Aegean Anti-Piracy Campaign
Greek pirate boats attacking a merchant ship.
Date 1825-1828 Location off Greece, Aegean Sea Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States	Greek Pirates
Commanders and leaders
John Rodgers	unknown
Strength
1 ship-of-the-line, 1 brig, 3 sloops-of-war, 2 schooners	unknown

The Aegean Anti-Piracy Campaign was a naval operation launched in 1825 by the United States Navy in response to the rise of piracy in the Aegean Sea. Due to the Greek Civil War and the decline of the Greek Navy, the Aegean quickly became a haven for pirates who sometimes doubled as privateers. American merchant vessels were attacked so the Mediterranean Squadron began escort and patrol duties. The campaign was declared a success in 1828.^[1][2]

Campaign

In the wake of the Greek Navy's defeat in the 1823 Battle of Bodrum, many sailors turned to privateering though they also attacked foreign shipping ragardless of nationality. Several American merchant ships were plundered by 1825 so that year President James Monroe sent Commodore John Rodgers to protect American commerce. From 1825 to 1828, seven American warships were assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron including the flagship USS North Carolina, the frigate USS Constitution, the sloops USS Fairfield, USS Lexington and USS Ontario, and the schooners USS Porpoise and USS Warren. The sloops and schooners were the main vessels deployed against the pirates due to the frigates and men-of-war which were too large to be effective. many of the Greek pirates used small three masted vessels called mistikos which were usually armed with one bow gun.^[3][4]

Commodore Rodgers' first squadron in the Aegean occupied it's time by convoying merchant ships and did not fight any engagements. In 1826 the squadron was withdrawn but another was sent in 1827 after a new escalation in piracy. Again the naval force was under John Rodgers' command. USS Warren would be the first to engage the brigands in battle, she was newly constructed and sailed from Boston in February of 1827. In September, the Warren ceased escort duty and under the command of Lieutenant Lawrence Kearny, she captured her first pirate ship while patrolling around Cape Matapan and the port of Carabusa. At the end of October, Warren ran a pirate brig aground on Cimolus island and after capturing the vessel the Americans cut away her masts and rigging. There the United States Navy burned a pirate boat and shelled the town. About the same time on October 4, Lieutenant Kearny captured a sixteen gun brig and a boat with fifteen pirates off Carabusa.^[5][6]

While sailing in convoy on October 16, Lieutenant Louis M. Goldsborough liberated a British brig Comet after watching it get captured by 250 pirates in five vessels. In the ensuing battle, forty to ninety brigands were killed or wounded while the Americans suffered no casuaties. Three brigs left the convoy at that point and two of them were later attacked. The first brig was captured of Khios and the second was abandoned by her crew before it was captured. On October 23, one American sailor from the Porpoise was wounded in a skirmish near Andros. USS Warren chased a ten gun pirate brig on October 25 and it grounded off Argenteire before sinking, the pirates escaped to shore. Warren recovered the American ship Cherub and the Austrian vessel Silence off Syros on October 28 and two days later the Americans captured a pirate tratta propelled by forty oars and landed sailors and marines on Mykonos to recover slolen property from the Cherub, Silence and the Rob Roy. One pirate boat was burned during the landing.^[7][8]

On November 7, a boat expedition from the Warren under the command of Lieutenant William L. Hudson destroyed one pirate boat and captured another off Andros. The Warren also landed men on Argenteire and Milos in December, and convoyed eight American merchant vessels from Milos to Smyrna. In just over two months, the Warren captured or destroyed seven pirate vessels, rescued three merchant ships, recovered stolen property, escorted two convoys, and patrolled hundreds of miles in the Mediterranean. By the end of 1827, the United Kingdom, Russia and France had deployed their own fleets to the Aegean for suppression of piracy and to support Greek independence from Turkey.^[9][10]

In January a combined fleet of British, French and Russian warships attacked Carabusa which was a major center of piracy. Following it's destruction, reports of pirate attacks began to cease and by the end of 1828, Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard declared that because of the convoy system enforced by the United States Navy and the arrival of powerful fleets in the Aegean, the threat of piracy was eliminated.^[11][12]