Shown here is an 1890 engraving by prolific Naval artist William Bainbridge Hoff (grandson of Commodore William Bainbridge) of the schooner USS Grampus (on right) attack and disabling the Spanish privateer/pirate ship Palmyra in 1821. We are currently researching and working on an article about the U.S. Navy's West Indies Squadron. The Navy formed this squadron in 1820 in response to an alarming number of pirate attacks on American merchant vessels in the West Indies and Cuba.
