PROLOGUE

Navy Secretary W. A. Graham ordered a warship to Johanna 15 months after the captain of the Maria had been released .

erett . Since Dale was still at sea , Everett referred the matter to the navy . In March 1853 , with the indemnity issue still unresolved , New Hamp- shire Democrat Franklin Pierce became presi- dent and William L. Marcy , of New York , secretary of state . Finally , in April 1853 , the navy reported that Dale had returned from its African cruise with the indemnity .

One final obstacle developed . When Samuel Rodman , who owned the Maria along with Charles W. Morgan , learned that Captain Pear- son had obtained $ 1,000 for Mooers ' captivity , he wrote the State Department suggesting that the money be divided among the crew , captain , and owners in the same manner as profits from a whaling voyage . Traditionally , every whale- man , from the captain down , received a speci- fied fraction , or " lay , " of a voyage's proceeds , with the remainder falling to the owner . Al- though the precise terms for the Maria's voyage are not known , a typical arrangement on a whal- ing ship might provide a 1 / 16th share for the captain and as little as 1 / 190th for a green hand . 20 According to the lay system , Rodman and his co - owner stood to receive the main share of the indemnity received from Selim .

All parties in the dispute hired lawyers to rep- resent their interests , but , after reviewing the details of the case , Secretary of State Marcy de- cided that the whole indemnity should be paid to Mooers . Over Rodman's protest , Marcy con- cluded that Mooers alone had been " imprisoned on the island , and left to his fate by his ship , which went to sea without him . " Under those circumstances , he held , only Mooers had any claim to the indemnity . Since the captain had returned to sea by this time , Marcy ordered the whole amount paid to Mrs. Harriet Mooers , as her husband's representative . Such was the " sense of justice " in the nation's captial . The State Department closed out the Johanna affair by officially informing Congressman Grinnell about the proceedings and their result . It was hoped , wrote Acting Secretary A. Dudley Mann , that henceforth American whaling ships at Jo- hanna would not be " subjected to the annoy- ances which were formerly the cause of complaint . " 21

It would be an oversimplification to regard the Johanna affair as an expression of consciously oppressive policy toward an African nation . In the days before the invention of the telegraph , vessels were frequently out of touch for long periods . Naval officers necessarily exercised a good deal of independent authority depending

on circumstances .

Yet it is a fact that in dealing with nonwestern peoples , Americans and Europeans - used threats and force in place of negotiation . After Sumatran pirates attacked and robbed the Amer- ican merchant vessel Friendship in 1831 , a navy assault force attacked Kuala Batu , destroying the town and killing perhaps one hundred and sixty natives . 22 In 1843 , after members of the Fishmen tribe from the Ivory Coast of Africa plundered the schooner Mary Carver and killed its captain , Commodore Matthew C. Perry demanded exe- cution of the culprits . When disagreement broke out during negotiations between Perry and the Fishmen , shots were fired that resulted in the death of their king . Perry then avenged the Mary Carver by burning the Fishmen village at Little Berebee , 23

Not only Americans used violence as a first resort . When Madagascar's Queen Ranavolana expelled British and French merchants from her island , an Anglo - French naval squadron bom- barded the Malagasi town of Tamatave.24 The phrase " gunboat diplomacy " is generally asso- ciated with a later era , but its fundamental source - condescension toward those regarded as less civilized than ourselves - was already well established in the middle of the nineteenth century .

248 WINTER 1986