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    Bluejackets: The Special Service Squadron in Nicaragua
    Bluejackets: The Special Service Squadron in Nicaragua
    Bluejackets: The Special Service Squadron in Nicaragua
    Ebook130 pages2 hours

    Bluejackets: The Special Service Squadron in Nicaragua

    By Dom Albert Pagano

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    About this ebook

    Bluejackets, first published in 1932, is a firsthand account by seaman Dom Pagano who served in Nicaragua in 1926-27. Pagano, a sailor attached to the Special Service Squadron of the U.S. Navy (a fleet of 5 ships based at the Panama Canal), was sent to Nicaragua to protect American and foreign citizens and property. Pagano relates his experiences aboard ship as well as in-country fighting guerrilla soldiers. A classic example of the “gunboat diplomacy” practiced at the time, Bluejackets provides insight into a little-known chapter of American military and political history. Included are 18 pages of photographs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBurtyrki Books
    Release dateJan 30, 2020
    ISBN9781839742040
    Bluejackets: The Special Service Squadron in Nicaragua

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      Book preview

      Bluejackets - Dom Albert Pagano

      © Burtyrki Books 2020, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      BLUEJACKETS

      The Special Service Squadron in Nicaragua

      By

      DOM ALBERT PAGANO

      Bluejackets was originally published in 1932 by Meador Publishing Company, Boston.

      • • •

      TO

      THE MEN OF THE SPECIAL SERVICE SQUADRON

      AND TO THE GALLANT MARINES OF THE

      UNITED STATES WHO SERVED IN THE

      SECOND NICARAGUAN CAMPAIGN,

      THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      INTRODUCTION 5

      I. PREPARATIONS FOR AN EXPEDITION 7

      II. BLUEFIELDS 12

      III. ON THE RIO ESCONDITO 17

      IV. FREEBOOTERS 22

      V. CORINTO ON THE PACIFIC 26

      VI. MANAGUA, THE CAPITAL, OUR SECOND LANDING 31

      VII. LEON, CITY OF TURMOIL 35

      VIII. A MIDNIGHT ESCAPADE 42

      IX. THE MARINES HAVE LANDED 49

      X. CARCEL DE LA VIENTIUNA 52

      XI. TURNING THE SWORD INTO THE PLOUGHSHARE 60

      ILLUSTRATIONS 63

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 82

      INTRODUCTION

      The life of an American Gob is one replete with adventures and hair-raising thrills. Not the thrills that one finds in pleasure resorts, but those that are to be found in a strange country, with impending dangers, from raids and revolutions, constantly menacing the lives of its inhabitants.

      The Special Service Squadron, of the United States Navy, is a unit of five men-of-war operating from its base at Balboa. Tourists who engage passage on steamers that transit the Panama Canal, upon emerging from the Pacific terminal of the canal, often see a man-of-war at anchor in the harbor of Balboa. Many of them do not know that it is a member of this squadron, whose duties are, to patrol the Caribbean Sea on the Eastern side of the Isthmus and the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of the Panama Canal. During times of urgent necessity, these ships have ventured below the Equator as far south as Arica, Chile and across the vast expanse of the Pacific to some Asiatic station.

      The purpose of this story, is to describe the many experiences and adventures which were encountered by the members of the Naval forces, who went ashore in Nicaragua during the Revolution of 1926-27, to protect American and foreign lives and property.

      Those of you who participated in these landings, in reading this narrative, will readily note that it is not a work of fiction. In justice to some of my erring shipmates who misbehaved, I am forced to mask their identity. All the other names that appear throughout the book are legitimate and the incidents with which they are connected, to the best of my knowledge, are true and irrefutable.

      I have made no attempt to describe in detail the social and economic conditions, nor have I prepared a complete treatise of the country’s political history. I have endeavored to be impartial and non-partisan. If I speak kindly of the Liberals, it is because of their friendly and courteous attitude towards us in Bluefields and in Leon. On the other hand, the Liberals who treated us with disrespect, can neither be blamed nor condemned, for their credulous and simple nature caused them to be misled by the malicious instigators who went among them circulating the most impossible stories.

