1891-01-26
Gherardi’s flagship reaches Port-au-Prince carrying Frederick Douglass back to his post
Haitian
The United States flagship Philadelphia anchored at Port-au-Prince on 26 January 1891, after a six-day passage from New York. Aboard were Rear Admiral Bancroft Gherardi and Frederick Douglass, returning to his post as United States Minister Resident to Haiti. Gherardi had come to press President Hyppolite to lease the Môle Saint-Nicolas, the deep harbour commanding the Windward Passage, as an American naval station. Two days after the ship dropped anchor the pressure began in earnest, and it went on for three months before Haiti refused outright.
Source
Researched: The New York Times, 9 February 1891 (datelined Port-au-Prince, 26 January 1891)