1st Texas Navy 1832-1837

Amongst the many works of Texas history volume after volume sing glorious praises of the men who fought for independence at the Alamo, Gonzales, Goliad, and San Jacinto. The names of Texas commanders and the events that unfolded during their struggles defending Texas are the basis of legends that history seems incapable of extinguishing.

It seems impossible with this fanfare to believe that Texas history continues to forget the men who made it all possible, men whose sacrifices, selfless service, and audacity set the conditions for Texas Independence and defended Texas in the darkest hours of her life as a Republic against almost impossible odds.

From 1832 until the acceptance of Texas into the United States of America, a great wall stood to defend Texas made of wood, copper, and canvas, the Texas Navy. To the casual observer the Texas Navy represented nothing more than a bathtub operation made from a motley collection of ships, men, and armaments. However, the opposite is true. The Texas Navy emerged as one of the most reputable naval forces in the world during its short period of existence using superior seamanship, tactics, and unrivaled aggression to create the most victorious military legacy in Texas History.

The Texas Navy’s birth is perhaps one of the most confusing aspects in its history, since naval activity against the Mexican government in support of Texas revolutionary movements begin as early as 1832. Texas Revolutionaries utilized several small vessels during this time to prevent the shipment of supplies to the Mexican Garrison at Anahuac, near the present day city of Houston, and then to later reduce the Mexican fortifications at Fort Velasco by bombardment.[i] These events caused the deaths of seven Texans and forty-one Mexican soldiers, however; they did not effectively introduce the idea that a navy was a desirable element for the future defense of Texas.

On September 1, 1835, the event that would act as the major catalyst in the creation of the Texas Navy ensued in which the British Captain Thomas “Mexico” Thompson seized the merchant man Tremont off Anahuac point. Captain Thompson made one tragic mistake. Thompson’s seizure of the Tremont put him into direct confrontation with one of the most highly connected hot heads in Texas, Thomas McKinney, who collaborated with Samuel May Williams in the creation of mercantile juggernaught of McKinney and Williams.[ii] McKinney lost no time in launching a counter attack against Thompson leading to the recovery of the Tremont and the capture of Thompson’s ship the Correo. Captain Thompson’s ill made decision acted as a catalyst for several events.

It ignited the powder keg of resentment Texans felt against Mexico leading to Revolution. Second, it gave McKinney and Williams both an excuse to provide 10% of the funds used in order to win the Texas Revolution.[iii] Finally, it emphasized the need of Texas establishing some form of naval defense. On October 31, 1835, a general council agreed on the issuance of letters of marquee and reprisal.[iv]

Texas leaders were well aware that a standing Navy came at a substantial cost that Texas in her infancy could not afford. This made the use of privateers a feasible and highly desirable. For instance, Governor Smith proclaimed, “My mind is satisfied that the whole of our maritime operations can be carried on by foreign capital and foreign enterprise.”[v] The Texas legislature also saw an opportunity to make money in order to support their revolution by establishing that privateers would pay 20% of the money from their prizes, ships captured carrying contraband or flying the Mexican flag. This percentage represented one of the most heated debates in the Texas legislature since the proposed taxation rate of 20% was far too high to encourage ship captains to attack Mexican shipping. The Texas Legislature passed a bill stating the imposition of 10% taxation on prizes would go to the Texas Republic, however; when the law went into effect 20% mysteriously appeared as the level of taxation. With such a high rate of taxation imposed on prizes, very few captains took on the task of becoming privateers.[vi]

Six ships entered into service as privateers William Robbins, Terrible, Thomas Toby, Flash, Yellow Stone, and Ocean. Much of the surviving information on these ships rest in the pages of the New Orleans Newspapers published during the time, since both ships logs and information about the prizes they took have ceased to exist due to lose or fire. Texas privateers did account for the capture of at least two Mexican warships along the Mexican coast and delivered enough supplies, recruits, and armaments to sustain the war effort against Mexico. Without the use of these privateers, the Texas Revolutionary Army would have ultimately failed due to chronic logistical failure.

