THE BURNING OF THE "PHILADELPHIA"

And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog
And smote him, thus.
--Othello.



THE BURNING OF THE "PHILADELPHIA"

It is difficult to conceive that there ever was a time when the
United States paid a money tribute to anybody. It is even more
difficult to imagine the United States paying blackmail to a set
of small piratical tribes on the coast of Africa. Yet this is
precisely what we once did with the Barbary powers, as they were
called the States of Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, lying
along the northern coast of Africa. The only excuse to be made
for such action was that we merely followed the example of
Christendom. The civilized people of the world were then in the
habit of paying sums of money to these miserable pirates, in
order to secure immunity for their merchant vessels in the
Mediterranean. For this purpose Congress appropriated money, and
treaties were made by the President and ratified by the Senate.
On one occasion, at least, Congress actually revoked the
authorization of some new ships for the navy, and appropriated
more money than was required to build the men-of-war in order to
buy off the Barbary powers. The fund for this disgraceful purpose
was known as the "Mediterranean fund," and was intrusted to the
Secretary of State to be disbursed by him in his discretion.
After we had our brush with France, however, in 1798, and after
Truxtun's brilliant victory over the French frigate L'Insurgente
in the following year, it occurred to our government that perhaps
there was a more direct as well as a more manly way of dealing
with the Barbary pirates than by feebly paying them tribute, and
in 1801 a small squadron, under Commodore Dale, proceeded to the
Mediterranean.

At the same time events occurred which showed strikingly the
absurdity as well as the weakness of this policy of paying
blackmail to pirates. The Bashaw of Tripoli, complaining that we
had given more money to some of the Algerian ministers than we
had to him, and also that we had presented Algiers with a
frigate, declared war upon us, and cut down the flag-staff in
front of the residence of the American consul. At the same time,
and for the same reason, Morocco and Tunis began to grumble at
the treatment which they had received. The fact was that, with
nations as with individuals, when the payment of blackmail is
once begun there is no end to it. The appearance, however, of our
little squadron in the Mediterranean showed at once the
superiority of a policy of force over one of cowardly submission.
Morocco and Tunis immediately stopped their grumbling and came to
terms with the United States, and this left us free to deal with Tripoli.

Commodore Dale had sailed before the declaration of war by
Tripoli was known, and he was therefore hampered by his orders,
which permitted him only to protect our commerce, and which
forbade actual hostilities. Nevertheless, even under these
limited orders, the Enterprise, of twelve guns, commanded by
Lieutenant Sterrett, fought an action with the Tripolitan ship
Tripoli, of fourteen guns. The engagement lasted three hours,
when the Tripoli struck, having lost her mizzenmast, and with
twenty of her crew killed and thirty wounded. Sterrett, having no
orders to make captures, threw all the guns and ammunition of the
Tripoli overboard, cut away her remaining masts, and left her
with only one spar and a single sail to drift back to Tripoli, as
a hint to the Bashaw of the new American policy.

In 1803 the command of our fleet in the Mediterranean was taken
by Commodore Preble, who had just succeeded in forcing
satisfaction from Morocco for an attack made upon our merchantmen
by a vessel from Tangier. He also proclaimed a blockade of
Tripoli and was preparing to enforce it when the news reached him
that the frigate Philadelphia, forty-four guns, commanded by
Captain Bainbridge, and one of the best ships in our navy, had
gone upon a reef in the harbor of Tripoli, while pursuing a
vessel there, and had been surrounded and captured, with all her
crew, by the Tripolitan gunboats, when she was entirely helpless
either to fight or sail. This was a very serious blow to our navy
and to our operations against Tripoli. It not only weakened our
forces, but it was also a great help to the enemy. The
Tripolitans got the Philadelphia off the rocks, towed her into
the harbor, and anchored her close under the guns of their forts.
They also replaced her batteries, and prepared to make her ready
for sea, where she would have been a most formidable danger to
our shipping.

Under these circumstances Stephen Decatur, a young lieutenant in
command of the Enterprise, offered to Commodore Preble to go into
the harbor and destroy the Philadelphia. Some delay ensued, as
our squadron was driven by severe gales from the Tripolitan
coast; but at last, in January, 1804, Preble gave orders to
Decatur to undertake the work for which he had volunteered. A
small vessel known as a ketch had been recently captured from the
Tripolitans by Decatur, and this prize was now named the
Intrepid, and assigned to him for the work he had in hand. He
took seventy men from his own ship, the Enterprise, and put them
on the Intrepid, and then, accompanied by Lieutenant Stewart in
the Siren, who was to support him, he set sail for Tripoli. He
and his crew were very much cramped as well as badly fed on the
little vessel which had been given to them, but they succeeded,
nevertheless, in reaching Tripoli in safety, accompanied by the Siren.

