The German Empire on the other hand desired concessions at the harbor at Apia, on the island of Upolu.

[2] The incident involved three U.S. Navy warships (the sloop-of-war USS Vandalia, the screw steamer USS Trenton, and the gunboat USS Nipsic) and three German warships (the gunboats SMS Adler and SMS Eber and the corvette SMS Olga), which kept each other at bay over several months in Apia Harbour, which was monitored by the British corvette HMS Calliope.

The standoff ended when the 1889 Apia cyclone, on 15 and 16 March, wrecked all six warships in the harbour.

Robert Louis Stevenson did not witness the storm and its aftermath at Apia but after his December 1889 arrival to Samoa, he wrote about the event.

[4] Walter LaFeber said that the incident made some 'reticent Americans' realise the power implications of expansion in the South Pacific.