Samoan crisis

The Samoan Crisis was a standoff between the United States, Germany, and Great Britain from 1887–1889 over control of the Samoan Islands during the Samoan Civil War.[1] The incident involved three United States Navy warships (the sloop-of-war USS Vandalia, the screw steamer USS Trenton, and the gunboat USS Nipsic) and three German warships (the gunboats SMS Adler and SMS Eber and the corvette SMS Olga), keeping each other at bay over several months in Apia harbour, which was monitored by the British corvette HMS Calliope.

Samoan Crisis
Part of the First Samoan Civil War
A sketch featuring the locations of the wrecked German and American ships.
Date 1887–1889 Location Apia Harbour, Samoa, Pacific Ocean Result Both squadrons wrecked
Belligerents
United States	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Lewis Kimberly	Frizze
Strength
1 sloop-of-war 1 steamer 1 gunboat 200 marines	3 gunboats 150 marines
Casualties and losses
62 killed 1 sloop-of-war sunk 1 steamer sunk 1 gunboat grounded	~73 killed 1 gunboat sunk 2 gunboats grounded
The British in the cruiser HMS Calliope participated as mediators, their ship sustained fair damage. Several merchant ships were also wrecked during the cyclone.

Main article: History of Samoa

The standoff ended when a cyclone on 15 and 16 March wrecked all six warships in the harbour. Calliope was able to escape the harbour and survived the storm. Robert Louis Stevenson did not witness the storm and its aftermath at Apia but did, after his arrival in Samoa (December 1889) write about the event.[2] The Samoan Civil War continued, involving Germany, United States and Britain, eventually resulting, via the Tripartite Convention of 1899, in the partition of the Samoan Islands into American Samoa and German Samoa.[3]

Gallery

• 
  An eyewitness drawing taken from a sketch by an officer on the Calliope.
• 
  SMS Adler, knocked over on the beach, 1889.
• 
  SMS Adler, view of her deck, 1889.
• 
  SMS Adler´s wreck, circa 1938
• 
  USS Nipsic′s wreck
• 
  Wrecked ships in Apia Harbour. German gunboat SMS Eber is on the beach, the stern of USS Trenton is at right, with the sunken USS Vandalia alongside. SMS Adler is on her side in the center distance.
• 
  Wrecked vessels at Apia Harbour, Upolu, Samoa, during salvage efforts soon after the storm. The view looks about northward, with USS Trenton and the sunken USS Vandalia to the left and the beached German corvette Olga at right.Wreckage just off Trenton's stern may be from the German gunboat Eber, which was destroyed when she struck the harbor reef during the hurricane.
• 
  A view of the sunken USS Vandalia from the deck of USS Trenton.
• 
  Another angle of the wrecked warships.
• 
  Wrecked warships off Apia
• 
  Apia and the beach covered in driftwood and debris from the wrecked warships.
• 
  Salvaged guns from the wrecked American ships at Apia
• 
  A memorial at Mare Island Naval Yard for the Americans killed in the cyclone.
• 
  Illustrated London News for 27 April 1889; artist’s conception of HMS Calliope being cheered on by the crew of USS Trenton as Calliope escapes from Apia Harbour. Calliope actually passed to Trenton´s port.

See also

• Samoan Civil War
• First Samoan Civil War
• Second Samoan Civil War
• Siege of Apia
• German Samoa

Further reading

• Andre Trudeau, Noah. "'An Appalling Calamity'--In the teeth of the Great Samoan Typhoon of 1889, a standoff between the German and US navies suddenly didn't matter." Naval History Magazine 25.2 (2011): 54-59.
• Conroy, Robert (2002). "Only luck kept the United States from being occupied by Kaiser Wilhelm II's army between 1899 and 1904". Military History. 18 (August).
• Gray, J.A.C. (1960). Amerika Samoa: A History of American Samoa and Its United States Naval Administration. Annapolis: U. S. Naval Institute. ISBN 0-405-13038-4.
• "Hurricane at Apia, Samoa, 15–16 March 1889". Events of the 1880s. Naval Historical Center. 2002. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
• Kimberly, L.A. "Samoan Hurricane". Events of the 1880s. Naval Historical Center. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
• LaFeber, Walter (1963). The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860–1898. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
• Lind, L.J. "The Epic of HMS Calliope". Naval Historical Society of Australia. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
• Rousmaniere, John (2002). After the Storm: True Stories of Disaster and Recovery at Sea. Camden, MN: International Marine/McGraw-Hill. pp. 87–106. ISBN 0-07-137795-6.
• Sisung, Kelle S. (2002). "The Benjamin Harrison Administration". Presidential Administration Profiles for Students. Detroit: Gale Group.
• Stevenson, Robert Louis (1892). A Footnote to History, Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
• Tucker, Spencer, ed. (2009). The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. pp. 569–70.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
• Wilson, Graham (May–July 1996). "Glory for the Squadron: HMS Calliope in the Great Hurricane at Samoa 1889". Journal of the Australian Naval Institute. 22 (2): 51–54.

References

1. Spencer Tucker, ed. (2009). The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. pp. 569–70.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
2. Stevenson, Robert Louis (1892). A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 1-4264-0754-8.
3. Ryden, George Herbert. The Foreign Policy of the United States in Relation to Samoa. New York: Octagon Books, 1975. (Reprint by special arrangement with Yale University Press. Originally published at New Haven: Yale University Press, 1928), p. 574; the Tripartite Convention (United States, Germany, Great Britain) was signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900