DECATUR CAPTURES AND BURNS THE "PHILADELPHIA"

By James Fenimore Cooper.

COOPER, from whose early authoritative "History of the Navy of the United States" is taken this spirited account of an act which Admiral Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar, pronounced "the most daring of the age," was singularly well qualified to describe such an exploit. He himself had been a midshipman in the early American Navy, and had seen service in the Mediterranean, where Decatur immortalized himself on February 16, 1804, during our war with Tripoli.

This was the last struggle by Europeans or Americans with the notorious corsairs or pirates of North Africa, who had made war on commerce in the Mediterranean for several centuries. Their depredations had become particularly bold and atrocious in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, merchant ships being subject to capture unless tribute had been paid.

In 1815 Decatur negotiated a treaty with the North African States which ended the enslaving of Americans.

AT half-past eleven, Tripoli then being in plain sight, distant a little more than a league, satisfied that he could neither overtake the chase, nor force her ashore, Captain Bainbridge, of the Philadelphia, ordered the helm a-port, to haul directly off the land into deep water. The next cast of the lead, when this order was executed, gave but eight fathoms, and this was immediately followed by casts that gave seven, and six and a half. At this moment, the wind was nearly abeam, and the ship had eight knots way on her. When the cry of "half-six" was heard, the helm was put hard down, and the yards were ordered to be braced sharp up. While the ship was coming up fast to the wind, and before she had lost any of her way, she struck a reef forward, and shot up on it, until she lifted between five and six feet.

This was an appalling accident to occur on the coast of such an enemy, at that season of the year, and with no other cruiser near! It was first attempted to force the vessel ahead, under the impression that the best water was to seaward; but on sounding around the ship, it was found that she had run up with such force as to lie nearly cradled on the rocks; there being only 14 feet of water under the fore-chains, while the ship drew, before striking, 18 1/2 feet forward. Astern there were not 18 feet of water, instead of 20 1/2, which the frigate needed.

The ship had no sooner struck than the gunboats run down alongside of her, and took possession. The barbarians rushed into the vessel, and began to plunder their captives. Not only were the clothes which the Americans had collected in their bags and bundles, taken from them, but 'many officers and men were stripped half-naked. They were hurried into boats, and sent to Tripoli, and even on the passage the business of plundering went on. The officers were respected little more than the common men, and, while in the boat, Captain Bainbridge himself was robbed of his epaulets, gloves, watch, and money. His cravat was even torn from his neck. He wore a miniature of his wife, and of this the Tripolitans endeavored to deprive him also, but, a youthful and attached husband, he resisted so seriously that the attempt was relinquished.

Means had been found to communicate with Captain Bainbridge; and several letters were received from that officer, pointing out different methods of annoying the enemy. In a letter of the date of the 5th of December, 1803, Captain Bainbridge suggested the possibility of destroying the Philadelphia, which ship was slowly fitting for sea, there being little doubt of her being sent out as a cruiser, as soon as the mild season should return. Commodore Preble listened to the suggestion, and being much in the society of the commander of the vessel that was most in company with the Constitution, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, he mentioned the project to that spirited officer. The expedition was just suited to the ardor and temperament of Decatur, and the possession of the prize at once afforded the means of carrying it into effect.

It is scarcely necessary to say that the accommodations were none of the best, with so many persons cooped up in a vessel of between forty and fifty tons; and to make the matter worse, it was soon found that the salted meat put on board was spoiled, and that there was little besides bread and water left to subsist on. The weather, however, was pleasant, and the wind favorable, and the two vessels got in sight of Tripoli on the afternoon of the 9th. To prevent suspicions, the Intrepid now went ahead of the Siren.

The orders of Lieutenant-Commander Decatur were clear and simple. The spar-deck was first to be carried, then the gun-deck; after which a distribution of the party was made, in order to set fire to the ship.

As the ketch drew in with the land, the ship became visible. She lay not quite a mile within the entrance, riding to the wind, and abreast of the town. Her foremast, which had been cut away while she was on the reef, had not yet been replaced, her main and mizzentopmasts were housed, and her lower yards were on the gunwales. Her lower standing rigging, however, was in its place, and, as was shortly afterward ascertained, her guns were loaded and spotted. Just within her lay two corsairs, with a few gunboats, and a galley or two.

About 10 o'clock the Intrepid reached the eastern entrance of the bay, or the passage between the rocks and the shoal. The wind was nearly east, and, as she steered directly for the frigate, it was well abaft the beam. There was a young moon, and as these bold adventurers were slowly advancing into the hostile port all around them was tranquil and apparently without distrust. For near an hour they were stealing slowly along, the air gradually failing, until their motion became scarcely perceptible.

Most of the officers and men of the ketch had been ordered to lie on the deck, where they were concealed by low bulwarks, or weather-boards, and by the different objects that belong to a vessel. As it is the practice of those seas to carry many men even in the smallest craft, the appearance of ten or twelve would excite no alarm, and this number was visible. The Commanding officer himself stood near the pilot, Mr. Catalano, who was to act as interpreter. The quartermaster at the helm was ordered to stand directly for the frigate's bows, it being the intention to lay the ship aboard in that place, as the mode of attack which would least expose the assailants to her fire.

The Intrepid was still at a considerable distance from the Philadelphia, when the latter hailed. The pilot answered that the ketch belonged to Malta, and was on a trading voyage ; that she had been nearly wrecked, and had lost her anchors in the late gale, and that her commander wished to ride by the frigate during the night. This conversation lasted some time, Decatur instructing the pilot to tell the frigate's people with what he was laden, in order to amuse them, and the Intrepid gradually drew nearer, until there was every prospect of her running foul of the Philadelphia, in a minute or two, and at the very spot contemplated. But the wind suddenly shifted, and took the ketch aback. The instant the southerly puff struck her, her head fell off and she got a stern-board; the ship, at the same moment, tending to the new current of air. The effect of this unexpected change was to bring the ketch directly under the frigate's broadside, at the distance of about forty yards, where she lay perfectly becalmed, or, if anything, drifting slowly astern, exposed to nearly every one of the Philadelphia's larboard guns.

Not the smallest suspicion appears to have been yet excited on board the frigate, though several of her people were looking over the rails, and notwithstanding the moonlight. So completely were the Turks deceived, that they lowered a boat, and sent it with a fast. Some of the ketch's men, in the mean time, had got into her boat, and had run a line to the frigate's forechains. As they returned, they met the frigate's boat, took the fast it brought, which came from the after part of the ship, and passed it into their own vessel. These fasts were put into the hands of the men, as they lay on the ketch's deck, and they began cautiously to breast the Intrepid alongside of the Philadelphia, without rising. As soon as the latter got near enough to the ship, the Turks discovered her anchors, and they sternly ordered the ketch to keep off, as she had deceived them; preparing, at the same time, to cut the fasts. All this passed in a moment, when the cry of "Amerikanos" was heard in the ship. The people of the Intrepid, by a strong pull, brought their vessel alongside of the frigate, where she was secured, quick as thought. Up to this moment, not a whisper had betrayed the presence of the men concealed. The instructions had been positive to keep quiet until commanded to show themselves; and no precipitation, even in that trying moment, deranged the plan.