Samoan Crisis

The Samoan crisis was a standoff between the United States, the German Empire, and the British Empire from 1887 to 1889 over control of the Samoan Islands during the First Samoan Civil War.

Background

In 1878, the United States acquired a fuelling station at the harbor at Pago Pago, on the island of Tutuila, in exchange for providing guarantees of protection to Samoa. The German Empire on the other hand desired concessions at the harbor at Apia, on the island of Upolu.

Incident

The incident involved three U.S. Navy warships (the sloop-of-war , the screw steamer , and the gunboat ) and three German warships (the gunboats and and the corvette ), which kept each other at bay over several months in Apia Harbour, which was monitored by the British corvette .

The standoff ended when the 1889 Apia cyclone, on 15 and 16 March, wrecked all six warships in the harbour. ''Calliope'' escaped the harbour and thus survived the storm. Robert Louis Stevenson did not witness the storm and its aftermath at Apia but after his December 1889 arrival to Samoa, he wrote about the event. The Second Samoan Civil War, involving Germany, the United States, and Britain, eventually resulted in the Tripartite Convention of 1899, which partitioned the Samoan Islands into American Samoa and German Samoa.

Legacy

Walter LaFeber said that the incident made some 'reticent Americans' realise the power implications of expansion in the South Pacific.

Gallery

File:The Hurricane at Samoa on the morning of March 16 LCCN2002699802.tif, An eyewitness drawing taken from a sketch by an officer on the ''Calliope''.
File:SMS Adler 1889 1.jpg, SMS ''Adler'', knocked over on the beach, 1889.
File:SMS Adler 1889 2.jpg, SMS ''Adler'', view of her deck, 1889.
File:SMS Adler 1889 3.jpg, The wreck of SMS ''Adler'', circa 1938
File:USS Nipsic wreck 1889.jpg, The wreck of USS ''Nipsic''′
File:SMS Eber 1889 1.jpg, Wrecked ships in Apia Harbour. German gunboat SMS ''Eber'' is on the beach, the stern of USS ''Trenton'' is at the right, and the sunken USS ''Vandalia'' is alongside. SMS ''Adler'' is on her side in the center distance.
File:Samoan Crisis wrecks 2.jpg, 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. The 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.
File:USS Vandalia and USS Trenton.jpg, A view of the sunken USS ''Vandalia'' from the deck of USS ''Trenton''.
File:Samoan crisis 7.jpg, Another angle of the wrecked warships.
File:Samoan Crisis wrecks.jpg, Wrecked warships off Apia
File:Samoan crisis Apia beach.jpg, Apia and the beach covered in driftwood and debris from the wrecked warships.
File:Samoan crisis salvaged guns.jpg, Salvaged guns from the wrecked American ships at Apia
File:Samoan crisis memorial tablet 6.jpg, A memorial at Mare Island Naval Yard for the Americans who were killed in the cyclone.
File:Illustrated London News.jpg, '' 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 the port of ''Trenton''.

See also

* Samoan Civil War
* Second Samoan Civil War
* Siege of Apia
* German Samoa

References

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.
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