Having fought a revolution to secure their independence, Americans eagerly threw aside the constraints of the British Empire and ventured forth to trade with the world and "try all ports." They soon discovered that their new nation had been born into a hostile world. Nowhere was this more apparent than along the coast of North Africa where the Barbary States--Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli--demanded the payment of tribute before they would permit American vessels to pass. Relations between the United States and Tripoli were particularly vexed, and in the spring of 1801 President Jefferson dispatched a naval squadron under Richard Dale to protect American interests. Before the squadron arrived, Tripoli declared war on the United States. Dale's squadron accomplished very little and in 1802 Richard Valentine Morris arrived to replace him. Morris was equally ineffective. In the fall of 1803 of Edward Preble succeeded him in command.

Shortly after he arrived, Preble received news of an American disaster. While patrolling off Tripoli in the frigate Philadelphia, Captain William Bainbridge had given chase to a small enemy vessel. Bainbridge ventured too close inshore, and the frigate had gone hard aground. A swarm of Tripolitans descended on the stranded ship. To save his crew from massacre Bainbridge surrendered. The Tripolitans, who hitherto had only a few lightly armed cockleshells to torment the Americans, were now in possession of major warship. Philadelphia had to be destroyed.

The Burning of the Philadelphia

Preble called for volunteers to enter the harbor and seize Philadelphia. According to him every man in the squadron "offered to volunteer his services." Preble selected Lieutenant Stephen Decatur to command the expedition. Decatur gathered a crew of 74 men aboard the ketch Intrepid. Disguising her as a local vessel, on the evening of 16 February 1804 they managed to slip into the harbor, board Philadelphia, and set her ablaze. Intrepid left Tripoli without the loss of a single man. Lord Nelson reportedly referred to the action as "The most bold and daring act of the age."

Edward Preble, U.S.N.

Report of the capture of the Tripoline frigate

Stephen Decatur

Letter from William Bainbridge to Edward Preble

William Bainbridge, U. S. N.

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Bibliography

U.S. Office of Naval Records and Library, Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, 7 vols. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939-1944.

William M. Fowler, Jr., Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy 1783-1815. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1984.

Christopher McKee, Edward Preble: A Naval Biography, 1761-1807. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute Press, 1972.

Leonard F. Guthridge and Jay D. Smith, The Commodores: The United States Navy in the Age of Sail. New York: Harper, 1969.

Robert J. Allison, The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.