Our search for the Republic of Texas Navy ships Zavala
and Brutus. Both lost in Galveston Harbor, Texas. November,
1986
In April of 1984 Barbara and I visited Wayne Gronquist
in Austin, Texas. During our stay, Wayne led me over to
the capitol building and the Governor's office where I
was presented with a certificate signed by Governor White
proclaiming me an Admiral in the Texas Navy (if they numbered
them I'd probably be 4,932).
With a slip of the lip I announced that since becoming
an Admiral the least I could do was to find myself a
ship.
Masochistically hooked once again and compelled to
uphold my blowhard image, I called old pal Bob Fleming
in Washington and set out to locate a shipwreck from
the Republic of Texas Navy. Yes folks, Texas really
had a navy, two as a matter of fact. The first navy
was made up of four warships that were destroyed between
1835 and 1837. The second navy, under the brilliant
leadership of Commodore Edwin Moore and consisting of
nine ships, lasted from 1838 until 1843.
The combined Texas Navies left a remarkable historical
legacy. The early ships, including the Brutus, harassed
Santa Ana's supply ships, capturing several and thereby
contributing to Sam Houston's victory at San Jacinto.
Actually, quite a bit was written about the Texas fleet
around the turn of the century, the prime example by
Jim Dan Hill in his book "The Texas Navy",
and yet the story seems to have been veiled and forgotten.
Most Texans don't even know their short-lived republic
even had a navy.
Many nice people in Galveston became swept up in the
project and helped immeasurably. Without Kay Taylor-Hughes'
outstanding research efforts, we might never have found
the Zavala. And the site of the Brutus was pretty well
pinpointed by Mike Davis. Other people who proved so
helpful were Sylvia Jackson, Senator Chet Brooks, Stan
Weber, and my good friend and business partner, Bob
Esbenson. And, lest we forget Wayne Gronquist, who put
the project together and Bartol Arnold of the Texas
State Antiquities Commission who was most helpful and
cooperative.
Research showed most of the ships to be gone without
any hope of discovery. One was captured by the Mexicans
and lost in the past. One was lost at sea, another on
Las Arcas island in the Gulf. Most were sold off or
broken up when transferred to the U.S. Navy during annexation.
There were only three possibilities, perhaps four.
These were ships wrecked in and around Galveston. References
to two were too vague to pursue at the time. Our best
odds were to concentrate on the Texas Navy steamship
Zavala and the schooner Brutus. Both grounded during
storms in the harbor and became derelict hulks in areas
we hoped were still accessible.
The Brutus was a schooner armed and commissioned in
February 1836. She was 180 feet in length with a 22
foot beam and carried a "long 18-pounder swivel
and nine short guns". She sailed on a cruise that
caused havoc along the Gulf shore and Yucatan coast,
taking the conflict into Mexican waters while capturing
several prize ships. In her short career the Brutus
did her share to help the Republic of Texas through
its stormy infancy.
In October of 1837 a tremendous gale swept the Texas
coast, destroying a number of structures and wrecking
a score of ships. The Brutus was mentioned as being
"considerably injured". Contemporary reports
stated that she was left grounded near Williams Wharf.
In 1884 the harbor near William's Wharf was being deepened
when the dredges uncovered two of the Brutus' guns and
a section of her frame. They were mounted in the yard
of John Stoddart Brown, a prominent Galveston businessman
but disappeared during the great 1900 storm that leveled
much of the city. In 1963 the 18-pounder was discovered
during the construction of a service station. As of
this date it exhibited at the Hendley Building on the
Strand.
Davis' survey places the Brutus at the end of 24th
street and Pier 23 under the Salvage Wharf Company warehouse
22-23. The survey and brief are included in the next
section.
I have to say at this point that although the 1911
newspaper report says the ship was sunk and later dredged
at the foot of 27th street, Davis' research shows the
Zavala was the only wreck from 29th street to 25th and
24th. So his claim to the Brutus being closer to 24th
street is mostly likely correct.
The Zavala was a project that was fun and intriguing
proved to be a great source of satisfaction.