Privateers offered an inexpensive means to defend Texas’s vast coastline and provide logistical support, but the use of privateers became a liability in Texas’s relations to both Britain and the United States. The number one problem facing privateers in the 1830s revolved around the issue that most of the ships running supplies in the Gulf of Mexico consisted of ships under United States colors or bearing the Union Jack. With these two major powers being neutral with both Texas and Mexico, actions taken by privateers caused political backlash for the TexasRepublic. Incidents like the Hannah Elizabeth, which found itself taken over by both the Mexican and Texas Navy, sparked controversy in New Orleans and eroded some of the positive relations between Texas and its primary supporters in New Orleans. For example, the New Orleans Bee published that any pirate could impersonate a Texas ship under letter of marquee.[vii]

These situations also eroded good will between members of the Texas government by forcing them to condemn or support privateer actions such as the intense argument between Colonel Rhoads Fisher and Colonel Fannin, in which Fannin dubbed the Hannah Elizabeth action as piracy.[viii] If not for Goliad and a martyrs death Fannin might have faced Fisher in a duel. Coordinating naval activities also proved a significant challenge since privateers were under no direct control by the Texas government.

This situation resulted in the Texas legislature approving the creation of a Texas Navy on November 31, 1835 a month after passage of the law allowing privateers. Though privateers would continue to exist during the Texas Revolution, they inherited the responsibility acting as crucial shuttles between Texas and New Orleans and a few such as the Thomas Toby continued combat operations against Mexican shipping. The most intriguing point about the Thomas Toby is the impunity it received as a privateer, since it belonged to the Thomas Toby Company in New Orleans, and its crew regardless to the prizes it took never received condemnation as pirates.

The Texas government quickly went to work trying to procure ships for its navy and by the end of January of 1836; the Texas Navy consisted of four armed schooners the Liberty, Invincible, Independence, and Brutus. The Texas Navy was officially born although it came at a high price both financially and politically. While it rapidly depleted the Texas Treasury, it acted as the catalyst for the removal of Governor Smith and his replacement with Lt. Governor James Robinson.[ix]

With the ships now in Texan hands, it became imperative to find a commander for the fledgling nation and create a Texas Marine Corps consisting of eighteen officers and three hundred and fifty enlisted men.[x] In March, President Burnet appointed Robert Potter as the first Secretary of the Navy, a choice that Burnet made due to Potter’s experience as a midshipman in the United States Navy and the enthusiasm he showed in supporting the Navy. Robert Potter could claim to be the founder of the Texas Navy, however; his lavish lifestyle, ineptitude, and violent temper in no way helped the Navy and created the number one enemy of the Navy during its lifespan, Sam Houston.

For a military commander Sam Houston recommended Charles E. Hawkins who left the United States Navy as a midshipman in order to join the Mexican revolt from Spain. Hawkins quickly earned a reputation for being a scourge on Spanish shipping and when Admiral Porter fell out of favor with the Mexican government he resigned his commission and became a steamship captain until the Texas Revolution broke out.[xi] Hawkins found himself in command of the most insubordinate captains in naval history. The majority of these were experienced captains who commanded privateers prior to the establishment of the Texas Navy. Facing command challenges from both peers and sailors, Hawkins quickly established naval regulations based on United States Naval regulations.

The first duties given to the Texas Navy during its first months in existence consisted of convoy operations in order to protect supply ships coming from New Orleans with munitions and volunteers for the Texas Revolutionary Army. During these first few months of service, Commodore Hawkins identified the precariousness of his position when Captain Brown of the naval schooner Liberty decided to make an unauthorized expedition against Mexican shipping off the Yucatan Peninsula.[xii]

While lingering outside the harbor at Sisal, Brown devised an audacious plan to conduct a nighttime raid on a ship inside the harbor. After loosing two of his three launches to rough waters, he managed to slip a group of fourteen men into the harbor in order to steal another rowboat and force entry onto brig Pelicano fighting a quick and vicious action against the Mexican Marines on the ship. After subduing the Mexican Marine contingent Brown preceded to steal the vessel from the Mexican harbor and claiming the first prize taken by the Texas Navy.

This audacious plan quickly caused uproar in New Orleans since the ship belonged to the J.W. Zacharie & Company. The protest soon ended upon the discovery of over 300 kegs of gunpowder hidden in the barrels of flour the ship carried. This small victory did far more damage to the Mexican Army than realized. The gunpowder and other items on the ship Mexican officials intended for a resupply mission for the Mexican Army who continued to pursue the Texas rebels under the command of Sam Houston; instead, the Texas Army at the Battle of San Jacinto would use this gunpowder. Captain Brown took time to write a letter to the New OrleansTrue American in which he defended his actions and warned other Americans from lending support to Mexico, creating the first Texas Navy propaganda campaign.[xiii]

Unfortunately, Commodore Hawkins could not punish Captain Brown for his insubordination due to success, however; Hawkins did throw him into irons for a short spell.[xiv] Though this was the first victory for the Texas Navy, Captain Jeremiah Brown of the schooner Invincible inadvertently sank the entire Mexican Campaign in Texas on April 3, 1836.

