Weekend Open Commentary

The Flag of the Republic of Texas Navy

Though the landmass of the great state of Texas sprawls far and wide, the state boasts 367 miles of undulating coastline (3,359 miles of tidal shoreline, if counting the outer coast, offshore islands, sounds, bays, and tidal portion of rivers and creeks). And in the Revolutionary days of yore, while volunteer and regular soldiers banded together to create the Texian Army and defend the land, someone had to take to the sea. Enter: The Republic of Texas Navy — the official navy of the Republic of Texas.

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Thus the Republic of Texas Navy was officially launched in 1836 with the purchase of four vessels, the Independence, the Invincible, the Brutus and the Liberty (shown below are illustrations of the Independence, top, and the Invincible). Though collectively known as the Big Four, the Republic of Texas Navy was in actuality a rather small and scrappy outfit. Emblazoned with the Republic of Texas Navy flag (shown above; designed to appear as the US flag from afar in order to confuse combatants) and “Fouled Anchor” (an anchor at a slant entwined with a short piece of rope and topped with a five pointed star), the troops performed mighty feats that maintained the young Republic’s independence. The most remarkable of which might have been the 1836 Battle of Matamoros, during which the Texas Navy repeatedly outmaneuvered the Mexican Navy’s Montezuma, eventually running it ashore and forcing abandonment. This Texas victory fractured Mexican troops and forced them to forage for goods in small bands, minimizing the Mexican advantage for years.

Finally, an excerpt from the speech given by Texas historian Andrew Hall on the Battleship Texas on the 180th anniversary of the Republic of Texas.

Only one of the first four schooners of the Texian Navy was really suited for a warship; she was the former U.S. Revenue Cutter Ingham, purchased at New Orleans and rechristened Independence. She served as flagship of the Texian squadron, although the ships rarely operated together as a group. Independence was commanded by Commodore Charles Hawkins, who by his early thirties had already seen more adventure than most men twice his age. As a new midshipman he had sailed to the Mediterranean and Russia, and fought pirates in the Caribbean under the command of one of the American naval heroes of the period, David Porter. He survived a shipwreck on the Cuban coast. And when Commodore Porter resigned his commission to command the fleet of the new Mexican Republic in its ongoing conflict with its former colonial ruler, Spain, Hawkins followed. Hawkins rose to command the Mexican brig Hermón, taking numerous prizes off the Cuban coast while operating out of Key West. During his three years in Mexican service, Hawkins caused untold headaches for American diplomats, who were eager to maintain good relations with the Spanish. In 1829 he unloaded a shotgun into the U.S. Attorney at Key West, over the man’s affair with Hawkins’ wife. Now Hawkins commands the Texas Navy, a force largely composed of Americans, fighting his old employers in Mexico City.

Even by this point in September 1836, just six months after the Declaration of Independence, the fledgling Texian Navy had helped make concrete contributions to the defeat of the centralist Mexican forces and the defense of the new Republic. Off Matamoros in early April, the schooner Invincible captured the American brig Pocket, out of New Orleans, with a cargo of flour and other foodstuffs intended for the reinforcement of Santa Anna’s Texas expedition. In addition, the neutral American vessel carried military goods that had been omitted of her cargo manifest, charts of the Texas coast, and several Mexican naval officers traveling as passengers. Captain Jeremiah Brown returned to Galveston with his prize, arriving on April 7. Evidence strongly suggests that the foodstuffs captured by Invincible made their way to Sam Houston’s army during its march that culminated in the battle here, where they were used to supply both the ill-fed soldiers of the Texian Army and the hundreds of prisoners in their charge.

Two books to fulfill your history gaps.

The First Texas Navy by John Powers

Lone Star Navy: Texas, the Fight For the Gulf of Mexico, and the Shaping of the American West by Jonathan W. Jordan, winner of the 2007 United States Maritime Literature Award.