Part X - The Six Frigates
For many Latin American countries, the United States had been a model of democracy, liberty, freedom, and effective, non-tyrannical government. The American Revolution, conducted against the world's greatest military power, had been successful. The people of America - not just of the United States, but of Mexico, of Central America, of Brazil, and Argentina, and Chile - could achieve anything.
This was how Central America would view itself for many years following its independence.
In the 1790s, proposals had been laid down in the United States for the building, construction, and deployment of six frigates to be commissioned into the United States Navy. These ships - to become the
USS Constellation, Constitution, United States, Chesapeake, Congress, and
President - would be finished and manned over a period of several years. In the Quasi War of 1798 to 1800,
USS Constellation, under the command of Captain Thomas Truxtun, secured many victories against French privateers, the most known of which was fought against the 40-gun frigate
L'Insurgente. The small conflicts in the Quasi War - in which only two of the six frigates,
Constellation and the newly-commissioned
Constitution had participated - had given the few commanders and seamen of the United States Navy valuable experience in combat, as well as lessons learned in the expansion of the world's newest formidable navy.
USS Constellation at sea. Her 38-gun armament was smaller than
the 44 guns of Constitution, President, and United States
It is widely believed among historians that President Morazán, Jaime Torres, Antonio Moreno, and Bernardo Barillas were widely inspired by the stories and lore of the first days of the United States Navy.
The first day of work was brutal for Bernardo Barillas, new Captain of the Central American Navy. He was bombarded by budget reports and political rhetoric, which he demanded be directed towards his secretary, a Corporal Hidalgo. Over time he had adjusted to his new life, a life he readily accepted if it would further the country he had been born into and lived in for quite some time, a country he loved dearly. He was perpetually found in the office of Secretary Moreno, where he was often met by Secretary Torres and were supplied with a box of cigars, a pile of budgetary papers and entire reports by Secretary Vega [of the Treasury]. They would talk for hours on end, of how to continue sufficient funding for the Navy, how to organize and establish a hierarchy within the Department, and how to begin going about building the Republic a navy from the ground up. As time went on, the conversations dwindled into small talk and, soon, nothing - the two of them, occasionally accompanied by Secretary Torres - as they sat did nothing, wordlessly writing out reports and requests and letters to be sent to the Department or other Departments or other sections of the government, dreaming in their heads a way to spark conversation, or doing absolutely nothing at all, enjoying the tobacco that Secretary Moreno had so generously supplied them with.
One day, however - it would be August 11, Captain Barillas would later recall - that when they entered Moreno's office for their daily conference, they found but a single letter on the oaken wood desk, sent from a Alexander Mueller, an immigrant from northern Germany. He claimed to be a shipwright and owner of a shipping company based in San Salvador. He had - though illegally, he admitted - built war-grade ships that would be able to withstand punishment from any privateers or pirates attempting to plunder them. He claimed he had experience with designing ships that could take punishment equivalent of a heavy frigate, and dish out just as much with a heavy, concentrated battery of guns. He was immediately invited to a conference with Barillas and Moreno.
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"Ah, Captain Barillas! And Secretary Moreno; it is an honor to meet such men as yourselves."
Mueller had entered the room with nothing less than a grand entrance, strutting into a conversation involving cigars and papers while dressed for the occasion: he had a large-brimmed hat with a gleaming white feather plucked into its side, high, black boots, well-fitting pants and a clean, pressed vest over his shirt.
Barillas and Moreno shook hands and continued with the pleasantries. As Moreno sat, relaxed, in his usual chair, and Barillas swung a bare wooden seat from the corner, Mueller sat in the guest chair opposite Moreno. "Now, I hear the two of you have quite the obstacle?"
Moreno nodded, still smoking his cigar. Leaning back in his chair, he pointed at Mueller, cigar still between his fingers. "And it has been said that you have what it takes to get us past this obstacle?" he said amused, a wisp of smoke wafting into the air with the smell of pure tobacco.
Mueller smiled. "Then those that have said so could be quite right," he said enticingly. "Though my actions may be deemed illegal, I promise that they have only been done with the supreme intentions for the Central American state," he continued, nodding assuredly. "I have armed very trustworthy merchants with only the highest-quality ships that could fight like a man o' war if they had to. Protect against privateers, pirates, and the like. I've equipped a few of my own ships similarly as well."
This brought about a chuckle from Moreno. "And why is it then, Señor Mueller, that you have not come to us earlier? We established the Department months ago and have been notifying everyone from New Orleans to Santiago of our cause to establish a navy for the safety of the South American coast and the Caribbean?"
Mueller was struck, but quickly recovered. "Didn't want to react too quickly. God knows it could've been a ploy to catch people like me. Non-government men trying to do the right thing and strike back at the pirates. Naturally, I would've been viewed as immoral." Mueller then smirked, holding back his own chuckle. "Bad for business, you know."
There was a silence as the two Navy men observed Mueller, and Mueller observed back. Then Barillas, standing, said, "Señor Mueller, we have a proposition. If you wish to cooperate in our building and constructing of a navy, we will have the Court of the Republic drop any charges that may be made by the confessions you made to get yourself in this room today." Mueller observed the words, nodding and scratching his chin. He then nodded, assuring himself moreso than the two men he was conversing with, and smiled yet again. "Yes, I can agree to this. I will do anything for the Republic, as I have already done. I would do anything more for Central American than for Prussia. No respect for the ship, Prussia has. They believe that the Army is the central piece for any military. How wrong they are. I just hope they don't claim leadership over Germany one day."
Moreno and Barillas, eyeing one another and keeping themselves from laughing, nodded and m-hm'd to keep Mueller's attention. The meeting, however short and informal it had been, was a success.
A photograph of businessman
Alexander Mueller, dated 1857
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Mueller would begin serving the government of Central America by bringing to Moreno's office several days later his blueprints for several ships that he had employed by his company. One type caught the eye of the two seamen immediately - a heavy frigate, fast enough to battle sloops and heavy heavy and powerful enough to out-battle a ship-of-the-line. The ships would be armed with a 46-gun main armament and would weigh in at over 2,300 tons.
Moreno and Barillas both wrote a letter to President Morazán stating the outcome of the meeting on August 11 and the plans they had already drawn up. Six frigates would be built - three frigates in the Caribbean, and three frigates in the Pacific. Two frigates would be built at Guatemala City, and one at San Salvador, both on the west coast. On the east coast, a much less densely-populated region, one frigate would be built at San Pedro Sula, one at Puerto Barrios, and one at Puerto Lempira.
The two frigates to be built at Guatemala City would be named
Suerte - Luck - and
Leopardo - Leopard. The frigate built at San Salvador would be christened as the
Halcón - Falcon.
The frigate built in Puerto Barrios was to be named
Unidad, Unity; the frigate in San Pedro Sula,
Tiburón, Shark; and the frigate in Puerto Lempira,
Primer Ministro, the Prime Minister.
Indeed, Central America was to have it's Six Frigates.