Captain J. Brown, brother of the highly insubordinate commander of the Liberty, anxious for battle requested orders to search for and destroy the Mexican warship schooner General Bravo, which continued to patrol the waters off the coast of Texas. President Burnet eagerly authorized the expedition.[xv] During his search for the General Bravo, Captain J. Brown not only discovered the Bravo anchored at the mouth of the Rio Grande, but an entire convoy meant to resupply Santa Anna’s Army. Captain Brown hoisted up the American flag and sent William Leving disguised as an American naval officer complaining about the treatment of American vessels and citizens. Brown took the opportunity to move into position to attack the General Bravo, which suffered rudder damage on the sand bar outside of the Rio Grande and could not maneuver. Leving’s disguise ultimately failed and his execution marked the first fatality of the Texas Navy, however; the Invincible succeeded in severely damaging the General Bravo and forcing her to run aground, permanently destroying the General Bravo.

Following the engagement Captain J. Brown discovered the ship Pocket moving to rendezvous with the General Bravo for its convoy to resupply Santa Ana. Captain J. Brown seized the ship and sent it back to Galveston and the ammunition, dispatches, and supplies found aboard the Pocket fell into the hands of the Texas Army. Due to the destruction of the General Bravo, the supply fleet meant for Santa Ana could no longer proceed on its mission, leaving the Mexican Army marching across Texas without rations or supplies to replenish its stocks.[xvi]

If this element did not seal the fate of the Mexican Army, then Commodore Hawkins’s campaign of destroying Mexican supply ships off the coast of Texas certainly did. Hawkins activities and that of the Independence are for the most part lost for all time due to the ships log falling from existence, however; he destroyed several Mexican merchant ships. Hawkins also became the first Texas Naval Commander to engage an enemy of far superior strength at sea.

In a battle south of Galveston, Hawkins engaged two Mexican Brigs the Urrea and Bravo and a Mexican supply schooner. Outgunned by thirty-six canons Hawkins charged the Mexican ships and forced them to withdraw back to Mexico.[xvii] In April of 1836, all Texas naval ships returned to GalvestonIsland in order to evacuate and defend the island in case Sam Houston’s Army failed to stop Santa Ana’s Army. Following the Mexican defeat at San Jacinto the Texas Navy found itself without a war, however; hostilities with Mexico would soon recommence.

The Texas Navy at this point succeeded due to its aggression and skill at sea. The only identifiable fault found in the Texas Navy is in its gunnery, a fault identifiable throughout its existence, since the Navy never received enough funding to train with live ammunition. However, the ships crews obviously were highly capable of out maneuvering and winning engagements against the Mexican Navy. Mexico suffered from an inability to maintain skilled crews and having to quell rebellions all along the Mexican Coast, a problem that Santa Ana’s Secretary of War and Marine Jose Maria Tornel y Mendivil would soon remedy.[xviii]

The reputation of the Texas Navy grew since they continuously defeated an enemy that outnumbered them substantially and that boasted of receiving training by both the British and Spanish Navies. With the war officially over, the Texas Navy fell into its darkest period were both problems with insubordinate officers and shortage of funds turned the Navy into a hollow force.

The first ship lost in the Texas Navy consisted of the ship Liberty. She sailed into New Orleans in order to take on recruits and refit for duty in the Gulf of Mexico. Captain Brown, the Liberty’s Captain, refused to relinquish his command on order of Commodore Hawkins. This issue caused him to come face to face with the Texas Secretary of the Navy, Robert Potter, who promptly sacked him for his complete lack of discipline.[xix] After placing Captain Wheelwright in charge of the Liberty, Potter ordered the refitting of the ship. In a mere matter of days, Potter spent over $7,000 on the Liberty, money that the TexasRepublic did not have.

The Liberty found itself sinking from the weight of the New Orleans creditors seeking payment for the services that they rendered to repair and refit, leaving President Burnet no option but to order to sale the vessel in order to satisfy the creditors. In many ways, the responsibility of the financial storm that plucked the Liberty from the sea rested firmly on the shoulders of Robert Potter and his excessive thoughts of grandeur.[xx]

New Orleans claimed additional victims including the crew of the ship Invincible, which New Orleans citizens declared pirates for their capture of the Pocket. For over a week, the crew became prisoners on trial for piracy even though the prosecution could not produce a single witness, since the crew of the Pocket remained in Texas. The legal squabbling over the matter continued for four years, however; the legal dealing drained several thousand dollars from the Texas Navy’s non-existent budget.[xxi] It also ended the desire of any Texas Naval vessel from entering New Orleans. Texas Captains looked else where to find refit in the following months.

