Pirates of the Mediterranean: Stephen Decatur and the First Barbary War (Part 1)

By Nick Wieman
HRNM Educator

On February 16, 1804, saboteurs sailing a stolen vessel under a false flag boarded an American warship in Tripoli Harbor and put it to the torch before sailing off into the night under cannon fire. This act of daring sabotage was reportedly called “the most daring act of the age” by Horatio Nelson. The perpetrator was none other than Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, one of America’s first post-Revolution naval heroes.

Commodore Stephen Decatur (NHHC)

Since the early 16th century, the three largest so-called “Barbary states” of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli controlled coastal North Africa. Nominally vassal states of the Ottoman Empire, in practice they were independent military states sustained largely by piracy and slave-raiding throughout the Mediterranean, in some instances raiding as far as the British Isles and Iceland. So widespread and dangerous were the pirates that churches established “slave funds” for ransoming out captured European sailors.

"A Sea Fight with Barbary Pirates," by Laureys a Castro. State-sponsored piracy from the Barbary states of North Africa was a serious hazard for Mediterranean travelers. (Wikipedia)

At independence, America’s navy was virtually nonexistent. Of the over 60 ships that had sailed in the Continental Navy, only 11 had survived the war, with the rest sold off when Congress disbanded the Continental Navy in 1785. While the Constitution adopted in 1789 authorized the creation and maintenance of a navy, its size and scope was one of many sources of disagreement between the major political factions at the time. Democratic-Republicans opposed maintaining a large navy, fearing that it would become a source of political corruption and risked entangling America in foreign engagements. Federalists, on the other hand, supported a navy strong enough to protect trade and provide a deterrent to foreign adversaries.

By virtue of sailing under the British flag, American merchants had long enjoyed the protection of the Royal Navy from Barbary piracy. The British government paid tribute to the Barbary states in exchange for protection from piracy, and Sailors could hope for ransom payments on their behalf. With independence came the loss of this protection, and while diplomacy was able to spare American ships from Moroccan pirates, the Barbary States demanded further tribute. In fact, the increasingly brazen actions taken by Barbary pirates against American vessels were the main justification for the Naval Act of 1794, which authorized the construction of the original six frigates for the infant United States Navy.

William Bainbridge in "negotiations" with the Dey of Algiers (Wikimedia Commons)

In September 1800, the frigate USS George Washington arrived in Algiers carrying the customary tribute to the Dey of Algiers to secure American shipping from pirates. Captain William Bainbridge had been given the unenviable task of formally presenting this tribute to the Dey, who not only insisted on further tribute than had been agreed upon, but demanded that Bainbridge ferry the Dey’s own tribute to the Ottoman Sultan in Constantinople. When Bainbridge tried to refuse, the Dey threatened to destroy George Washington in the harbor and reminded Bainbridge: “Pay me tribute, by which you become my slaves. I have a right to order you as I may think proper.” Outgunned and outnumbered, a lone ship in hostile waters without diplomatic protection, Bainbridge was obligated to agree to this errand, sailing to Constantinople under the Algerian Crescent as a reluctant agent of the Dey of Algiers. Sensing possible weakness and looking to extract even greater tribute from the Americans, the Pasha of Tripoli declared war on the United States on May 10, 1801, in essence a declaration that it was open season on American shipping.

Beginning in May 1801, President Thomas Jefferson dispatched squadrons tasked with protecting American shipping to the Mediterranean. The first squadron was instructed not to attack any pirates unless fired upon or in coming to the aid of a merchant ship, as it had been dispatched before Jefferson had received word of Tripoli’s declaration of war and returned home after sporadic blockading and skirmishing off Tripoli. The following squadrons had no such limits placed upon them, and were prepared for a long deployment. Stationed out of ports in Sicily, the Mediterranean Squadrons established a blockade around Tripoli that would stand until the end of the war in 1805. Stephen Decatur participated in the blockade, commanding the 12-gun schooner USS Enterprise.

USS Philadelphia captured by Barbary pirates, 1803 (Wikimedia Commons)

On October 31, 1803, while in pursuit of a Tripolitan corsair outside Tripoli Harbor, USS Philadelphia suddenly ran aground on an uncharted reef. Despite the best efforts of the unfortunate Captain William Bainbridge and the crew to lighten the ship, from jettisoning all nonessential loads to sawing off the foremast, they remained stranded on the rocks. Before being taken prisoner by the pirates, they drilled holes into the hull below the waterline in a last-ditch effort to deny Tripoli the prize of an American frigate. Nevertheless, Philadelphia remained seaworthy, and when the tides came in enough to float the ship, the Pasha of Tripoli found himself in possession of a top-of-the-line 36-gun American frigate far outclassing any other ship in his fleet.

