Samoan crisis

Main article: History of Samoa

See also: Samoan Civil War, First Samoan Civil War, Second Samoan Civil War, Siege of Apia, and German Samoa

The Samoan Crisis was a confrontation standoff between the United States, Imperial Germany and Great Britain from 1887–1889 over control of the Samoan Islands during the Samoan Civil War. The incident involved three American warships, USS Vandalia, USS Trenton and USS Nipsic and three German warships, SMS Adler, SMS Olga, and SMS Eber, keeping each other at bay over several months in Apia harbour, which was monitored by the British warship HMS Calliope.

The standoff ended on 15 and 16 March when a cyclone wrecked all six warships in the harbour. Calliope was able to escape the harbour and survived the storm. Robert Louis Stevenson did not witness the storm and its aftermath at Apia, however after his arrival in Samoa (December 1889) he wrote about the event. The Samoan Civil War continued, involving Germany, United States and Britain, eventually resulting, via the Tripartite Convention of 1899, in the partition of the Samoan Islands into American Samoa and German Samoa.

Gallery

• Samoan crisis salvaged guns.jpg

  Salvaged guns from the wrecked American ships at Apia.

• USS Vandalia and USS Trenton.jpg

  A view of the sunken USS Vandalia from the deck of USS Trenton.

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  Apia and the beach covered in driftwood and debris from the wrecked warships.

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  USS Nipsic's wreck

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  SMS Adler, knocked over on the beach, 1889.

• SMS Adler 1889 2.jpg

  SMS Adler, view of her deck, 1889.

• SMS Adler 1889 3.jpg

  SMS Adler´s wreck, circa 1938

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  Illustrated London News for 27 April 1889; artist’s conception of HMS Calliope being cheered on by the crew of USS Trenton as Calliope escapes from Apia Harbour. Calliope actually passed to Trenton´s port.

• Samoan crisis memorial tablet 6.jpg

  A memorial at Mare Island Naval Yard for the Americans killed in the cyclone.

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  Wrecked ships in Apia Harbour. German gunboat SMS Eber is on the beach, the stern of USS Trenton is at right, with the sunken USS Vandalia alongside. SMS Adler is on her side in the center distance.

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  Wrecked vessels at Apia Harbor, Upolu, Samoa, during salvage efforts soon after the storm. The view looks about northward, with USS Trenton and the sunken USS Vandalia to the left and the beached German corvette Olga at right.Wreckage just off Trenton's stern may be from the German gunboat Eber, which was destroyed when she struck the harbor reef during the hurricane.

• Samoan crisis 7.jpg

  Another angle of the wrecked warships.

• Samoan Crisis wrecks.jpg

  Wrecked warships off Apia