![]() With just one seaman wounded in the fray and one enemy cannon ball piercing a sail, the raid was an overwhelming success. Batteries from the fort began firing at the escaping American ship, but it soon was out of range as the Americans gave three rousing cheers.ĭecatur was only 25 when he led a fleet of gunboats against the Tripoli pirates. Decatur was the last man off, jumping back onto the ketch just ahead of the flames. On Decatur’s signal, his crew rushed aboard Philadelphia, overwhelmed the crew and set the ship ablaze. ![]() When asked how many men he would need to do the job, Decatur reportedly said “The fewer the men, the greater the glory.”ĭisguising a recently captured ketch – a small two-masted ship – as a British merchant ship and hiding most of his crew below deck, Decatur sailed into the harbor as night fell and even convinced the Tripolitan sailors to allow him to tie up his ship against Philadelphia.ĭecatur and his men escape in the small ketch captured and renamed Intrepid (at left) after setting fire to the Philadelphia in Tripoli harbor. ![]() American Naval officers worried that if Philadelphia were repaired and rearmed, it could shift the balance of power in the Mediterranean in favor of the Barbary States.Īt the age of 25, Decatur volunteered for what seemed like a suicide mission: sneak a small ship into the Tripoli harbor with a crew of 75 right under the guns of the city’s fort, overwhelm the Tripolitan crew aboard the much larger Philadelphia and set her ablaze. Philadelphia, ran aground off Tripoli and was captured. In 1803, one of the premier ships in the American fleet, the 36-gun frigate U.S.S. Jefferson, who opposed a large military, reluctantly sent warships to the Mediterranean to protect American shipping. All three attacked American merchant shipping in the Mediterranean Sea, demanding ransom to release crews or tribute to allow safe passage. was a successful naval officer in the Revolution and in the early years of the American republic during the Quasi War with the French.ĭuring Thomas Jefferson’s administration, the United States was at war with three of the Barbary States on north Africa – Algiers, Tripoli and Tunis. Born on January 5, 1779, he grew up in Philadelphia. ![]() cities were named for him in Georgia, Alabama and Illinois.įor the young American nation, eager for heroes and seeking to assert its place among world powers, Stephen Decatur was legendary. ![]()
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