Decatur concluded that a recapture of Philadelphia was likely impossible. Moored under Tripolitan shore batteries, any attempt to sail it out of the harbor would likely have been met with fire after the Tripolitans realized what was happening, and even then, it wasn’t known whether or not Philadelphia was capable of getting under way at all. The safest course of option was its destruction.

To undertake the operation, Decatur would need a ship fast enough to outrun Tripolitan shot and small enough that it would not stand out in the harbor. Fortunately, the Tripolitan pirates soon provided one: on December 23, Decatur seized the Tripolitan ketch (small sailboat) Mastico, rechristened it USS Intrepid, and outfitted it in British colors to look the part of a common merchant ship. To gain passage into the harbor, Decatur hired a Sicilian crew, including one man who could speak Arabic, to communicate with harbor personnel while the American crew hid below deck. Finally, Decatur and Intrepid would be supported by USS Syren, which would provide additional crewmen for the operation and cover Intrepid’s escape.

At around seven in the evening, Intrepid drifted into Tripoli Harbor. The Arabic-speaking Sicilian crewman, Salvatore Catalano, called out to harbor personnel that their ship had lost its anchors in a storm and needed to pull in for repairs, and received permission to dock. Moving carefully to avoid attracting suspicion, Intrepid pulled in just close enough to Philadelphia that they could tie themselves to the ship. With a cry of “Board!” Decatur led his men to climb over the side and fell upon the surprised Tripolitan skeleton crew. In a span of ten minutes, twenty Tripolitan sailors had been killed and the rest fled overboard. The only American casualty was one Sailor who received a cut on his finger.

Boarding the Philadelphia, artwork by J.O. Davidson (NHHC)

With the ship secured, Decatur and his men set to work preparing the ship for the blaze. A human chain quickly brought combustible supplies up from Intrepid and onto the deck of Philadelphia, at which point they split into teams of four assigned to the storerooms, gunroom, cockpit, and berth deck, preparing them for ignition. When all was in position, Decatur walked down the spar deck and commanded each team to light their munitions then quickly evacuate. Within minutes, Philadelphia was completely ablaze. Decatur stayed aboard until the last of his men had returned to Intrepid.

USS Philadelphia burning, by Edward Moran (NHHC)

By now, the American attack on Philadelphia was unmistakable, but there was little anyone in the harbor could do about it other than vainly fire on Intrepid as it sailed away. Adding insult to injury, the blaze heated the cannons aboard Philadelphia hot enough that they fired their shot into Tripoli itself, a sort of poetic last shot on the part of Bainbridge and the crew of the Philadelphia still held prisoner by the Pasha.

Stay tuned! This story will be continued in our next blog post.

Pirates and Privateering in the New World

By Reece Nortum
Hampton Roads Naval Museum Educator

Piracy and Privateering, a specialized category of officially sanctioned piracy defined as "activities by armed privately-owned vessel(s) commissioned for war service by a government," presented a threat in the waters of the New World going back to the earliest days of colonization.  Many of the new colonies had a large number of people turn to privateering due to the harsh times they were facing ashore, made worse after needed supply ships were either lost at sea or to attacks by foreign pirates or privateers just off shore.

Examples of pirate flags from (left) the late-18th Century, and the early 19th Century (right). 

Piracy and privateering in the waters of the New World continued to be a constant danger to American shipping for two more centuries, even after the American Revolution. The threat to American merchant shipping from privateers dramatically increased after the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade-long period of political upheaval that began in 1789. 