Immediately following the failed Texas Invasion under the command of Santa Ana. The Mexican Secretary of War and Marine began an extensive rebuilding of both the fleet and Mexican Army in order to launch a 15,000 men invasion of Texas. To add to the fears of the Texas Government, a patrol of twenty mounted rangers ran across a Mexican Schooners at Copano Bay running supplies to General Filisola’s army.

In an event of sheer audacity, the Rangers ambushed a landing party from the ship and then attacked the Mexican Schooner Watchman. Due to failing wind conditions the Rangers were unable to return for two weeks to Galveston, however; two additional Mexican Schooners arrived and the Rangers were able to capture both of their captains by fooling them to board the Watchman for a glass of grog with the captain of the Watchman. With the captains their prisoners, the Rangers were able to coax the schooners Fanny Butler and Comanche to surrender to the small Ranger detachment. President Burnet expected an invasion at any moment. Due to the Secretary of the Navy, Robert Potter, running off with a married woman Burnet found himself in command of the Texas Navy.[xxii]

With command of the Navy now fully in Burnet’s hands he began to try to coordinate the Navy’s efforts in whittling away the growing power of the Mexican Navy. His first attempt at trying to stave off the expected invasion consisted of his efforts to order the Texas Navy to find and destroy the Mexican ship Vencedor del Alamo soon expected to begin patrolling the TexasCoast. Unfortunately, the assumption that the Vencedor del Alamo continued refitting proved false since it already began to wreak havoc on the Texas coast and pinned the Texas schooner Brutus in Matagorda Bay.[xxiii]Luckily, the Texas Navy had dispatched the Invincible with the privateers Union and Ocean to relive the Brutus of its duty to defend Matagorda Bay, and the Vencedor del Alamo promptly withdrew back to Yucatan with half of the available Texas Naval power chasing at its heels. A few weeks after this chance encounter the Invincible bottled the Vencedor del Alamo up in Veracruz, however; it never responded to the challenges offered by Captain Brown in a duel on the open water due to the Vencedor Del Alamo claiming crew deficiencies. With the declination of battle from the captain of the Vencedor Del Alamo, Captain Brown left Veracruz and requested permission to proceed to New York in order to refit and repair the Invincible, a mission President Burnet would soon regret in authorizing.

Many historians only answer the question of location for the Texas Naval ships Brutus and Invincible and never the why that they would choose to sail to New York to repair their ships. Following her trip to the Yucatan, the Invincible made at least a short port call at New Orleans so that Captain Brown could dismiss a portion of his crew and received orders to return to the Texas coast to respond to a rumored Mexican military buildup around Matamoros. Brown pressed his arguments and proceeded to New York anyway. Captain Hurd, in command of the Texas warship Brutus, had already arrived in New York August 31, 1836.[xxiv]

The question as to why they would separate themselves from their patrol area and leave the Texas Coast undefended is a question in need of answering. The reasons are simple. First, Captain Brown still dealt with significant legal troubles over the capture of the Pocket in New Orleans and feared possible further detainment and even possibly hanging for piracy if convicted. Captain Hurd could easily see that his return to New Orleans could also net him in sufficient legal trouble due to his seizure of the Correo while captaining the William Robbins for McKinney. Second, the creditors at New Orleans seemed hell bent at dismantling Texas warships due to debt if they ordered any repairs, a reason that Captain Hurd might also harbor. Third, though New Orleans continued to support the Texas Republic publicly, the New Orleans merchants were eager to stop the number one nuisance to their trade with Mexico, which consisted of the Texas Navy, especially when peace supposedly returning to the Gulf of Mexico.

With these reasons laid out, it is easy to asses why the captains of the Texas Navy were wary of the prospect of returning to New Orleans. With the majority of the Texas Navy resting in New York harbor, President Burnet faced two challenges, protecting the Texas coast and keeping the ships Brutus and Invincible out of the hands of New York creditors. In order to protect the coast he commissioned several of the earlier privateers to engage Mexican shipping. In order to keep both the Brutus and Invincible form meeting Liberty’s fate he ordered Texas agents to sell land script and due whatever it took to free them from debt.[xxv] Burnet’s term of president soon ended and Sam Houston took the reigns of the Texas Navy and unlike Burnet, he harbored little if no love for the institution that Robert Potter founded. With his only connection to the Texas Navy, Commodore Hawkins, months away form death from smallpox the Texas Navy's future looked dire.

