A TYPICAL DAY IN THE BARBARY WARS

Official Navy records show that March 18^th, 1804, was a typical day for the vessels blockading the Barbary state of Tripoli.  This power had been holding American merchant crewmen and cargoes for ransom.  The problem had been simmering for a decade, since our independence from England had removed American ships from the protection of the Royal Navy–a force the States of Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis respected.  Earlier treaties under which our government paid indemnities in exchange for the free passage of our ships, had been abrogated, not surprisingly, by the profit-hungry North Africans.

The business of this day might be usual in any Navy and included Midshipman Henry Wadsworth aboard USS CONSTITUTION, 44, posting a letter to his cousin in the States, Nancy Doane.  In it he expressed that months of Mediterranean duty had engendered in him a dislike for the Bashaw of Tripoli, whose actions were the reason for this deployment.  His fervent hope was for peace, perhaps to be achieved without having to bombard Tripoli!  He praised USS ARGUS, 16, and the fine maneuvering of his shipmates in her crew, which had been noticed by Royal Navy sailors.  He had recovered from an illness that complicated his participating in the harrowing adventure of a month earlier, in which LT Stephen Decatur had burned the captured American frigate PHILADELPHIA, 36, in Tripoli harbor.  He concluded with a plea for a letter from her, via any ship bound for Europe.

CONSTITUTION then lay at Syracuse, Sicily, where skipper CAPT Edward Preble was occupied with the problem of obtaining gunboats for the blockade.  His entreaties to the US Consul in Messina related his suspicions that to accomplish that task, a personal visit to Naples would be necessary.  He was heartened with a letter from LT Charles Stewart, then commanding USS SYREN, 16, relating the capture the day before of the Tripolitan brig Transfer.  A survey of her hull, rigging, cables, anchors, sails, boats, and cargo of military stores had proven her to be a legitimate prize.

Elsewhere, US Consul James Simpson in Tangier received a letter from Mulai Suleiman, Emperor of Morocco, with whom a treaty of amity had been ratified five months earlier.  The letter thanked the United States for gun carriages received by the Emperor as partial fulfillment of the treaty obligations, describing the gift as, “fresh proof of your diligence and of the friendship of your Nation towards us, which we will at all times bear in mind.”  The Emperor concluded with thanks to the “only God,” on “this 28^th day if Dulkaada the Blessed, 1218,” (corresponding to 18 March 1804 on the American calendar).

Apparently little has changed in two centuries of Navy life!

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  24 MAR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 26.

“Letter to CAPT Edward Preble, U.S. Navy, from LT Charles Stewart, U.S. Navy.”  IN: Naval Documents Related to the United States War with the Barbary Powers, Vol III, Naval Operations Including Diplomatic Background from September 1803 through March 1804.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1941, p. 495-96.

“Letter to James Simpson, U.S. Consul, Tangier, Morocco, from the Emperor of Morocco.”  Op. cit., p. 498.

“Letter to Nancy Doane from Midshipman Henry Wadsworth, dtd. 17 March, 1804.”  Op. cit., p. 495.

“Letter to Secretary of the Navy from CAPT Edward Preble, U.S. Navy.”  Op. cit., p. 496-97.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Transfer had formerly operated as a French and British privateer and carried 10 guns at the time of her capture.  She was taken into the US Navy and placed in service under the name USS SCOURGE, 16.

          ARGUS had been dispatched on a solo mission to Gibraltar to keep an eye on another Barbary State, Morocco, and her conduct thereon had earned the praise of British in Gibraltar.  Though at various times Sicily had been an independent kingdom, at this time Sicily was under the rule of King Ferdinand IV and Queen Maria Carolina, the regents of the Kingdom of Naples.  Bombardment of Tripoli (for the third time) did ultimately become necessary in August 1804, in yet another effort to compel the release of ransomed sailors.

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“…TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI”

The Bey of Tripoli in 1795, Hamet Karamanli, was overthrown by his younger brother Yusuf.  Hamet sought exile in Egypt where he remained for the next ten years.  During this time the Barbary States, including Tripoli, continually harassed merchant shipping in the Mediterranean, exacting protection money and tribute from many nations transiting the area for commercial trade.  US merchantmen were among those who fell victim to these extortions.

In 1801, the outspoken US Consul in Tunis, William Eaton, advocated pressuring Bey Yusuf by allying ourselves with his exiled brother.  Four years later, after being appointed “Navy Agent to the Barbary States,” Eaton put his plan into action.  Eaton encouraged Hamet to form a motley army of a hundred Arabs, 67 “Christian adventurers” (Greek mercenaries), and 200-odd camel drivers.  This force was led by Eaton and an 8-Marine detachment from the brig ARGUS, 16, commanded by 1^st LT Presley N. O’Bannon.  On this date, Eaton, O’Bannon, Hamet and his army set out from Alexandria.  Their 600-mile trek across the North African desert, during which they fought not only inhospitable conditions but also Hamet’s continuing suggestions to call the whole thing off, ended at Derna on the Tripolitan coast.  Seven weeks later on April 26^th, with gunfire support from ARGUS, the schooner NAUTILUS, 12, and the sloop HORNET, 10, they assaulted the city.  The next day they reached the Derna fortifications where they turned the guns on the fleeing defenders.  LT O’Bannon raised the American flag–the first American ensign to be hoisted over an enemy fort outside the Western Hemisphere.  Despite several spirited counter attacks the Marines held the fort.  When news of the ferocity and determination of the US Marines reached Bey Yusuf, he capitulated.

By May negotiations with Yusuf were opened.  On 3 June a treaty was arranged under which peace was restored, the US evacuated Derna, and $60,000 was paid for the release of CAPT William Bainbridge and the crew of the ill-fated frigate PHILADELPHIA, who had been held captive since PHILADELPHIA ran aground in October of 1803.  In turn Tripoli agreed not to exact future tribute from American shipping.

The familiar phrase above from The Marine’s Hymn was first sung by our Marines in 1847 at the close of the Mexican War.  The tune is that of an old Spanish folk song and was used as a melody in the French comic opera Genevieve de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach.  The reference in the Hymn to the “Halls of Montezuma” remembers the assault on Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City in 1847.  “The shores of Tripoli” recalls the efforts of the US Marines against the Tripolitan Bey, which began 220 years ago today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 14 MAR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, pp. 14-16.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 44-45.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 16-17.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Two of O’Bannon’s Marines died and another was injured in this action.

Following this victory O’Bannon acquired an Arab Mameluke scimitar, reportedly gifted to him in gratitude by Bey Hamet.  That blade became the pattern for the distinctive Mameluke sword currently authorized for Marine Corps officers.  Indeed, this was nearly the only reward O’Bannon received.  Upon returning to his native Virginia, he was awarded another sword by that State, but the Thomas Jefferson administration in Washington failed to recognize his achievement in any form.  After neither brevet nor promotion was forthcoming in the subsequent two years, a disgusted O’Bannon left the Corps, abandoning civilization altogether for the Kentucky frontier.

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