.  Honour had been satisfied. The American force withdrew to the Potomac, remained offshore for several days and thereafter set sail for the United States, circumnavigating the globe in the process.

News of the action reached the United States by other ships prior to the Potomac’s return and a portion of the population – who had not been there and knew of the incident only by hearsay – were immediately outraged by reports of collateral casualties.  Women and children had indeed died, but it was not always obvious that they were non-combatants. The first report appeared on 7 July 1832, the New-York Observer, an abolitionist, anti-slavery newspaper. It mentioned that “There were several women killed who had the hardihood to take up arms when they saw their husbands fall at their feet; indeed it was impossible to distinguish the sex, they dress so much alike”. It stated further in the article that “John L. Dubois, ships corporal …. was wounded by a Malay woman in attacking the forts. This woman was with an Indian, probably her husband, who was attacked and killed by Dubois. As soon as she saw her husband fall, she had the courage to revenge him by attacking Dubois with a sabre; she cut him very badly between the upper joint of the thumb and where the wrist meets; the blow would have taken off the hand had it not been retarded by the barrel of the musket which was held at the time of a charge.”

By the time the Potomacreturned much righteous indignation has been directed at Commodore Downes and his officers. One of them, a Jeremiah Reynolds, who had been on board the Potomac as Downes’ secretary, published a book on the subject in 1835 from the perspective of those actually present and noted that“vague rumours and partial statements” in the media had created an“unfavourable prejudice in the public mind”.

The controversy simmered for a few years more but was overtaken by further events that were calculated to reduce sympathy for the Sumatrans. This was in August 1838 when another American ship, the Eclipse, was boarded at a village called Muckie by 24 Sumatrans who ostensibly wanted to trade. They were allowed on board on the condition of handing over their weapons but once trust had been established these were – unwisely – returned. The crew was then attacked and butchered, even those men who jumped into the water to escape being run down and murdered.

Columbia and John Adams bombarding Muckie

The American response was robust. News reached Commodore George C. Read in the Indian Ocean where, with two powerful frigates, Columbia and John Adams, he was involved with a circumnavigation associated with the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838 to 1842. He immediately diverted to Sumatra. At Muckie he landed some 360 men under cover of a bombardment.  Most of the inhabitants fled and the few who resisted were silenced. The village was set ablaze and Reade withdrew his force.

This was the end of the Second Sumatran Expedition by the US Navy. A dose of bitter medicine had been administered and no further American trading ships were attacked off Sumatra thereafter. For the Dutch however a long war awaited them there in the future – but that’s a different story.

In April 1882 Captain Nicholas Dawlish RN has just taken command of the Royal Navy’s newest cruiser, HMS Leonidas. Her voyage to the Far East is to be a peaceful venture, a test of this innovative vessel’s engines and boilers. Dawlish has no forewarning of the nightmare of riot, treachery, massacre and battle he and his crew will encounter.

A new balance of power is emerging in the Far East. Imperial China, weak and corrupt, is challenged by a rapidly modernising Japan, while Russia threatens from the north. All need to control Korea, a kingdom frozen in time and reluctant to emerge from centuries of isolation.

Dawlish finds himself a critical player in a complex political powder keg. He must take account of a weak Korean king and his shrewd queen, of murderous palace intrigue, of a power-broker who seems more American than Chinese and a Japanese naval captain whom he will come to despise and admire in equal measure. And he will have no one to turn to for guidance…

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