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Insane and Inspiring Enterprising Stories from History

Khalid Elhassan March 30, 2021 35 min

German soldiers of the 6th Army in Stalingrad. Encyclopedia Britannica

The grounding of the USS Philadelphia off Tripoli in 1803. Wikimedia

19. America’s War Against the Barbary Pirates

Early in the United States’ history, the young country fought the First Barbary War (1801 – 1805) against the Barbary States of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli. At issue was the Barbary pirates’ habit of preying on American merchantmen, and America’s refusal to pay tribute to halt the attacks. A US Navy squadron sailed into the Mediterranean to confront the Barbary pirates and to protect American shipping. The naval detachment included the USS Philadelphia, a 1240-ton sailing frigate with 36 guns, which was quite powerful for its day.

On October 31^st, 1803, while chasing a pirate ship, the Philadelphia ran aground on an uncharted reef just two miles from Tripoli’s harbor. All attempts to refloat the frigate failed, so her captain ordered her bottom holed, guns thrown overboard, and gunpowder spoiled before surrendering the ship and crew. Despite her captain’s efforts to render his ship useless, the Tripolitanians managed to refloat the Philadelphia, and towed her into their harbor for salvage and restoration. The ship was too powerful a prize to allow to remain in the pirates’ hands, so the US Navy decided to recapture or destroy it.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.