Liberty captured the American brig Durango shortly thereafter and it too was found to be carrying Mexican Army supplies. Around the same time, Captain Jeremiah Brown in the Invincible took the American brig Pocket at the mouth of the Rio Grande, she was carrying contraband as well but her owners informed the United States Navy.[4]Subsequently, the American Commodore Alexander J. Dallas arrested Captain Brown and his crew for piracy when they sailed into New Orleans that May for provisioning. The charges were eventually dropped on the account that all of the seized American ships carried Mexican military stores but a civil suit remained in litigation for years afterward.
I based my comment on other sources. This article was the closest I could find to the document I read 20-30 years ago about a US Naval vessel seized in Matagorda bay.
I believe this ship was returned to the US control only AFTER Texas joined the US.
I will root around and find the document - hopefully it’s on the internet now.
The FACTS are that the US government was playing both sides of the conflict.....which they do now as well in many situations...Why should you be surprised?
I believe the quotes below (from a article on the Texian ship Invincible) demonstrate that the US was secretly supplying the Mexican governement......
After entering the Union, Texas paid about 11,000 dollars to the US as the ship was never returned to the US (I thought it was, my bad)
Battle of Brazos Santiago and capture of Pocket
Captain Brown was immediately ordered to defend the Texas coast and seek out and engage the Mexican man-of-war Montezuma. The Invincible cruised south to the mouth of the Rio Grande, where on April 3, 1836, Invincible encountered the 20-gun Man-of-War in an area then-called Brazos Santiago (now called Boca Chica) at the mouth of Laguna Madre. After an exchange of broadsides the Montezuma ran aground on a sandbar, and her crew escaped. Invincible barraged the Mexican cruiser until she was destroyed.[2]
Later that same day, the Invincible sighted and engaged the United States merchant vessel Pocket. Pocket was displaying a signal pennant which indicated that the vessel was transporting cargo to support General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s operation against the rebellious Texans. According to the Handbook of Texas Online, “Captain Brown boarded the vessel, examined the cargo and ship’s papers, and discovered war contraband, arms, and ammunition that did not appear on the manifest. He also found a detailed map of the Texas coastline and military dispatches in Spanish.”[1] In addition, the Texans found that Pocket was carrying high ranking Mexican army officers[3] in violation of the Neutrality Act of 1818. Pocket had been en route from Matamoros to Santa Anna’s army in Texas with a contraband cargo of flour, rice, lard, biscuit, and 300 kegs of powder. Based on the accumulated evidence, Brown assigned a prize crew and escorted Pocket to Galveston. Invincible arrived on April 8, and there he learned from captured documents that Santa Anna had plans to capture all Texas ports and to station 1,000 men on Galveston Island. Thus forewarned, the Texas government quickly fortified the strategically important and most populous Texas’ island. The provisions captured aboard the Pocket ultimately were consigned to Sam Houston’s army.[4] Texas historian Jim Dan Hill, writing during the Texas Centennial in 1936 credited the Invincible with contributing mightily to Sam Houston’s victory at San Jacinto by depriving the Mexicans of reinforcements that would have been brought by Montezuma and by redirecting Pocket’s supplies to the Texans just before the battle.[5]