Unlike his predecessor, Sam Houston saw the Navy’s roll as purely defensive and only utilized to defend the coastline and he appointed a man he believed capable of following his instructions as the Secretary of the Navy, Samuel Rhoads Fisher. While both Fisher and Houston began dealing with the unruly navy President Anastasio Bustamente of Mexico dispatched the entire Mexican fleet in the Gulf of Mexico to begin patrolling the Texas Coast, pitting the Texas Navy against a much larger and well-armed force then it had ever encountered.

The first order of business of the Texas Navy faced was to remove the two most unruly captains in the fleet at this time Captain Hurd and Captain Brown whose exploits in New York caused the Texas Republic extreme financial hardship, since they incurred a debt of over $10,000. An additional yet even more pressing issue was to get the Navy back into the coastal waters of Texas in order to engage the Mexican fleet that began severely damaging the fragile Texas economy.

President Houston immediately recalled the Independence from New Orleans after the death of Commodore Hawkins under the command of Captain Wheelwright.[xxvi] This order led to the first defeat the Texas Navy ever suffered when Captain Wheelwright found himself facing both the Vencedor del Alamo and the Libertador, the feared flagship of the Mexican northern squadron. With only one-third of the normal ship contingent on the Independence, she bravely fought a four-hour battle only to strike her colors in sight of Galveston.[xxvii]

The result of the Texas flagship’s surrender came as a huge blow to Texas and acted to redeem the Mexican fleet. Sam Houston lost all confidence in the Navy. The Texas legislature, on the other hand, reacted by franticly recalling both remaining ships to the TexasCoast. With both the Brutus and Invincible returning to Galveston, Samuel Rhoades Fisher plotted his revenge to redeem the Texas Navy in the eyes of Texas. First, Fisher intended on hijacking a ship under construction in Baltimore for the Mexican Navy, the plan never materialized since the ship sunk on its way to Mexico. Second, he organized a summer offensive against strict orders from Sam Houston.

On June 12, 1837, Fisher launched a two-ship attack on the YucatanPeninsula with both the Brutus and Invincible. In coordination with his launching the offensive, he sent a letter to the editor of the New York Albion in which he justified his sailing with the Navy and fighting a campaign for the Navy to “fight itself into the notice of the government patronage.” Unlike the previous voyages of the Texas Navy many of the records remain. The first significant action of the Texas fleet was to take over what is now the island of Cozumel. Cozumel fell to the Texas Navy without resistance and Secretary Fisher promptly raised the Texas flag over the island and coerced all of the local natives to swear allegiance to Texas. This event created for the first time an event that gave Texas a territorial claim on an area due to a military expedition.

Fisher continued the expedition in grandiose style and began to destroy Mexican towns on the Yucatan Coast for the next few months. Records indicate his two-ship armada destroyed between eight to ten Mexican villages and towns. Additionally, the Texas Navy wreaked total havoc on Mexican commerce by capturing numerous pontoon boats and seizing any ship that they could capture.

In only three months, the Texas Navy captured the merchantmen Adventure, Telegrafo, Union, Abispa, and Eliza Russell, which sparked an outcry from the British government since she was a British ship. Furthermore, Texas Navy captured the mail schooner Correo de Tabasco and discovered the Mexican intentions in dealing with their expedition. The Mexican Navy found itself in a position in which they needed to stop the Texas Navy from continuing their offensive and immediately dispatched the majority of its ships including the captured Independence to deal with the Texas fleet.

This course of action reopened the Texas coastal waters fully to commerce for several weeks, however; the Texas Navy knew the time had come to return in triumph to Galveston. While returning to Galveston the Texas Navy encountered the Rafaelita, formally the Correo Segunda, that previously been Captained by “Mexico” Thompson that McKinney captured in the beginning of the Texas Revolution. It is only fitting that this event would be the last success that the first Texas Navy enjoyed. Upon returning to Galveston, the Texas Navy found its self stuck outside the Galveston sandbar waiting for the tide to rise in order to enter the harbor on August 26, 1837. The following morning both the Invincible and Brutus careers as Texas warships would end.[xxviii]

