Texan schooner San Bernard
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Texan schooner San Antonio.jpg |Ship image size=250px |Ship caption=Schooner San Antonio, sister ship of San Bernard }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Republic of Texas |Ship flag=60px |Ship name= |Ship namesake=San Bernard River |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Schott and Whitney, Baltimore |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=1836 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=31 August 1839 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=11 May 1846 |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed=Originally called the Scorpion |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport=Galveston, Texas |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=*Transferred to the United States Navy upon the annexation of Texas
|Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=Schooner |Ship type= |Ship tonnage= |Ship displacement=170 tons |Ship tons burthen= |Ship length=66 feet |Ship beam=21.5 |Ship height= |Ship draught=8 ft. |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=wind |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed=variable |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement=*13 officers
|Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*4-12 lb. med.
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The Texan schooner San Bernard was a two-masted schooner of the Second Texas Navy from 1839-1840. She was the sister ship of the San Jacinto and the San Antonio. In 1840, San Antonio was part of the Texas Navy flotilla led by Commodore Edwin Ward Moore which was dispatched to assist Yucatecan rebels that had taken up arms against Mexico. Returning to the Yucatan in 1841, San Bernard assisted in the capture of three Mexican prizes. Upon return to Galveston, San Bernard was driven ashore and was not repaired. When Texas joined the United States in 1846, San Bernard was transferred to the United States Navy and then sold for $150.
Background of the Texas Navy
The Texas Navy was officially formed in January 1836, with the purchase of four schooners: Invincible, Brutus, Independence, and Liberty. These ships, under the command of Commodore Charles Hawkins, helped Texas win independence by preventing a Mexican blockade of the Texas coast, seizing Mexican ships carrying reinforcements and supplies to its army, and sending their cargoes to the Texas volunteer army. Nevertheless, Mexico refused to recognize Texas as an independent country. By the middle of 1837, all of the ships had been lost at sea, run aground, captured, or sold. With no ships to impede a possible invasion by Mexico, Texas was vulnerable to attack.
In 1838, President Mirabeau B. Lamar responded to this threat by forming a second Texas Navy. Unlike Sam Houston, Lamar was an ardent supporter of the Texas Navy and saw the urgent need for its continuation. The second Texas Navy was placed under the command of Commodore Edwin Ward Moore, an Alexandria Academy graduate who was recruited from the United States Navy.{{cite web | title=The Texian Navy| publisher=Sons of the Republic of Texas| url=http://www.srttexas.org/PDF%20files/SRT_Texas_Navy.pdf | accessdate=2007-11-01}} One of the ships of this second navy was the San Jacinto along with her sister ships, the San Jacinto and San Bernard.
History of the ''San Bernard''
File:Pennant of the San Bernard.svg
Originally built as one of the Baltimore clippers at the Schott and Whitney shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland and called Scorpion, she was one of the smallest of a class of schooners and brigs built specifically for the slave trade between 1820 and 1850. A group of six schooners, including La Amistad was built in Baltimore around 1836. They were identified as being "[p]urposely built and fitted out for use in the slave trade by the United States Consul General in Havana", and AScorpion was typical of the class.{{cite web | title=La Amistad| url=http://www.tricoastal.com/amistad.html| accessdate=2007-11-24}}
=On patrol and carrying dispatches=
On 26 June 1840, the San Bernard sailed from Galveston with the rest of the flotilla under the command of Commodore Edwin W. Moore. After a season of patrolling off the Texas coast to intercept smugglers and to engage in surveys and cartography, Lt. Crisp and the San Bernard delivered Texas agent James Webb to Veracruz, arriving on 31 May 1841 but were refused landing rights by port officials. San Bernard remained off the coast of Veracruz until the end of June and then sailed for the Yucatan. While crossing the Bay of Campeche, her topmast was carried away and she was compelled to return to Galveston, reaching port on 20 June 1841.{{cite web | last=Cutrer| first=Thomas |title=San Bernard| work =Handbook of Texas Online |publisher=Texas State Historical Association| url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qts02| accessdate=2007-11-24}}
=Capturing prizes=
Joining the flagship Austin and San Antonio, San Bernard set sail again for the Yucatan on 13 December 1841. The flotilla reached Sisal on 6 January 1842, For the next couple of months, she participated in the capture of the Mexican merchant vessels Progreso, Dolorita and the Dos Amigos in April 1842. Off Tampico, Lt. Crisp and San Bernard were ordered back to Galveston to deliver dispatches and reports. San Bernard did not return to Commodore Moore and the rest of the Texas fleet until 24 April 1842.
=Beached and rotting=
At the end of this cruise San Bernard returned to Galveston in early September. The ship was badly worm-eaten. Despite authorization to have her repaired in New Orleans, no funds were provided to pay for the work by the Minister of War and Marine. Later that month, the San Bernard was driven ashore by a gale, and lacking the $500 required to refloat her and have her repaired she became a deserted hulk in Galveston harbor.
Transfer to the U.S. Navy
=Commanders of the Vessel=
The San Antonio was commanded by:
References
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Further reading
- {{cite book | last = U.S. Navy Department. Naval History Division. | title = The Texas Navy | url = http://texashistory.unt.edu/data/UNT/Books/meta-pth-2419.tkl | format = e-book | year = 1968 | publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office | oclc = 11274 }}
{{Texas Navy}}
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Category:Naval ships of the Republic of Texas
Category:Ships of the Texas Navy