Action of 1 January 1800 1800
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 1 January 1800 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1800 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: North America) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Quasi-War, War of the South | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Andre Rigaud, David Porter, French First Republic, United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 19.0000, -73.5000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The action of 1 January 1800 was a naval battle of the Quasi-War that took place off the coast of present-day Haiti, near the island of Gonâve in the Bight of Léogâne. The battle was fought between an American convoy of four merchant vessels escorted by the United States naval schooner USS Experiment, and a squadron of armed barges manned by Haitians known as picaroons.
A French-aligned Haitian general, André Rigaud, had instructed his forces to attack all foreign shipping within their range of operations. Accordingly, once Experiment and her convoy of merchant ships neared Gonâve, the picaroons attacked them, capturing two of the American merchant ships before withdrawing. Experiment managed to save the other two ships in her convoy, and escorted them to a friendly port. On the American side, only the captain of the schooner Mary was killed. Though the picaroons took heavy losses during this engagement, they remained strong enough to continue wreaking havoc among American shipping in the region. Only after Rigaud was forced out of power by the forces of Toussaint L'Ouverture, leader of the 1791 Haitian Revolution, did the picaroon attacks cease.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action of 1 January 1800 (revision 1370425777), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot 1802 · 85 km
- Battle of La Bombarde 1794 · 90 km
- Battle of Gonaïves 1794 · 99 km
- Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres 1802 · 103 km
- Battle of the Acul 1794 · 106 km
- Battle of Jean-Rabel 1797 · 107 km
Other battles of the Quasi-War
Browse more: battles at sea · North America · 19th century battles