On January 2, 1794, the House of Representatives had voted to authorize building a Navy in order to meet the challenges posed by French privateers in the Caribbean and Atlantic, as well as others operating in the Mediterranean from bases in North Africa.  Secretary of War Henry Knox submitted proposals to the committee outlining the design and cost of warships. To appease the strong opposition to the upcoming bill because of the high costs, with the government still in the substantial debt incurred during the Revolutionary War, the Federalist Party inserted a clause into the bill that would bring an abrupt halt to the construction if the Treaty of Tripoli was signed.  A diplomatic settlement with the Barbary States in North Africa would potentially make the Mediterranean shipping lanes more secure for American merchant vessels, negating the need for a large, expensive navy.  Construction of the frigates slowly continued until the 1796 announcement of the Treaty of Tripoli being signed. In accordance with the clause in the Naval Act, construction of the frigates was to be discontinued.  However, President Washington requested instructions from Congress on how to proceed.  Later an agreement was reached allowing Washington to complete two of the 44-gun and one of the 36-gun frigates. The three frigates nearest to completion, United States, Constellation and Constitution, were ultimately chosen, while construction was halted on the Chesapeake, Congress, and President, and some of their construction materials were sold or placed in storage. 


During the presidency of John Adams (1797-1801), "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!" became the rallying cry of the Federalists as Adams ordered the completion of the three frigates that had had been under construction since 1794: United States, Constellation, and Constitution.  

Completing these vessels became imperative, not because of a collapse of the accord with the Barbary States, but because of a new threat to American merchant vessels posed by an erstwhile ally.  French privateers were preying upon American shipping in the Atlantic and Caribbean.  Congress also authorized 1,000 privateers as additional security forces for the ports and shipping channels to defend against French aggression.  By May 1798, the 24 gun man-of-war USS Ganges, a former merchant vessel purchased and pressed into naval service, was guarding the coast between Long Island and Chesapeake Bay, and was later joined by USS Constellation and USS United States.  

Congress rescinded all post-Revolutionary War peace treaties with France that were originally signed on September 3, 1783.  The regime that had signed the treaties was swept away in the chaos and upheaval of the French Revolution nearly six years later, and the current French foreign minister had demanded $250,000 in gifts, and $6 million in loans.  After his request was denied by President Adams, France began sending privateer ships to conduct piracy in order to get what France felt they deserved.  In July 1798, USS Delaware was patrolling the shipping lanes and captured the French privateer La Croyable off Egg Harbor, New Jersey, as she preyed upon merchant shipping.  Soon afterward, Congress authorized American warships to conduct offensive operations against French privateers.  Following this order, the US Navy sent 25 ships to the Caribbean to conduct counter-piracy operations.

  The so-called "Quasi-War" with France began as an effort to defeat French privateers, but ships of the rejuvenated American Navy also fought French naval vessels.  In this painting by John William Schmidt, USS Constellation battles French frigate L'Insurgente in the Caribbean in February 1799. (Naval History and Heritage Command Image)

The most famous battles involved the frigate USS Constellation, a 38-gun ship commanded by Thomas Truxtun.  The first of many engagements occurred on February 9, 1799, which involved the 36-gun L'Insurgente, a larger and more heavily armed vessel.  Commanded by Captain Michel-Pierre Barreaut, the French frigate had plagued American shipping for years.  The bold, largely unchallenged French attempted to board USS Constellation, but Truxtun was able to maneuver away and fire on L'Insurgente, leading to Captain Barreaut's surrender.  Almost a year later, February 1, 1800, USS Constellation engaged the 52-gun frigate La Vengeance.  Constellation pounded the French ship for five hours, but La Vengeance was able to escape under the cover of darkness that night. From New York to Havana, these long shipping lanes continued to be patrolled by American vessels until piracy was all but eliminated in this part of the world in the 1830s.

Modern Piracy Display

In conjunction with Nauticus' temporary exhibit Real Pirates, the museum has assembled a display on modern piracy and the U.S. Navy's effort to combat it. The central item in this exhibit is the lifeboat (currently on loan) from the container ship Maersk Alabama.  The Norfolk-based USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) assisted in rescuing the ship's captain from this lifeboat, after it had been captured by pirates.  The exhibit opens on November 21 and runs through April 4, 2010. See http://www.nauticus.org/pirates for more information about Real Pirates.

Ongoing Research-West Indies Squadron

Shown here is an 1890 engraving by prolific Naval artist William Bainbridge Hoff (grandson of Commodore William Bainbridge) of the schooner USS Grampus (on right) attack and disabling the Spanish privateer/pirate ship Palmyra in 1821. We are currently researching and working on an article about the U.S. Navy's West Indies Squadron. The Navy formed this squadron in 1820 in response to an alarming number of pirate attacks on American merchant vessels in the West Indies and Cuba.