For nearly a week they were unable to approach the harbor, owing
to severe gales which threatened the loss of their vessel; but on
February 16 the weather moderated and Decatur determined to go
in. It is well to recall, briefly, the extreme peril of the
attack which he was about to make. The Philadelphia, with forty
guns mounted, double-shotted, and ready for firing, and manned by
a full complement of men, was moored within half a gunshot of the
Bashaw's castle, the mole and crown batteries, and within range
of ten other batteries, mounting, altogether, one hundred and
fifteen guns. Some Tripolitan cruisers, two galleys, and nineteen
gunboats also lay between the Philadelphia and the shore. Into
the midst of this powerful armament Decatur had to go with his
little vessel of sixty tons, carrying four small guns and having
a crew of seventy-five men.

The Americans, however, were entirely undismayed by the odds
against them, and at seven o'clock Decatur went into the harbor
between the reef and shoal which formed its mouth. He steered on
steadily toward the Philadelphia, the breeze getting constantly
lighter, and by half-past nine was within two hundred yards of
the frigate. As they approached Decatur stood at the helm with
the pilot, only two or three men showing on deck and the rest of
the crew lying hidden under the bulwarks. In this way he drifted
to within nearly twenty yards of the Philadelphia. The suspicions
of the Tripolitans, however, were not aroused, and when they
hailed the Intrepid, the pilot answered that they had lost their
anchors in a gale, and asked that they might run a warp to the
frigate and ride by her. While the talk went on the Intrepid's
boat shoved off with the rope, and pulling to the fore-chains of
the Philadelphia, made the line fast. A few of the crew then
began to haul on the lines, and thus the Intrepid was drawn
gradually toward the frigate.

The suspicions of the Tripolitans were now at last awakened.
They raised the cry of "Americanos!" and ordered off the Intrepiid,
but it was too late. As the vessels came in contact, Decatur
sprang up the main chains of the Philadelphia, calling out the
order to board. He was rapidly followed by his officers and men,
and as they swarmed over the rails and came upon the deck, the
Tripolitan crew gathered, panic-stricken, in a confused mass on
the forecastle. Decatur waited a moment until his men were behind
him, and then, placing himself at their head, drew his sword and
rushed upon the Tripolitans. There was a very short struggle, and
the Tripolitans, crowded together, terrified and surprised, were
cut down or driven overboard. In five minutes the ship was
cleared of the enemy.

Decatur would have liked to have taken the Philadelphia out of
the harbor, but that was impossible. He therefore gave orders to
burn the ship, and his men, who had been thoroughly instructed in
what they were to do, dispersed into all parts of the frigate
with the combustibles which had been prepared, and in a few
minutes, so well and quickly was the work done, the flames broke
out in all parts of the Philadelphia. As soon as this was
effected the order was given to return to the Intrepid. Without
confusion the men obeyed. It was a moment of great danger,
for fire was breaking out on all sides, and the Intrepid herself,
filled as she was with powder and combustibles, was in great
peril of sudden destruction. The rapidity of Decatur's movements,
however, saved everything. The cables were cut, the sweeps got
out, and the Intrepid drew rapidly away from the burning frigate.
It was a magnificent sight as the flames burst out over the
Philadephia and ran rapidly and fiercely up the masts and
rigging. As her guns became heated they were discharged, one
battery pouring its shots into the town. Finally the cables
parted, and then the Philadelphia, a mass of flames, drifted
across the harbor, and blew up. Meantime the batteries of the
shipping and the castle had been turned upon the Intrepid, but
although the shot struck all around her, she escaped successfully
with only one shot through her mainsail, and, joining the Siren,
bore away.

This successful attack was carried through by the cool courage of
Decatur and the admirable discipline of his men. The hazard was
very great, the odds were very heavy, and everything depended on
the nerve with which the attack was made and the completeness of
the surprise. Nothing miscarried, and no success could have been
more complete. Nelson, at that time in the Mediterranean, and the
best judge of a naval exploit as well as the greatest naval
commander who has ever lived, pronounced it "the most bold and
daring act of the age." We meet no single feat exactly like it in
our own naval history, brilliant as that has been, until we come
to Cushing's destruction of the A1bemarle in the war of the
rebellion. In the years that have elapsed, and among the great
events that have occurred since that time, Decatur's burning of
the Philadephia has been well-nigh forgotten; but it is one of
those feats of arms which illustrate the high courage of American
seamen, and which ought always to be remembered.

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