The following morning the commander of the Invincible, Commodore Henry Livingston Thompson, still suffering from a massive bout of drinking the night before found himself facing the Mexican warships Itrubide and Liberatador. The ultimate run of bad luck for the Texas Navy soon ensued. Commodore Thompson charged straight at both Mexican vessels and began to exchange broadsides with both ships while trying to get lure both Mexican ships to give chase in order to ground them outside Galveston harbor. At the same time the Brutus rushed out to help the Invincible, however; it ran aground and the ship Archer sent to aide the vessel accidently knocked the rudder off the Brutus leaving it completely out of the action and incapable of helping the Invincible. By early evening, Commodore Thompson too had grounded his ship, Invincible, the current of the Gulf of Mexico claimed for its own that night.[xxix]

This marked the end of the first Texas Navy, but the expedition against Yucatan and the public admiration for the navy that went down fighting ensured that in the future the Texas Navy would return. The Texas Navy at this point no longer existed as a combat force, however; their contributions in the defense of Texas earned it a high reputation amongst the naval powers in the Gulf of Mexico and saved the Texas Republic from military defeat in the Texas Revolution and from possible Mexican invasion.

Additionally, during its time it prevented Mexican ships from stopping the continuance of essential commerce between Texas and the United States, which without Texas as a nation could not have survived. Sam Houston for the remainder of his term decided against having a fleet and busied himself in trying to court martial Captain Thompson and trying to convict Secretary of the Navy Fisher. Houston’s actions against these two men caused him enormous public backlash and opened the door for Malibu Lamar’s election to the Texas presidency. Lamar’s election led to the reconstitution of the Texas Navy, a navy who in its existence would become the most advanced naval force in the world and the only navy to defeat an ironclad ship that Mexico would soon add to her naval forces.

[i] Earnest C. Fischer, Robert Potter Founder of the Texas Navy (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 1976), 36.

[ii] Joe B. Frantz, “The Mercantile House of McKinney & Williams, Underwriters of the Texas Revolution,” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, Vol. 26, no. 1 (March 1952): 10.

[iii] Ibid, 17.

[iv] Earnest C. Fischer, Robert Potter Founder of the Texas Navy (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company,

1976),8.

[v] Ibid, pg 38.

[vi] Alex Dienst, The Texas Navy. (Fireship Press, 2006) 17.

[vii] Bee (New Orleans) January 1836.

[viii] Jonathan Jordan, W. Lone Star Navy (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books 2006), 31.

[ix] Ibid, pg 40.

[x] Earnest C. Fischer, Robert Potter Founder of the Texas Navy (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 1976),
122.

[xi] Alex Dienst, The Texas Navy (Fireship Press, 2006), 65.

[xii] Jonathan Jordan, Lone Star Navy (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), 50.

[xiii] True American (New Orleans) 8 May 1836.

[xiv] Jonathan Jordan, Lone Star Navy (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), 66.

[xv] Ibid. pg 52.

[xvi] United States Navy Naval History Division. The Texas Navy (Honolulu, HA: Univirsity Press of the Pacific, 2004), 7.

[xvii] Jonathan Jordan, Lone Star Navy (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), 72.

[xviii] Alex Dienst, The Texas Navy (Fireship Press, 2006), 66.

[xix] Jonathan Jordan, Lone Star Navy (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), 63.

[xx] Earnest C. Fishher, Robert Potter Founder of the Texas Navy (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 1976), 127.

[xxi] United States Navy Naval History Division, The Texas Navy (Honolulu, HA: University Press of the Pacific,
2004), 7.

[xxii] Earnest C Fisher, Robert Potter Founder of the Texas Navy (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 1976),
147.

[xxiii] Alex Dienst, The Texas Navy (Fireship Press, 2006), 62.

[xxiv] Times (New York) August 32, 1836, and September 12, 1836.

[xxv]Jonathan Jordan, Lone Star Navy (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), 72.

[xxvi] Jonathan Jordan, Lone Star Navy (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), 83.

[xxvii] Alex Dienst, The Texas Navy (Fireship Press, 2006), 74.

[xxviii] Report of Commodore Henry L. Thompson on the Cruise of the Invincible June 11,1837-August 29, 1837,and Report of Captain James D. Boylan on the Schooner Brutus June 10, 1837- August 29, 1837.

[xxix] Report of Commodore Henry L. Thompson on the Cruise of the Invincible June 11,1837-August 29, 1837, and Report of Captain James D. Boylan on the Schooner Brutus June 10, 1837- August 29, 1837.