"The Storm at Apia, Samoa, 15-16 March 1889" Topic

"Since the 1780s, American merchant ships had been traveling the Pacific Ocean to China, trading ginseng, furs, and silver dollars for tea, chinaware, and silks. As this trade increased during the 19th century, United States diplomatic policy focused on securing commercial access to both Chinese ports and the many island groups across the Pacific. Although Samoa was off the main trade routes, American missionaries and steamship promoters encouraged governmental interest in the islands. At the same time, Britain and Germany, each with colonial possessions nearby, were also interested in the islands; for example, German merchants in particular were deeply involved in the Samoan copra trade. During the 1870s, all three powers established treaties of friendship and commerce with Samoa and secured the right to establish coaling and naval stations at Pago Pago.

In the late 1880s, German intervention in the civil war that broke out in Samoa outraged American public opinion and tensions grew in the islands. By March 1889, three American warships had been sent to Apia, Samoa, there joining three German warships, and one British, in a watchful standoff in the harbor. On 15-16 March 1889, a violent storm struck the islands, destroying or disabling six of the seven warships in Apia Harbor. Screw steamer USS Trenton, screw sloop USS Vandalia, and gunboat USS Nipsic were all wrecked, resulting in the deaths of 51 sailors. All three German warships also sank, killing 150. The disaster did ease tensions, paving the way for a previously scheduled conference at Berlin and eventually the islands were brought under a German-American protectorate in 1899…"
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Amicalement
Armand

I've been to Apia. Nice place. I wasn't aware of the above. There's no memorials etc.

Samoa's my pet project, and the last sentence of that summation made me cringe.

The typhoon effectively negated Western meddling in the Samoan Civil War. The war ultimately simmered, with the rebel leader Mata'afa getting exiled to another island chain in the South Pacific.

A decade later, the rebel leader returned from exile aboard a German ship and resumed his campaign in the Second Samoan Civil War, which did involve British and American sailors and Marines conducting actions on the island. One Sailor and three Marines received the Medal of Honor for their valor in the conflict.