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Colonel David Jewett was an American pirate who played a notable role in the history of the sovereignty dispute between Great Britain and Argentina. He commanded the pirate Frigate Heroína that visited the Falkland Islands (Template:Lang-es) in 1820, raised the first Argentine flag on the islands, and claimed the islands for Argentina, though he did so without instructions from or the knowledge of Argentina and didn't inform Argentina in his report.
Early Life
Jewett was born in New London (North Parish), Connecticut (presently the town of Montville, Connecticut), United States, on 17 June 1772, and died 26 June 1842. He studied for a career in law and joined the United States Navy, where he commanded the 18 gun sloop-of-war USS Trumbull in the Quasi-War. Following the end of hostilities with France with the Treaty of Mortefontaine, Trumbull was paid off in 1801. Jewett left the Navy but rejoined during the War of 1812 against Britain, when he acted as a privateer.
Service to the United Provinces
After that conflict Colonel Jewett offered his services to the newly-independent United Provinces of South America (later Argentina), which accepted his proposal and authorized his corsair activities against the Spanish; he was appointed a Colonel in the Argentine Navy.
He was given command of the frigate Heroína as a privateer and in March 1820 and set out on a voyage marked by misfortune, a mutiny, scurvy and piracy against Portuguese and American ships. Some 80 of his crew of 200 were either sick or dead by the time he arrived on 27 October, 1820 at Puerto Soledad (later renamed Puerto Luis by Argentine settlers, it was the one-time Spanish capital of the Falkland Islands). At anchor there he found some 50 British and U.S. sealing ships.
Captain Jewett chose to rest and recover in the islands seeking assistance from the British explorer James Weddell of the British Brig Jane. Weddell reports only 30 seamen and 40 soldiers out of a crew of 200 fit for duty, and how Jewett slept with pistols over his head following an attempted mutiny for which he had executed 6 members of his crew.
Declaration of Possession of the Islands
On November 1820, Col Jewett raised the flag of the United Provinces of South America and certainly claimed possession of the islands. Weddell reports the letter he received from Jewett as:
Sir, I have the honour to inform you of the circumstance of my arrival at this port, commissioned by the supreme government of the United Provinces of South America to take possession of these islands in the name of the country to which they naturally appertain. In the performance of this duty, it is my desire to act towards all friendly flags with the most distinguished justice and politeness. A principal object is to prevent the wanton destruction of the sources of supply to those whose necessities compel or invite them to visit the islands, and to aid and assist such as require it to obtain a supply with the least trouble and expense. As your views do not enter into contravention or competition with these orders, and as I think mutual advantage may result from a personal interview, I invite you to pay me a visit on board my ship, where I shall be happy to accommodate you during your pleasure. I would also beg you, so far as comes within your sphere, to communicate this information to other British subjects in this vicinity. I have the honour to be, Sir Your most obedient humble Servant, Signed, Jewett, Colonel of the Navy of the United Provinces of South America and commander of the frigate Heroína.
Many modern authors report this letter as the declaration issued by Jewett. Captain William Orne of the American Schooner General Knox seems to have missed Jewett’s possession ceremony, and Jewett gave him a letter informing him of the claim. On returning to his home port, Salem, Massachusetts, Captain Orne gave Jewett’s letter to the local paper, the Salem Gazette, which published it on 8 June 1821, and it was reprinted by The Times in London on 3 August 1821. If it had not been for the publication of that letter, and an account in a book by James Weddell five years later, the Jewett claim would be unknown today. The Times reprint of the Orne letter was then repeated in a Gibraltar paper and was picked up by the Spanish paper Redactor de Cádiz. It was only when the Cadiz report reached Buenos Aires, as a foreign news story, that Jewett’s claim to the Falklands became known in Argentina. It was published in the Buenos Aires Argos on 10 November 1821, over a year after the event.
Weddell did not believe that Jewett was acting with the interests of the United Provinces of South America in mind, rather that he had merely put into the harbour in order to obtain refreshments for his crew, and that the assumption of possession was chiefly intended for the purpose of securing an exclusive claim to the wreck of the French ship Uranie that had a few months previously foundered at the entrance of Berkeley Sound. Weddell left the islands on 20 November 1820 noting that Jewett had not completed repairs to the Heroína.
Piracy of Portuguese and US ships
Jewett had earlier crossed the line between privateer and pirate by taking the Portuguese ship Carlota as a prize, as Argentina and Portugal were not at war. He would probably have taken the Carlota to Buenos Aires, but he lost her in a storm. It is likely that Jewett visited the Falklands for four reasons. Firstly to repair his vessel which Weddell viewed as barely sea-worthy, secondly to prevent his crew from deserting him, thirdly to replenish his supplies and lastly, to seek any Spanish ships that might be anchored there as prizes. When Jewett found none, he seized the American Schooner Rampart as a prize, as it was carrying cargo for Spain. This second act of piracy caused a diplomatic incident as the United Provinces was not at war with the United States of America.
Jewett wrote a long report to Buenos Aires dated 1 February 1821, describing his voyage but not mentioning any sovereignty claim to the Falklands, and asked to be relieved. He left the islands in April 1821; his successor as captain of the Heroína, the Englishman William Mason, left Port Louis three weeks later, leaving the Falkland Islands uninhabited again. Mason also captured a Portuguese ship, but was caught by the Portuguese in March 1822, convicted of piracy by a Lisbon prize court, and sentenced to imprisonment; the court also accused Jewett of piracy, though he was by then in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Later Life
Jewett subsequently entered the services of the Brazilian navy, ironically later in his career he found himself fighting against the forces of the United Provinces of South America. Jewett died in Rio de Janeiro in 1842.
References
- Getting it right: the real history of the Falklands/Malvinas, by Graham Pascoe and Peter Pepper, 2008, pp. 9-10, http://www.falklandshistory.org/gettingitright.pdf
- Jewett’s report of 1 February 1821 in Archivo General de la Nación, Buenos Aires, Marina Corsarios 1820-1831, 10-5-1-3.
- http://www.falklandshistory.org/gettingitright.pdf
- ^ Weddell, James, A Voyage Towards the South Pole, London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1827
- Laurio H. Destéfani, The Malvinas, the South Georgias and the South Sandwich Islands, the conflict with Britain, Buenos Aires, 1982
- http://www.falklandshistory.org/gettingitright.pdf
Bibliography
- Child, Jack. Geopolitics and Conflict in South America: Quarrels Among Neighbors. New York; Praeger, 1985, pp. 112-115.
- Gough, Barry. The Falkland Islands/Malvinas: The Contest for Empire in the South Atlantic. London: Athlone Press, 1992, pp. 55-59.
- Strange, Ian J. The Falkland Islands. London: David & Charles Press, 1983, p. 194.