The Bar6ary Wars America's First Enrounterwitli tfie Cowttries ofNortliAfrica by William H. White
While the Bar6ary States, Morocco, Tunis, A~iers and Tripo[i, had giv~n headaches to the trading worU since the l~th century, America'~ro6[ems with them 6egan shortty after the American War of Independence. Nava[ confrontation was sparse and ine ective unti[ Edward Pre6le and his "6oys" arrived in 1803, the year that is genera[ty thought of as the start of what as 6ecome k.nown as the "Bar6ary Wars.I' This yealj 2003, marks the 6icentennia[ of that confCict. COURTESY USS CONSTITUTION MUSEUM, BOSTON
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h e Barbary Stares lie along Africa's northern coast, begin ning at the Straits of G ibraltar and extending eastward to the border of Egypt. They form rhe south coast of the Mediterranean Sea and are only a short sail from Gibraltar, Italy, and Spain, and slightly fart her from the important trading countries of Greece and Turkey. In order for British, American, Spanish or Ita li an ships to pursue commerce in the area, they h ad to sail through waters, from Gibraltar to Turkey, wh ich were virtu ally contro ll ed by the fleets of corsairs sent out by the rulers of the four Barbary nations. For generations, the rul ers of the North African states had demanded payment of "tribute" and protection from any nation whose vessels wished to pass through the Mediterranean. "Blowing up ofthe fire ship Intrepid, commanded by Cap 't Somers in the harbour of Tripoli on The penalty for non-payment was atthe night of4th Sept 1804. Before the Intrepid had gained her destined situation she was suddenly tack, caprn re, slavery and, ofcen, boarded by I 00 Tripolines when the gallant Somers and the Heroes ofhis party (L ieuts. Wadsworth death. The sh ip s taken, alon g with and Israel and I 0 men) observed themselves surrounded by 3 gun-boats, and no prospect ofescape, their cargo, were usually ransomed determined at once to prefer Death and the Destruction ofthe Enemy to the Captivity & torturing back to their owners, frequently along Slavery, put a match to trains Leading directly to the Magazine, which at once blew the whole into with the crews. Spain and England, the air. " [Author '.s Note: the original caption is incorrect in its surmise of the cause ofthe blow. the primary traders sailing those To this day, no one knows what happened to cause Intrepid to prematurely explode.} dangerou s waters, tried on severa l occasions to secure safe passage through military action. Not only did thousands of men. A hurricane struck the to secure the safety of their merchant fleet they fail, their attempts were, especially anchored fleet, destroying most of the ships, throughmilitaryactionin 1630, 1637,and in the case of Spain, some of the grea test and the soldiers and sailors who had al- 1655. After each foray against the Algerinaval disasters in history. ready landed were killed or captured or ans, the Dey (the ruler of Algiers) went to Charles V of Spain launched a great starved to death during their effort to re- treaty only to later abandon it in the hope armada under the joint leadership of Cap- turn to the remnants of their fl eet. Spain of upping the ante. Each time, England tain Hernando Cortez and Admiral Andrea agreed to pay for the future safety of its paid and peace ensued until the greed of Doria in 1541 with the intent of bringing trading fleet. the Dey once more bubbled to the surface. Algiers to heel. He lost 150 ships and England had tried, with limited success, In 1775, Spain again launched a huge armada against Algiers with results similar Tfie flecfgling US Navy tfiat fougfit tfie Bar6ary Wars was macfe up of men to their 16th-century effort. This time, it wfiose names woulcf jiff tfie annals of American naval history: Stepfien was not a storm that destroyed their fleet, Decatur woulcf later commancf tfie American frigate United States in lier it was the corsairs of the Barbary Coast. single sfiip victory over HMS Macedonian; it was James Lawrence wfio The soldiers, without the benefit of naval later utterecf tfie immortal "Don't give up tfie sfiip"; Thomas Maccfonougfi support, suffered ashore from both the founcf fiis glory in tfie Battle of P[atts6urgfi on Lake CfiampCain against tfie unseemly conditions and the fierce fighters British; Wiffiam Bain6ricÂŁge captainecfUSS Cons ti tu ti on in lier victory against of the Dey. An interesting sidebar to this HMS Java. saga is the role played by Joshua Barney,
SEA HISTORY l 05, AUTUMN 2003
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