Affair of Honor

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David Porter wherein the author wrote:

gave me the utmost pain, as it was attended by

th k- ^t^^{le Carl}y ^day^s- officer of the Navy recognized ^e ffiding force of the duel in the settlement of their -°nal differences. During the first 50 years of the te_s^{d                        1798}~¹⁸⁴⁸’ ^the mortality of naval officers,

^{u tln}g from duels, was two-thirds that resulting from ^a wars. Duelling was regarded as an especially offi ^{r0y>riate metdod} redressing grievances for naval 5frs because their profession was that of arms.

^ idshipmen were the principal duelists in the old ^avy. Not having much rank, they were jealous of q ^at rhey had. And, living as they did in crowded _n- ^arters on board ships which afforded many opportu- ^ ^les for misunderstanding and disagreement, they ^U %ht for what might seem to us to be trivial

cord^>tlS °^{r n}° ^{reason at ad}' Thus, of 82 officially re- ^cd duels, midshipmen participated in 52.

^all the duels fought by naval officers, one which p ^rred in 1813 was of particular interest to President _tp_e^ln D. Roosevelt. His interest began on reading J^0Urnal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean, by ave now the painful task of mentioning an occu rrence

® P£L 1 >P •yyiio f-lto 'ii+’vy>s\c+                                                                                                * 4-                                  d L.,

^premature death of a promising young officer, whereby _an^^{erVKe a}*         ^^as received an irreparable injury,

£ b a practice which disgraces human nature, l shall, and^Ver’ *^^{row a ve}^ ^over whole previous proceedings on  ^^ ^state’ ^^at without my knowledge, they met

fell °^Ve’ ^                            ^an^ ^at             third fi^re> Atr. Cowan

dead. His remains were buried the same day in the ⁰ where he fell, and the following inscription was ^pLaced over his tomb:

Cowan was buried under a tree and a wooden head­board placed over his grave with the obituary composed by a fellow officer, lieutenant McKnight.

The log of the Essex is missing for this date, but an examination of ship movements places the Essex as lying off James Island, Galapagos Archipelago, when this duel took place. Early in the I6th century Spanish navigators discovered these islands and gave them the name of Galapagos, derived from galapago, a tortoise, on account of the giant species which abound. English buccaneers, for whom the group formed a convenient retreat gave the individual islands English names.

On one of his early fishing vacations, President Roosevelt, called at James Island and encouraged offi­cers and men to go ashore from the naval vessel and search for the grave of Lieutenant Cowan. Their efforts were unsuccessful but a careful examination was made of all logical sites. So many wild cattle and large dogs inhabit James Island, that the amateur archaeologists went ashore accompanied by a squad of riflemen. Thereafter and up until World War II, whenever a ship of the Special Service Squadron, based in Panama, had occasion to sail through the Galapagos, they made a stop at James Island, to resume the search for the grave of Lieutenant Cowan. The writer participated in one of these fruitless searches from the USS Erie in 1940.

Whether this periodic search is being continued is not known, but it seems likely that Lieutenant Cowan will remain undisturbed in the lost grave of Galapagos.