      The true state of affairs can best be judged by the statement made public by Colonel Henry L. Stimson upon his return from Nicaragua, where he acted in the capacity of arbitrator and used his good office in bringing to a close the bloodiest revolution in the history of Nicaragua:

      "I doubt if the people of this country have appreciated the bitterness of the strife and the horrors of the conditions which have existed during the revolution in Nicaragua.

      "Not only has the actual fighting been so fierce that in many battles the losses of the combatants, in proportion to their numbers have been as high as the losses in the Great War, but the conduct of the warfare has been brutal beyond expression.

      "When I reached Nicaragua I found that no prisoners were being taken by either side. The wounded, when captured, were killed and even when not captured most of them fell victim to the hardships of the climate and the jungle in which the fighting took place.

      "Cases were brought to my attention where non-combatants, men, women and children, were butchered in cold blood and also cases where such non-combatants were tortured and mutilated.

      Furthermore the country was drifting into anarchy and was becoming filled up with armed men who had formerly been in one army or the other and who were choosing the easier course of becoming bandits.

      I. PREPARATIONS FOR AN EXPEDITION

      In the summer of 1926, August to be exact, preparations for an extensive expedition were being made aboard the cruiser U.S.S. Galveston of the Special Service Squadron, which was tied up at the coaling docks of Balboa, the Pacific terminal of the Panama Canal.

      Men were hustling to and fro, and orders were being snapped by the supervising officers, urging the steady stream of heavily laden men, to greater efforts. Coal shooting down the chutes from the dock into the bunkers of the ship, caused the air to become permeated with a light mist of black dust which settled upon everything and clung to the profusely perspiring bodies of the weary men, as if to torment them further.

      From time to time, passing natives stopped to watch this loading process. A ship, taking on stores and coaling was not a novelty to them, but to see such an enormous quantity of foodstuffs and other stores being carried on board, and the haste with which the operations were being conducted, must have caused them to wonder at the reason for it all. We aboard, were as much in the dark as the natives, for the destination was known to the officers only, who for some reason or other, had maintained a secretive silence.

      As the last boxes and bags were being carried below decks, we were suddenly aroused by the getting under way signal which consists of three shrill air-rending blasts of the siren and one deep rumbling blast of the whistle, given a half hour before departure. This was answered by the lusty cheers and wild demonstrations of the men who were overjoyed at the prospect of leaving behind the Canal Zone with its monotony of drills. These antics, no doubt, further increased the bewilderment of the natives and probably caused them to feel that they were justified in their belief that we American sailors were muy loco.

      During the half hour which still remained, the men attended to the necessary details preparatory to leaving. Rat guards and chaffing gear were removed from the hawsers, the fires were sliced, and the engines turned over, so as to have everything in readiness for departure.

      Finally, the order to cast off was given and as the ship veered from the dock, eager hands pulled the heavy lines aboard and wound them on reels. At last! We were under way, and headed into the Panama Canal, but still, not knowing where bound for.

      Our trip northward through the Panama Canal was uneventful and uninteresting, for the novelty of traversing the Canal had worn off. We moved slowly through the first lock at a snail’s pace, for notwithstanding the fact that we were being towed by two electric cars, two other cars, one on each side and to the rear, checked our speed. A group of Army officers from a nearby fort, were gathered on the lock, and as the bridge reached the spot where they were standing, one of them shouted, Where are you bound for?

      The commander, who was standing on the bridge directing the operations with the supervision of the Canal pilot, reached for the megaphone and placing it to his mouth, replied in a none too gentle voice, We’re not a mail packet! Soon the fresh water Lake Gatun was reached, and the task of scrubbing decks began. Shoes were doffed, pants rolled up to the knees, the deck pumps turned on and coal-dusty decks were flushed clean. At frequent intervals, we passed large

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