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THE DALE AT WAR IN MEXICAN WATERS

Meyers took an active part in another shore operation on April 7th. A considerable force of seamen and marines under Lieutenant Fabius Stanley landed by boats at the mouth of the Soldado River, bent on spiking three cannon which remained in hostile possession. After a hot and dusty match of twelve miles into the interior the guns were found; one long eighteen pounder and two long twelves. The Gunner's technical knowledge came into play while he superintended sealing the vent holes with metal spikes driven tightly in. Before the guns could be fired again the spikes would have to be drilled out, and that would be exceedingly difficult and time-consurning with the poor facilities available to the Mexicans. On the return march a detachment of enemy troops was encountered and in the skirmish that followed one of them was killed and three wounded. The American casualties were two wounded.

News of an armistice pending conclusion of the peace negotiations finally reached Guaymas in April 1848, and our men now fraternized with the people ashore in the little adobe town of three streets and 2,500 inhabitants. Craven met and established the best of relations with his late prisoner, Lieutenant Zaavedra who kept a combined billiard room, restaurant and wine shop. A delegation of Indians from the Gila River, having heard that their country was to become a part of the United States, came to give assurances of satisfaction and loyalty. They were delighted to be received on board the Dale and amazed to see some target practice with great gum held for their edification.

The ship-of-the-line Ohio arrived in June flying the broad pennant of the new Commander-in-Chief, Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. She created a sensation among the local inhabitants who had never seen so huge a ship before. From miles around people came flocking to see the magnificent vessel, with her towering masts, huge hull and three tiers of main battery guns. News that peace had been concluded finally released the weary Dale from Guaymas and on July 5th she sailed for La Paz. The outbreak of revolution in Lower California and about Mazatlan, however, held the ship in that vicinity until September 21st, 1848, when she finally left the Gulf of California after nearly a full year of arduous service there. The war and the post-war adjustments were finally over for the little sloop-of-war Dale.

It is probable that before the Dale left Guaymas in July the artist to whom we are so deeply indebted for the exceedingly interesting and historically valuable sketches reproduced herein was on his way home with paints and brushes. For some years he had been a victim of neuralgia, induced as he supposed "by superintending the manufacture of fulminating and other powders at the Naval Laboratory at Washington." He states that for months the surgeons on the Dale "exerted themselves as much as lie in their power for my restoration to health -- but unfortunately to no effect."

Finally in May, 1847, he tendered his resignation from the Navy, believing that a change of climate would be of benefit. Commodore Biddle forwarded the resignation to the Navy Department which accepted it on December 15th of that year. The acceptance was not received by Meyers until about June 23,1848, having been apparently brought around the Horn in the ship-of-the-line Ohio. Meyers probably left the Dale soon after this.

Writing from Philadelphia in April 1849, the ex-Gunner applied to the Secretary of the Navy for reinstatement. Letters from many friends supported the application, but it could not be approved because Meyers' right side had unfortunately been paralyzed a few months previously. Let us hope that in this deplorable affliction he was spared the use of that brush which no doubt afforded him great pleasure -- the brush which has given us exceptional and realistic impressions of the little known yet stirring events of the Mexican War on the Pacific coast.

The naval operations in the western waters of Mexico, in which the Dale such an active part, had little if any influence upon the course of the war as a whole. Strategically they were sound and well warranted. Offensive effort an our part in that quarter tended to engage hostile forces that otherwise might have been employed against us in California, or sent east to the defense of Mexico City. The western blockade also helped General Scott in the east by depriving his opponent of munitions.

Owing to the military weakness of Mexico however, these considerations are largely theoretical. No doubt Scott would have succeeded without the support of Shubrick in the Pacific, and the naval forces available in California had been so strengthened as to be amply sufficient for its defense. This magnificent and fabulously rich country was a prize which the Navy could hand over to the nation with permanent certainty.

Captain Dudley W. Knox, U. S. N.

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