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The United States attack on Kuala Batu
In February 1831, an American merchant vessel, the Friendship, called on the harbour of Kuala Batu, on the Pedir coast of Sumatra. The ship was taking in a cargo of pepper when a Malay boat set off from the village, ostensibly to deliver part of the cargo. However, while the pepper was being carried aboard, the Malays, at a given signal, suddenly attacked the officers and crew. Owen Rutter, in his book "The Pirate Wind", said that every soul on board the vessel was killed in the raid and the pirates ransacked the ship, carrying off all its cargo and cash to the value of 8,000 dollars. Fortunately, the captain of the Friendship, Charles M Endicott, had been ashore with four of his men. Returning to his ship and finding his crew dead, cargo missing and his ship in shambles, he fled the area and sought the aid of other American cargo ships that were trading along the Pedir coast. These ships assembled at Kuala Batu and sent a message to the local chieftain demanding the punishment of the robbers and return or restitution of all property seized or damaged. However, the local chieftain - recorded as a certain 'Mahomet' - denied all knowledge of the attack. He had, in fact, added insult to injury by putting a price on the head of Captain Endicott and any of his officers and seamen who may have escaped the raid. The American ships returned to their base port in Salem, Massachusetts, to report the incident to the authorities.
Jackson believed that if those who committed this " act of atrocious piracy" were found to be "members of a regular government, capable of maintaining the usual relations with foreign nations", satisfaction could be negotiated. However, if they were to be "a band of lawless pirates", the frigate had orders to "inflict chastisement".
The Potomac weighed anchor five miles off Kuala Batu on February 5th, 1832, posing as a well-laden Danish East India merchant ship. Downes had received orders from Jackson to negotiate with the Malays before commencing any hostilities. However, Downes took the advice of a local Malay by the name of Adam who claimed to be friendly to the United States. Adam suggested that the local Chieftain was indisposed to negotiate, 'except with a very a sharp knife on his gullet.'
Downes was severely criticized at home by the press and the public for his severity but Jackson approved of his actions. In his fourth state of nation address, Jackson said that 'to inflict such a chastisement would deter them and others from like aggressions. This was done and the effect has been an increased respect for our flag and additional security for our commerce.' However, this 'chastisement' was very quickly forgotten by the Malays just seven years later when in August 1838, in the same area, the U.S merchant ship 'Eclipse', commanded by Captain Wilkins, suffered the same fate as the Friendship. While trading at a village called Trabongan, near the town of Muka, she was visited by a party of 24 Malays, who asked permission to come aboard. Wilkins was wracked with fever in his cabin, but his second mate allowed them on deck, asking them to surrender their arms before boarding. This they did without complain. However, when the Captain appeared on deck to receive them, the chief of the party complained and asked that their weapons be given back to them as a mark of good faith. Wilkins agreed to this request and the Malays were returned their krises. Minutes later, Wilkins was stabbed and killed. His second mate was stabbed as well, but saved himself by leaping overboard. Several members of the crew followed him while others climbed up the rigging to save themselves. The pirates then began to plunder the ship, carrying away with them four chests of opium and 18 thousand Spanish dollars.
The first American traders had arrived in Sumatra at the end of the 18th century and from then until 1860 it's estimated that American ships based largely in Salem made nearly a 1000 voyages, carrying away 370 million pounds of pepper, worth 17 million dollars - almost half the pepper produced in Acheh during this period. In fact, low operation costs and faster ships enabled American traders to compete with the British and Dutch in the pepper trade, which was a matter of concern to the two colonial powers. The then Sultan of Acheh, Sultan Muhammed Shah (1823-38) was under pressure by both the Dutch and the British to check this American trade and the Achinese had on occasion detained American ships on alleged violation of British or Dutch trading laws. A treaty signed with Acheh in 1819 with the British actually included an undertaking to exclude American powers from Acheh. It is therefore unclear just how much of this piracy on American ships was pure robbery and just how much of it was actually the colonial power games of the period.
However, the situation was to change dramatically in 1836 with the arrival in the Straits of HMS Diana - the Royal Navy's first steam-driven gunship in the East Indies This fast moving vessel - and those that followed it - could out manoeuvre and outrun the pirate prahus, especially upwind, while decimating the Malay ranks with its arsenal of long-range high-calibre cannon and rapid rifle fire from the armed sea men onboard. While there were still many instances of piracy, the new military technology of the West ensured it no longer became the dreaded scourge and terror that it was centuries before. With regard to the Potomac, after its sacking of Kuala Batu, it proceeded to do an official tour circumnavigating the world, also becoming the first US Navy ship to play host to royalty - the King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands (i.e.Hawaii). It finally returned to Boston in June 1834. Its voyage around the world became the subject of a book, 'Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac', by Downes' private secretary Jeremiah N Reynolds.
