Page 39 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

U.S. NAVY HOSPITALS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, 1804·1870 25

local inhabitants. One American surgeon was tried and fined, and he subsequently
wrote a book about conditions on the island 'which did not please the Spanish go-
vernment. This crisis passed away and for a time the American relations with the
islanders and the Spanish government settled into familiar routines. But in 1846
the Spanish government informed the United States that it wished to terminate the
base arrangements at Port Mahon. American diplomats were able to delay the clo-
sing of the base for two years while they explored other alternatives, but in 1848
2
the last of the U.S. Navy forces left Minorca 0 >.
The task of finding a new base was in the hands of Commodore George C.
Read, the commander of the Mediterranean Squadron. He considered Porto Fer-
raio on the island of Elba, and Syracuse in Sicily. Read was personally in favor
of Syracuse, but the island was in the midst of a period of political instabily. So
he decided on Spezia on the gulf of Genoa. The city was sheltered by hills, and
it had a hospital, a college, a new theatre, well paved streets and fine buildings.
The base arrangements with the Americans were considered to be temporary, ho-
wever, for the Piedmontese government planned to establish its own navy base at
the port. The outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853 and the war with Austria in
1859 forced the postponement of the plans of the Piedmontese government. As
for the Americans, the beginning of the Civil War led to the withdrawal of its na-
val units in the Mediterranean. While the war was on the United States govern-
ment was notified that it had to make other arrangements, and in 1870 the Italian
government transferred its naval base from Genoa to Spezia 03>.
Beginning in 1870 the U.S. Navy's Mediterranean Squadron used Villefran-
che, France as its supply base and winter rendezvous, but no longer used shore
based hospital facilities. Sailors who were seriously ill were ~ent home to the Uni-
ted States. It was not until it was a participant in World War I that the United
States Navy again had to establish hospitals in Europe and those were in France
4
and close to the English Channel 0 >.

FOOTNOTES

(1) Marshall Smelser, The Congress Founds the Navy, 1787-1798 (Notre Dame, 1959; Craig
L. Symonds, Navalists and Antinavalists: The Naval Policy Debate in the United St~tes, 1785-1827
(Newark, Del., 1980), p. 17-133; U.S. Navy Department, Naval Documents Related to the United
States War; with the Barbary Powers, 1785-1807. 6 vols. (Washington, 1939-1944), 11, 106, 123;
IV, 135; V, 133-134. Hereafter cited as Barhary \Vars.
(2) U.S. Navy Department, Barbary \Vars, VI, 47, 51, 110, 175-177, 180, 242,405,414,
430. An account of the expedition against Derne can be found in Louis B. Wright and Julia
H. Macleod, First Americans in North Africa (Princeton, 1945), chapter 7. On the role of the
Argus, see Linda M. Maloney. The Captain From Connecticut: The Life and Times of lsaac Hull (Bo-
ston, 1986). p. 107-110.