She was originally a fast steam packet that ran between
New York and her namesake city in South Carolina. She
was remembered as a "sweet handling ship"
and for her survival of a heavy storm that sank other
ships around her.
The Zavala was purchased by the Republic of Texas and
refitted as a warship. She was a sidewheel steamer measuring
201 feet in length with a 24 foot beam and propelled
by two walking-beam engines. Her armament consisted
of four 12-pounder medium guns and one long 9-pounder.
During her service, the Zavala patrolled the waters
off Yucatan and on one expedition towed the San Bernard
and Austin up the Tabasco River ninety miles to the
provincial capital and seized it. Later, on a voyage
back to Galveston, she encountered a terrible storm
that caused her crew to burn bulkheads and supplies
after her coal supplies ran out so she could make port.
After her one and only cruise as a warship, the Zavala
was laid up and allowed to deteriorate. She began to
leak so badly that she was run aground to keep from
sinking. The ship then was stripped and became a deserted,
rotting hulk at the upper end of the harbor's mud flats.
In time she settled deeper into the marsh until only
her boilers and one funnel remained to view.
Eventually, land filling covered her completely and
she was totally forgotten.
That is, until NUMA and its team came along in 1986.
The key that both Taylor-Hughes and Fleming turned up
was a drawing of the capture of the Harriet Lane, a
Union warship during the battle of Galveston in the
Civil War. To the left of the sketch, beside Bean's
Wharf, there is a smokestack sticking out of the water
labeled "Zavala".
From this clue the Texans to a man thought the Zavala
sank beside the channel and all remains were dredged
out of existence many years ago. I, however, couldn't
bring myself to write her off. I poured over charts
of the waterfront showing the location of wharfs and
made overlays from surveys in 1856, 1862, 1927, and
1982, carefully measuring where the old streets once
ran as compared to modern thoroughfares.
Bean's Wharf was well marked. But my breakthrough came
when I noted the difference in wharf's size and layout
between the 1856 shore chart and drawing showing the
docks and city circa 1871. My reasoning was that Bean
would have never built his wharf where the Zavala's
wreck would have hampered ships unloading at the dock.
It only seemed logical that the ship was both under
and alongside the wharf.
Then, while the team was assembling, Esbenson and I
checked out my site. Incredibly it was open. Warehouses,
grain elevators and huge concrete dock facilities run
almost two miles along the channel, but this particular
spot was free of structures because of a grain elevator
explosion that killed nearly 30 people and destroyed
the warehouse over what I determined was the former
location of Bean's Wharf. The debris of the warehouse
had been removed right down to the dirt, and it was
now a parking lot for the elevator workers.
While I stood on top of the nearby grain elevator and
lined up the streets, Esbenson stood in the parking
lot and moved about according to my signals. Finally,
when I was satisfied he was standing where I thought
the Zavala's remains rested, he marked the spot.
Next we did a mag survey with the Schonstedt gradiometer
and recorded some very heavy targets. Then we hired
a well digger and began drilling for cores.
It was cold and rainy, but everyone kept at it through
the first afternoon and evening. On the first attempts
the drill bit struck something hard and refused to penetrate.
It was hoped we had struck the boilers, but there was
no way of knowing for certain. We moved out and cored
in three foot grids, bringing up bits of wood which
could have been a ship or pieces of a dock; small lumps
of coal that indicated a steamship but might have been
thrown off an old dock; plus bits and pieces of other
debris too vague to identify with a ship. Then, on the
36th hole the core disgorged 17 inches of wood capped
on the bottom by a copper plate.
We had drilled through the keel of a ship and exited
through the copper hull sheathing.
But was it truly the Zavala?
Esbenson rented a backhoe and we began to dig. At 12
feet the scoop hit the boilers. The Zavala had truly
been found. After taking some pictures, Arnold declared
it an historic site, and the grave was covered.
NUMA's desire is that the first ship ever discovered
of the Republic of Texas Navy be someday uncovered and
surveyed and perhaps preserved as she lies, or maybe
even rebuilt as she once was when she was the pride
of the Texas fleet.
|