represented the first opportunity this country would have, not only to reopen trade in rhe Mediterranean, bur, and perhaps more imporranrly, to ransom American sailors held captive by the Dey of Algiers . These men and their ships had been seized and their crews incarcerated by Algerian corsairs because the US government had failed to pay the tribute the Dey demanded for unharassed passage through the Mediterranean. The tribute, together with rhe ransom, amounted to over $640,000, a staggering amount for the impoverished, Aedgling US administration. Ir was here in Algiers that a combination of bad luck and poor judgment bedeviled Captain Bainbridge. Making a mistake that might be expected of a neophyte captain, Bainbridge anchored his ship unThe Mediterranean playing field-as a naval commander, Bainbridge sailed to the Barbary der the guns of the Algerian fort guarding Coast to help secure safe passage into the Mediterranean Sea for American merchant ships. the harbor and quickly found himself at the will of the Dey. He delivered the trib- favor and was able to secure the release of chased by, several of the enemy gunboats. ute and ransom and waited for the release the American seamen as well as some four H e ran his frigate onto an uncharted reef of the captured seamen to the American hundred Maltese, Veneti an, and Sicilian and stuck fast. The pirates of the Bashaw wasted no time in rallying their fellows Consulate. Meanwhile, the Dey suggested prisoners. he would like George Washington to "run A brief stint as skipper of the frigate and firing into Philadelphia, though with an errand" for him. Bainbridge found Essex was followed by a tour ashore, su- lirde effect. Nonetheless, Bainbridge orhimself in an untenable position; his ship perintending the construction of the brig dered most of his guns thrown overboard was anchored under the guns of the fort Syren and the schooner Vixen. Both were in an effo rt to lighten his ship and, hopecontrolled by the Dey, and he was being fine vessels and saw action in the Medi- full y, reAoar her. When the ship remained coerced to use his US warship to carry an terranean against the Barbary Corsairs. In on the hard, he ordered his men to cur off Algerian ambassador to the Ottoman Em- 1803 he met his own personal Waterloo: the foremast some six feet above the sparpire along with the Dey's own tribute to he received command of the frigate USS deck, again hoping that the reduction in Constantinople (tribute which included Philadelphia (36). weight forward would free him . All the The war with the corsairs of Tripoli while, the Algerian gunboats continued to a veritable menagerie of exotic animals). The most humiliating part of this expe- was in its second full year and the fleet fire (though ineffectively) into his helpless rience to all onboard the frigate was that assigned to stop the pirates and protect ship. The few guns he had lefr would not they would sail under American shipping bear, and the pirates positioned their boars Captain Bainbridge dutifully delivers had been bolstered by our of their field of fire. Finally, the capthe Algerian Aag, nor US tribute to the Dey ofAlgiers. the American ensign. the arrival of Constitu- tain decided to surrender with the hope of Bainbridge had little tion, Philadelphia, Ar- saving his crew and officers from annihilagus, Syren, and several tion. Thar was 3 1 October 1803. The folchoice bur to accede to rhe Dey's request. other vessels. In Oc- lowing February, Stephen Decatur would tober 1803, Philadel- lead a small band of sailors, midshipmen, When he returned to phia, with Bainbridge naval officers, and marines in an heroic Algiers, he found the in command, and the raid to burn the ship, thus denying the good sense to anchor schooner Vixen were Tripolirans her service. beyond the range of The corsairs boarded after Bainbridge ordered to blockade the fort's guns, thus had struck his colors and rampaged the harbor at Tripoli. ensuring he would After sending his throughout the ship, raking all manner be free to leave when smaller consort af- of personal property, stores, and powder. he chose. Having huter some Tripolitan They then forced the crew to row themmored the Dey with corsairs, Bainbridge selves ashore where the Americans were his "errand" to Confound himself at first paraded through the streets of Tripoli on stantinople, he found chasing, then being their way to the Bashaw's dungeon. himself in the Dey's COURTESY WIKIPEDIA.COM
SEA HISTORY 112, AUTUMN 2005
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