The assault on "Quallah Battoo" is celebrated in US Marine Corps annals, but little is mentioned of it elsewhere. While significant as being America's first military action in Asia, Downes' exploits were perhaps not as renowned and celebrated in US military annals as the earlier naval exploits of Stephen Decatur against the pirates of the Barbary coast at Tripoli in Libya. Then again, if one were to change the opening lines of the US Marines hymn to "From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Quallah Batoo..." - it perhaps might not have quite the same ring to it. References:
About the AuthorWrite to the author: sabrizain@malaya.org.uk
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The
United States' so-called War on Terror in
Afghanistan and Iraq is perhaps only the most recent example of the
many times
in which the long arm of US military power has reached into Asia to
protect its economic interests (as in the Gulf), increase its sphere
influence (as in the Philippines), overcome enemy nations and
ideologies (as in Vietnam) or exact national revenge (as in
Afghanistan). However, it is perhaps interesting for students of Malay
history to note that the United States' first-ever armed intervention
in Asia was against Malay states in Sumatra. The military assault on
'Quallah Battoo' (Kuala Batu) in Sumatra was a US response to attacks
by what were perhaps the most-feared 'terrorists' of the day - the
Malay pirate fleets of the Straits of Melaka.
The
then President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, promised swift
retribution. In his third State of Nation speech in December that year,
he told the Senate and House of Representatives that "a daring outrage"
had been committed in the seas of the East Indies involving the
"plunder" of one of its merchant-men engaged in the pepper trade at a
port in Sumatra. There appeared to be no room for diplomatic action as
Jackson believed that "the piratical perpetrators belonged to tribes in
such a state of society that the usual course of proceedings between
civilized nations cannot be pursued. I forthwith dispatched a frigate
with orders to require immediate satisfaction for the injury and
indemnity to the sufferers."
The
vessel selected to inflict this "chastisement" was the 'Potomac'
- a navy frigate built at the Washington navy Yard in 1822 equipped
with forty-two 32-pounder guns. Its commanding officer was a Commodore
John Downes and this expedition was its first overseas cruise. It
carried with it a combined force of over 300 armed Navy 'blue-jackets'
and US marines. The Potomac left Sandy Hook, New York, on
August 28th, 1831, and set off on what was to become the United States'
first-ever official military intervention in Asia.
It
was reported that all the Malays fought to the death before the
stockade was overcome - the spears, ancient flintlock muskets and earth
and wood fortifications of the Malays were no match for the rapid,
long-range and overpowering firepower of modern Western rifles and
forty-two 30-pounder cannons. One by one, the three other fortresses
were captured during five hours of bitter fighting. Over 150 of the
Malay pirates, including Mahomet were killed in attacks, while 2
American sea men were killed and 11 wounded. On February 9th, the men
returned to the Potomac and the vessel proceeded to bombard the
village itself, its cannons setting fire to and destroying the village
- and killing over 300 of its inhabitants.
News
of this second outrage reached Commodore Read of the US frigate Columbine
at Ceylon. He sailed with his quadrant for Kuala Batu and
demanded a surrender of the pirates and the property in their
possession. When he received no response, he promptly bombarded the
town. He then sailed for Muka where he landed a party of 30 officers
and 300 men. Within hours Muka was ablaze and its inhabitant scattered
to the surrounding jungles. 
It
cannot be denied though that the waters of the straits were indeed
infested by Malay pirates at the time. Referred to as the 'Vikings of
the East', no trading ships were safe from these sea-raiders. They
could shelter in a thousand lonely bays or a thousand hidden rivers
along the coast of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, only to sweep out
to open sea in swarms of up to 50 fast prahus and overwhelm the slow,
heavy sail ships of the East India merchant men. The pirate prahus were
fast and nimble, using both oars and light sails and were frequently
armed with a few small swivel guns. Dressed in scarlet and coats of
chain-mail, brandishing krises, two-handed swords and flint locks, the
pirates either murdered every soul on board or sold the survivors to
slavery. 
The
Kuala Batu incident itself formed part of the basis of an American
novel published in 1901 by a Kirk Munroe. Called "A Son of Satsuma", it
is an interesting mingling of fiction and fact, with the book's main
protagonist Bob Whiting finding himself stranded in Sumatra when his
ship, the Friendship, is captured by local pirates. He meets a
'Malay with gray eyes' and observes life in the pepper fields of
Sumatra before he makes his final dash for freedom and is rescued by
the Potomac and "Uncle Sam's long arm". The book ends with
Whiting in Japan, making arrangements for his trusty Japanese sidekick,
Kato, to join the US Naval Academy!