Reference Entry
DECATUR’S RAID IN TRIPOLI HARBOR
In the dark waters off Tripoli on February 16th, 1804, a young United States Navy officer, Stephen Decatur, led a small boarding party into one of the most celebrated raids in early naval history. The frigate USS Philadelphia had run aground and been captured months earlier, and Tripolitan forces now held her as a valuable prize in the First Barbary War.
Dated Historical Context
A RECORDED MOMENT IN HISTORY
Decatur’s Raid in Tripoli Harbor
In the dark waters off Tripoli on February 16th, 1804, a young United States Navy officer, Stephen Decatur, led a small boarding party into one of the most celebrated raids in early naval history. The frigate USS Philadelphia had run aground and been captured months earlier, and Tripolitan forces now held her as a valuable prize in the First Barbary War. Rather than allow an enemy corsair fleet to make use of the ship, Decatur brought his men into the harbor disguised in a small vessel and slipped alongside the captured frigate. Once aboard, they overpowered the surprised guards and set the Philadelphia ablaze, destroying the ship under the guns of enemy shore batteries. The party then fought its way back out of the harbor in the glare of the burning frigate. The raid denied the enemy a major warship and sent a powerful signal that the young United States Navy was willing to take calculated risks far from home waters.
Read the complete weekly DispatchTrackpads Source Register
