Action of USS Alligator

Date: November 9, 1822 • Location: Islamorada, United States

USS Alligator engaged three pirate schooners off the coast of Cuba in one of the West Indies anti-piracy operations of the United States.

USS Alligator was a schooner of the United States Navy that served from 1821 until her loss in 1822. Built at the Boston Navy Yard, she was commissioned in March 1821 under Lieutenant Robert F. Stockton. During two cruises off the west coast of Africa, Alligator operated against the Atlantic slave trade, capturing several slave ships. On her first cruise, Stockton and American Colonization Society representative Eli Ayers also negotiated the acquisition of territory around Cape Mesurado, which became an early centre of the settlement that developed into Liberia.